SUPERCLUSTER, 5/4/2021:
For much of the past century, nuclear energy and space exploration were the emblems of the future. These technologies offered a path to liberation from energy scarcity and gravity, and together they promised to open up the solar system for human exploration.
More than a decade before there were bootprints on the moon, NASA recognized the enormous potential for nuclear energy in spaceflight. Despite some early promising tests, NASA’s dream of a nuclear-powered Mars rocket never came to pass. But now, more than half a century later, a startup in Maryland is bringing the concept to life.
X-energy was founded in 2009 by Kam Ghaffarian, a deep-tech entrepreneur behind companies like Axiom, which is building the world’s first commercial space station, and Intuitive Machines, which could be the first to place a commercial lander on the moon. In a previous life, Ghaffarian was the cofounder of SGT, which became one of NASA’s largest services providers and endowed him with a fortune that he used to advance game-changing technologies on and off the planet.
When Ghaffarian founded X-energy he tasked the company with designing an advanced nuclear reactor that was cheaper and safer than any nuclear reactor in history…
