Honda teams with Astrobotic to bring regenerative fuel cells to Moon power systems

Honda and Astrobotic are teaming up to see if regenerative fuel cells could become a vital part of future Moon power systems.

With NASA’s Artemis missions pushing humans closer to setting up a long-term lunar base, the question of how to generate reliable energy on the Moon is becoming more urgent.

Unlike Earth, the Moon has no wind, no flowing water, and nights that last two weeks, so solar power alone won’t cut it.

That’s where Honda’s energy technology may come in, keeping the lights on and even producing life-sustaining oxygen.

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Astrobotic aims to be the first commercial power service for the Moon

At the heart of Honda’s idea is what it calls a regenerative fuel cell.

Think of it as a closed-loop system that uses only sunlight and water to create electricity, hydrogen, and oxygen.

In a way, it’s similar to this supercar that runs on hydrogen and exhales drinkable water through its exhausts.

As if that wasn’t impressive enough, the system also recycles these materials endlessly.

During the two-week-long lunar day, solar panels gather energy and split water into hydrogen and oxygen.

Then, when night falls and the Sun disappears, the system flips: it uses that stored hydrogen in a fuel cell to make electricity, and the only byproduct is water, which feeds back into the cycle.

Astrobotic, meanwhile, has been developing the Vertical Solar Array Technology (VSAT) – tall, fold-out solar panels designed to track the Sun and maximize energy capture on the lunar surface.

VSAT is a key part of the company’s larger LunaGrid concept, which it describes as the ‘first-ever commercial power service for the Moon’.

In simple terms, LunaGrid is meant to be a scalable power network that could support everything from robotic landers to human habitats.

By combining Honda’s regenerative fuel cells with Astrobotic’s solar arrays, the two companies hope to solve the biggest energy problem on the Moon: surviving the long, freezing nights without power outages.

This can potentially power future human settlements

Their partnership will start as a feasibility study, not a real-world test.

The study will look at whether Honda’s system can be scaled to different mission sizes, and how well the two technologies can integrate.

In addition, the study will also try to ascertain how much sunlight the solar panels would actually receive at various locations near the lunar South Pole, which is NASA’s prime target for exploration.

The project may not produce working hardware right away, but the goal is clear: figure out if regenerative fuel cells and deployable solar arrays can power future human settlements.

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