Energy Storage for Long-Duration Missions

Subtopic Problem Statement/Description: NASA faces a critical challenge in enabling sustained lunar and planetary surface operations: existing energy storage technologies cannot reliably survive or perform under the extreme thermal, environmental, and longevity demands of these missions. Lunar nights last up to 14 Earth days, with temperatures plunging to -200 C, far beyond the operating limits of state-of-the-art lithium-ion batteries, which suffer severe capacity loss below room temperature and fail below -40 C. To power mobile and stationary platforms (i.e. landers, rovers, habitats, and scientific payloads), NASA requires lightweight, modular, and long-lived energy storage systems capable of delivering >200 Wh/kg at room temperature while maintaining functionality across repeated lunar day/night cycles. Beyond batteries, regenerative fuel cell systems must operate maintenance-free for 3 years, yet current components degrade rapidly due to prolonged exposure to ultra-high-purity deionized water, leading to corrosion and shunt currents. Innovations in pumps, biocide-free contamination control, and long-life electrolysis hardware are essential to overcome these reliability gaps. Looking ahead to Mars, energy storage solutions must also leverage in-situ resources, such as CO/CO2/O2 reactant triads, to reduce launch mass and enable scalable, efficient power generation. Without breakthroughs in both advanced battery architectures and durable fuel cell technologies, future exploration missions' risk being constrained by energy limitations rather than scientific or operational potential. The specific components of research and development sought include: Further development of advanced secondary/rechargeable battery technologies is required to enable and extend lunar surface operations for mobility, scientific exploration, habitats, and ISRU operations. State-of-the-art lithium-ion batteries (LIB) suffer significant capacity loss below room temperature (20 C) and generally do not operate below -40 C. New technologies must enable battery modules that can safely provide >200 Wh/kg (at 20 C) while also operating in ambient conditions as low as -200 C. These batteries must be capable of surviving exposure to multiple lunar day/night cycles without degradation, and at best be capable of operation during lunar night. Modular battery concepts with common building blocks that allow for mission interoperability and commonality are of high interest and will be given priority compared to application-specific solutions. Combinations of cell-level improvements and/or battery pack- level improvements for enhanced temperature capabilities or safety will be considered, but a path must be shown toward a battery module design. Solutions focused solely on an individual cell component (e.g., anode, cathode, etc.) development and demonstration will not be considered. Long-life, High Pressure Deionized (DI) Water Pump. Currently available pumps, both high-lift and recirculating pumps, require unacceptably high power and fail well before the 3-year requirement when pumping the ultra-high purity deionized water specified by this application. Regenerative Fuel Cell (RFC) process water ranges from 4 C to 90 C with system pressures ranging from 15 psia (0.24 MPa) to 2,500 psia (17.2 MPa) and must remain above > 9 M cm as measured at 25 C. NASA seeks innovations of materials, coatings, bearings, dynamics seals, etc. that enable devices to move and pressurize the deionized water without introducing contaminants for the mission duration. Preference will be given to solutions resulting in pumps with the longest mean time between failures (MTBF), lowest power and mass. Non-chemical Biocides for Long-life, High-Pressure DI Water Electrolysis Systems. NASA seeks technologies that can prevent and/or remove biological contamination from closed-loop DI water electrolysis systems containing carbon-based materials. Chemical biological mitigation options are not acceptable because these solutions limit the operational life of the water electrolysis stacks and the pressurized ultra-high-purity water (>14 M cm at 25 C) remains in closed loops for very long periods of time. Regenerative Fuel Cells utilizing CO/CO2/O2 reactant for Mars Energy Storage. NASA seeks electrochemical hardware that can draw resources from the Mars atmosphere by both electrolyzing CO2 to produce O2 and CO and generate direct current electrical power by reacting CO and O2. These electrochemical reactions need to be demonstrated in hardware at a minimally viable active areas (>80 cm2 by Phase 2) with stack cell counts ( >15 cells by Phase 2) for extensible durations (>100 hours per mode) to be a feasible option for system integration. Critical performance metrics are round-trip efficiency (electricity in / electricity out), specific energy (Wh/kg) at the system level, and power -efficient CO/CO2 separation technology with a performance metric of kg CO2 separated / ( kW * kgFeedstock ) at 400kPa (60 psia).