David Poston

Recognized under Tier 5 — Energy Systems & Power Generation, David Poston has made extraordinary contributions to space nuclear power. As chief reactor designer for the Kilopower project at Los Alamos National Laboratory — which produced the KRUSTY reactor demonstration, the first new U.S. space fission power system tested in decades — Poston helped bring compact, reliable nuclear fission power from concept to proven hardware. On Mars, where solar irradiance is less than half that of Earth and dust storms can black out the sky for months, the kind of robust, continuous power that only a fission reactor can reliably provide will be indispensable to any permanent human settlement, and Poston's work has moved that capability closer to reality than at any point in the modern space era.