A new radioactive material could propel a new generation of spacecraft to the Moon.
Given that we have already seen how the Artemis I mission is being a complete success and what are NASA’s plans to reach Mars in the near future, it seems logical to think about new ways to reach our satellite or other planets with innovations in the ships that will transport the astronauts of the future. On this occasion, the novelties come from the side of the batteries that are being developed for ESA missions to the Moon.
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Plutonium is not enough, now a new radioactive material enters the scene: americium
Thanks to the information published in the digital medium Nature, we have learned that ESA scientists are immersed in the development of a new type of battery that they would be made with nuclear waste and that they would begin to be tested at the end of this decade or the beginning of the next. The objective would be to be able to manage the power of the ships without the need for solar panels and reach the Moon and other corners of the galaxy. To this end, ESA has agreed on the creating a programwith a budget of 29 million euros, which will be called ENDUREacronym for European Devices Using Radioisotope Energy.
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The element that will try to take advantage of its full potential is called americium and, to date, it has never been used as fuel. According to ESA information, the European space agency had to rely on batteries of Russian or North American origin, using plutonium with main ingredient. However, this radioactive element is as expensive to produce as it is difficult to find and that is why the use of a by-product of the same, americium. This is where the great advantage of this comes.
According to scientists at the UK National Nuclear Laboratory, americium can be extracted through processed nuclear waste and transformed into pellets, which would form part of the core of future batteries. americium it would cost five times less to produce than plutonium and would be used to make two types of devices: a heating unit and a thermoelectric generator. European scientists are so excited about the discovery that they say NASA might consider using americium on its next Artemis missions.
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