Powering up human reach for the Red Planet

17th January 2018

NASA

Enaie Azambuja

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NASA and its partners will host a news conference at noon EST (9 a.m. PST) Thursday, 18th January, at the National Atomic Testing Museum in Las Vegas, to discuss a recent experiment involving a new power source that could provide the safe, efficient and plentiful energy needed for future robotic and human space exploration missions. Audio of the news conference and presentation slides will stream live on NASA’s website.

Representatives from NASA, the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA’s) Los Alamos National Laboratory and Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) will discuss and take questions on the Kilopower project, which aims to demonstrate space fission power systems technology that has the potential to enable future crewed surface missions to the Moon, Mars and beyond. Testing began in November 2017 and is expected to continue through March.

The news conference participants will be:

Steve Jurczyk, associate administrator of NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate
Angela Chambers, manager of the Department of Energy’s Nuclear Criticality Safety Program
Mark Martinez, president of Mission Support and Test Services, LLC, which manages and operates the Nevada National Security Site for the NNSA
Janet Kavandi, director of NASA’s Glenn Research Center
Lee Mason, NASA’s principal technologist for power and energy storage
Pat McClure, Kilopower project lead at Los Alamos
Marc Gibson, Kilopower lead engineer at Glenn Research Center
Dave Poston, chief reactor designer at Los Alamos

Image credit: NASA.