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Rolls-Royce gets $6M to develop its ambitious nuclear space reactor
Rolls-Royce has received an additional £4.8 million (US$6.2 million) in funding from the UK Space Agency (UKSA) to develop key technology for a nuclear micro-reactor that could one day power lunar bases and spacecraft propulsion.
In the 1969 science fiction film Doppelganger(AKA Journey to the Far Side of the Sun), when the hero docks with his orbiting interplanetary spaceship in the last act, he's greeted by the Rolls-Royce logo on the ship's nuclear rocket engines. Over five decades later, that bit of cinematic prognostication is pushing toward reality as Rolls-Royce moves forward with plans for its space nuclear Micro-Reactor that could, among other things, power spacecraft propulsion systems. Where the SMR generates 0.5 GW of power and needs an area covering two football pitches for all its gear, the Micro-Reactor produces one to 10 MW and is small enough to be stuck on the back of a truck.
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