Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT), Westinghouse and IX are set to receive 12-month, $5 million contracts from the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory to develop conceptual designs of a 40-kilowatt class fission power system for a NASA-funded lunar technology demonstration initiative.
NASA said Tuesday it will collect data from industry teams during the first phase of the Fission Surface Power project to lay the groundwork for producing nuclear technology that could support human exploration of the moon and other deep-space destinations.
For the project, Lockheed teamed up with BWX Technologies (NYSE: BWXT) and Creare.
Westinghouse and Aerojet Rocketdyne will collaborate on the effort, while Boeing (NYSE: BA) and Maxar Technologies (NYSE: MAXR) will work with Intuitive Machines and X-Energy’s joint venture IX.
DOE and NASA selected the awardees after Idaho National Laboratory management contractor Battelle completed a solicitation process.
The space agency expects the resulting system to work for at least one decade in a lunar environment.
