NASA vs. China Space Race: Where Are They Now In Nuclear Power Battle?

China and NASA are currently taking the space race exceptionally well to return to the moon and significantly impact Earth's nearest neighbor.

According to Science Times, NASA and the US Department of Energy have issued a request for proposals for a nuclear power plant that may be built on the moon. Meanwhile, Interesting Engineering said China had created a concept for its own lunar-based nuclear reactor.

Chernobyl, Nearly 30 Years Since Catastrophe

(Photo : Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
PRIPYAT, UKRAINE - APRIL 09: A sign warns of radiation contamination near former apartment buildings on April 9, 2016 in Pripyat, Ukraine. Pripyat, built in the 1970s as a model Soviet city to house the workers and families of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, now stands abandoned inside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, a restricted zone contaminated by radiation from the 1986 meltdown of reactor number four at the nearby Chernobyl plant in the world's worst civilian nuclear accident that spewed radiaoactive fallout across the globe. Authorities evacuated approximately 43,000 people from Pripyat in the days following the disaster and the city, with its high-rise apartment buildings, hospital, shops, schools, restaurants, cultural center and sports facilities, has remained a ghost-town ever since. The world will soon commemorate the 30th anniversary of the April 26, 1986 Chernobyl disaster. Today tour operators bring tourists in small groups to explore certain portions of the exclusion zone.

NASA Adds More Nuclear Power Projects

The Hill said NASA now wants nuclear power for spacecraft, particularly those destined for Mars and beyond. The space agency has studied nuclear rockets since the 1960s' Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Applications (NERVA) program.

When it became evident that NASA would not be sending humans to Mars any time soon, NERVA came to an end. Nuclear rockets, which employ a nuclear reactor to superheat exhaust from the rear of a spaceship, have resurfaced again that Mars is back on the table.

A nuclear thermal rocket might transport personnel and supplies to Mars far faster than a spaceship powered by conventional rocket engines. As a result, astronauts en route to Mars will spend less time in the radiation-heavy environment of deep space.

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Nuclear power is seeing a resurgence in space operations, and the technology is getting a second look on the ground. After the high-profile incidents at Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima, nuclear power has earned a poor rap. According to more enlightened environmentalists, nuclear power should be part of a solution that moves human society away from its reliance on fossil fuels.

CNBC said Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is helping to fund a nuclear power facility in Wyoming that will be operational by 2028. The reactor will be cooled using liquid sodium rather than water at the nuclear power station. The technique lowers the chances of a meltdown or explosion. It also generates fewer nuclear wastes.

China's Nuclear Space Tech 'Better' Than NASA's?

Reports said China's new nuclear reactor is more efficient than what NASA is working on. According to experts, the Asian country's atomic-based space invention has 100 times the power of the United States.

"Nuclear power is the most hopeful solution. Other nations have launched some ambitious plans. China cannot afford the cost of losing this race," The Independent said.

Here's What Anti-Nuclear Activists Claim

Will environmentalist resistance grow in space, as it has on Earth, to stifle the development of nuclear systems? Anti-nuclear activists have opposed rocket launches containing fissile material, such as the Cassini space probe, which launched in 1997 carrying 72 pounds of plutonium 238 to power its journey to Saturn. Similar protests are very certain to occur if a nuclear reactor and its fuel are sent to the moon.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists claims that nuclear power reactors deployed in orbit, whether on a moon colony or on a spaceship voyaging to Mars, would pose no threat to humanity on Earth. Nuclear power will be debated in space, just as it is on Earth, and it will need to be addressed.