{"id":46478,"date":"2026-07-27T18:45:54","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T10:45:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/could-nuclear-heaters-keep-astronauts-warm-on-the-moon-nasa-is-funding-research-to-find-out\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T18:45:54","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T10:45:54","slug":"could-nuclear-heaters-keep-astronauts-warm-on-the-moon-nasa-is-funding-research-to-find-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/could-nuclear-heaters-keep-astronauts-warm-on-the-moon-nasa-is-funding-research-to-find-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Could nuclear heaters keep astronauts warm on the moon? NASA is funding research to find out"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Collage
This collage highlights some of the projects selected for funding through the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts program, including a study looking at radioisotope heating systems for moonwalking astronauts, depicted at center left. (NASA Graphic)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NASA says it\u2019s funding a new batch of far-out research projects, including a study evaluating how radioactive heaters can keep astronauts warm while they work on the moon.<\/p>\n

The heating project was proposed by Zeno Power Systems, a nuclear battery company with operations in Seattle, California and Washington, D.C. It\u2019s one of 18 projects selected for nine-month, $175,000 Phase I grants by the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts program. For decades, NIAC grants have helped researchers test concepts with potential space applications.<\/p>\n

Zeno\u2019s research project is led by A.C. Charania, the company\u2019s senior vice president of space business development. Charania previously spent two years as NASA\u2019s chief technologist and five years in management roles at Jeff Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin space venture.<\/p>\n

The project comes with an acronym taken from J.R.R. Tolkien\u2019s tales of Middle-earth: EARENDIL, which stands for Extended Astronaut Radioisotope-EVA in Nighttime and Deep-Space Icy Landscapes. In \u201cThe Silmarillion,\u201d E\u00e4rendil is a half-Elven mariner who voyaged to the Undying Lands. As described in Zeno\u2019s proposal, EARENDIL technology would warm space voyagers while they work outside during the frigid lunar night, amid temperatures that can plunge as low as 410 degrees below zero Fahrenheit (-246 degrees Celsius).<\/p>\n

Zeno is already developing a new class of compact nuclear devices powered by the heat of radioactive decay. One type of device would convert that heat into electricity, but the device proposed for EARENDIL would function strictly as a heater rather than a battery.<\/p>\n

The NIAC proposal says these heaters would address \u201ca critical barrier to sustained human operations on the lunar surface: the extreme cold of permanently shadowed regions (PSRs) and the two-week lunar night.\u201d NASA\u2019s grant will help Zeno assess the feasibility of integrating compact heaters into the spacesuits that astronauts wear during extravehicular activity, or EVA.<\/p>\n

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