{"id":62994,"date":"2020-12-17T23:44:27","date_gmt":"2020-12-18T05:44:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=62994"},"modified":"2020-12-17T23:44:27","modified_gmt":"2020-12-18T05:44:27","slug":"62994","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=62994","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/trump-space-policy-nuclear-power-propulsion\">Trump signs Space Policy Directive-6 on space nuclear power and propulsion<\/a><\/p>\n<p>One goal laid out in SPD-6 is the testing of a fission power system on the moon by the mid- to late 2020s.<\/p>\n<p>Nuclear power will be a big part of the United States&#8217; space exploration efforts going forward, a new policy document affirms.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"hawk-link-parsed\" href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/37797-trump-administration-and-nasa-photos.html\" data-component-tracked=\"1\">President Donald Trump<\/a>\u00a0on Wednesday (Dec. 16) issued Space Policy Directive-6 (SPD-6), which lays out a national strategy for the responsible and effective use of space nuclear power and propulsion (SNPP) systems.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"hawk-placeholder\" data-render-type=\"fte\" data-skip=\"dealsy\" data-widget-type=\"seasonal\" data-widget-id=\"4465237483058624500\" data-result=\"missing\"><\/aside>\n<p>&#8220;Space nuclear power and propulsion is a fundamentally enabling technology for American deep-space missions to Mars and beyond,&#8221; Scott Pace, deputy assistant to the president and executive secretary of the\u00a0<a class=\"hawk-link-parsed\" href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/space-council-urgency-nasa-exploration-plans.html\" data-component-tracked=\"1\">National Space Council<\/a>, said in an emailed statement Wednesday. &#8220;The United States intends to remain the leader among spacefaring nations, applying nuclear power technology safely, securely and sustainably in space.&#8221;<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Nuclear systems have been important parts of the nation&#8217;s exploration portfolio for decades. For example, many of NASA&#8217;s highest-profile robotic explorers \u2014 including the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 interstellar probes, New Horizons Pluto spacecraft and Curiosity Mars rover \u2014 have derived their power from\u00a0<a class=\"hawk-link-parsed\" href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/13702-nuclear-generators-rtg-power-nasa-planetary-probes-infographic.html\" data-component-tracked=\"1\">radioisotope thermoelectric generators<\/a>\u00a0(RTGs), which convert to electricity the heat generated by the radioactive decay of plutonium-238.<\/p>\n<p>More extensive use of SNPP systems could help that portfolio expand considerably in the near future. For instance, NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy are working together on a\u00a0<a class=\"hawk-link-parsed\" href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/nuclear-reactor-for-mars-outpost-2022.html\" data-component-tracked=\"1\">fission-reactor project called Kilopower<\/a>, which could provide juice for crewed outposts on the moon and Mars.<\/p>\n<p>And NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine has hailed nuclear thermal propulsion, which would harness the heat thrown off by fission reactions to accelerate propellants to incredible speeds, as a\u00a0<a class=\"hawk-link-parsed\" href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/nuclear-propulsion-future-spacecraft-nasa-chief.html\" data-component-tracked=\"1\">potential game-changer<\/a>\u00a0for the agency&#8217;s deep-space exploration efforts.<\/p>\n<p>SPD-6 firms up and formalizes that commitment to SNPP systems. For example, the document, which you can read here, states that the U.S. should develop, by the mid-2020s, fuel production and processing capabilities sufficient to support a variety of nuclear space systems, from RTGs to nuclear thermal and nuclear electric propulsion.<\/p>\n<p>Another goal laid out by SPD-6 is the demonstration of a &#8220;fission power system on the surface of the moon that is scalable to a power range of 40 kilowatt-electric (kWe) and higher to support a sustained lunar presence and exploration of Mars.&#8221; This should happen by the mid- to late 2020s if possible, the document states.<\/p>\n<p>Click here for more Space.com videos&#8230;<br \/>\nSPD-6 is the sixth space policy directive signed by President Trump, as its name suggests. SPD-1 officially instructed NASA to return astronauts to the moon to help prepare for crewed Mars missions; SPD-2 eased regulations on the private spaceflight industry; SPD-3 aimed to help with space-traffic management; SPD-4 directed the Department of Defense to establish the U.S. Space Force; and SPD-5 laid out a cybersecurity policy for U.S. space systems.<\/p>\n<p>As that list indicates, President Trump has been quite active in the space-policy domain. He also resurrected the National Space Council, which had been dormant since the early 1990s. And just last week, he issued a new national space policy, which aims to bolster national security and American leadership in space, among other goals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Trump signs Space Policy Directive-6 on space nuclear power and propulsion One goal laid out in SPD-6 is the testing of a fission power system on the moon by the mid- to late 2020s. Nuclear power will be a big part of the United States&#8217; space exploration efforts going forward, a new policy document affirms. &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=62994\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-now-for-something-completely-different","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=62994"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62994\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62995,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62994\/revisions\/62995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=62994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=62994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=62994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}