Mission Lunar Night: Startup plans cost-effective energy for moon

In the darkness of space, energy is the most valuable currency. Near the sun, photovoltaics are the standard. However, solar panels reach their physical limits on long-term missions in deep space or during the two-week lunar night. The Latvian startup Deep Space Energy is now aiming to close this gap with an alternative energy source and make European spaceflight more independent and efficient: with the completion of a pre-seed financing round of 350,000 Euros and an additional 580,000 Euros from public contracts and grants from the European Space Agency ESA, NATO, and the Latvian government, the commercialization of novel radioisotope batteries is coming within reach.

The heart of the innovation is a generator based on the natural decay of radioisotopes. These are materials that arise as a byproduct in civilian nuclear reactors and release heat through their decay. Conventional thermoelectric radioisotope generators (RTGs) have been used in spaceflight for decades. Deep Space Energy's solution promises a significant increase in efficiency here. According to company founder Mihails Šepanskis, their system requires five times less fuel than current standard models for the same electrical output.

In figures, this means: only two kilograms of Americium-241, an artificial and highly radioactive actinide primarily formed by the decay of Plutonium-241 in nuclear fuels, would be sufficient for the operation of a moon rover. Classical systems consume around ten kilograms of the precious substance.

Key to European Sovereignty

This efficiency is more than a technical gimmick. Deep Space Energy sees it as key to European sovereignty in space. Global production capacities for Americium-241 are severely limited and will only reach a level in the mid-2030s that allows for large-scale missions. Due to the reduced demand, European missions to the moon or deep space could launch five years earlier than previously planned. Given transport costs of up to one million Euros per kilogram of payload to the lunar surface, the weight reduction also promises savings in the hundreds of millions.

Beyond scientific exploration, Deep Space Energy is targeting the strategically important defense sector. While the startup emphasizes that its generators are not designed for weapon systems, their role as a backup power source for military satellites is significant. In high orbits such as Geostationary Orbit (GEO), such batteries ensure redundancy for critical reconnaissance and early warning systems. They make satellites immune to attacks targeting the destruction of solar panels. Furthermore, they guarantee operation even in phases without direct sunlight.

Geopolitical Resilience and the Race to the Moon

Šepanskis points to the geopolitical lessons of recent history: the war in Ukraine has shown how fatal dependence on US satellite networks like Starlink can be if the flow of information is interrupted. An independent, robust energy supply for European reconnaissance satellites is therefore a fundamental prerequisite for an autonomous security architecture. The Baltic region is increasingly positioning itself as an innovation hub for such critical technologies. Deep Space Energy, for example, is taking a pioneering role as the first Latvian company in the NATO Diana program for economic cooperation.

In the long term, the company sees its main field in the burgeoning lunar economy. For programs like Artemis or the Moon Village, the survival of technology during the extreme lunar night – with temperatures of minus 150 degrees Celsius and a duration of over 350 hours – is the biggest hurdle. The technology from Latvia could allow rovers and stations to remain active over multiple day-night cycles, thus enabling the exploration of permanently shadowed craters.

(nie)