NASA develops batteries to power humanity's return to moon
NASA is developing new battery technology under the SPEARS project to withstand the extreme cold of the moon's south pole. These batteries are designed to power lunar equipment and rovers during the lunar night, where temperatures drop to minus 200 degrees Celsius.
Why it matters
Reliable power storage is a critical requirement for the success of the Artemis campaign and the establishment of a sustained human presence on the moon.
edited by Gaby Clark , reviewed by Robert Egan
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Add to Preferred Sources Yi Lin, SPEARS testing and research lead at NASA Langley, holds one of the small coin-cell batteries that had just undergone thermal vacuum testing. Credit: NASA/Ryan Hill If you've ever had your car start sluggishly, or not at all, on a particularly frigid winter morning, you know standard batteries do not like extreme cold. That's why NASA researchers are working to develop a battery that could function in the brutal cold of the moon's south pole, where nighttime temperatures plunge to minus 328 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 200 degrees Celsius).
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