Nuclear Power for
Mission-Critical Systems

Lunar payloads and surface systems face one of the hardest energy challenges in space: surviving long periods without sunlight while maintaining enough heat and power to protect critical hardware.

City Labs is developing tritium-based heat and power technologies that can support persistent lunar operations by combining continuous thermal output with auxiliary electrical power — reducing dependence on stored battery energy for survival heating while supporting low-power electronics, sensors, and mission-critical subsystems.

This area is closely aligned with Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS), lunar infrastructure, and future surface systems that must survive extreme cold, eclipse periods, and long-duration unattended operation.

Small satellites and spacecraft payloads often require resilient backup or auxiliary power for electronics that must remain active over long mission durations.

City Labs’ NanoTritium™ betavoltaic systems are designed to provide continuous low-level electrical output for spacecraft subsystems, sensors, memory retention, telemetry, and other low-duty-cycle functions — especially valuable where battery replacement, recharging, or maintenance is impractical.

This area supports the use of ultra-low-power betavoltaic systems as secondary or auxiliary power sources for satellites and hosted payloads.

Small spacecraft are increasingly important for distributed sensing, imaging, communications, and resilient space architectures. But propulsion remains a major limitation for many small satellite platforms because of tight size, mass, and power constraints.

City Labs is developing a Beta Ion Engine concept that adapts the company’s tritium-based platform for future small-spacecraft propulsion — supporting longer mission lifetimes, station keeping, orbital adjustment, and future maneuverable small spacecraft architectures.

Autonomous sensors are often deployed where retrieval, replacement, or maintenance is difficult or impossible — operating for years in remote, harsh, dark, cold, or otherwise inaccessible environments.

City Labs’ tritium-based power and heat technologies can support distributed sensor systems with long-duration energy for low-power electronics, thermal stabilization, standby operation, and autonomous wake/recovery functions.

This area includes sensing systems where long life, low maintenance, and environmental survivability are central requirements.

Secure electronics and communications systems often require continuous low-level power to maintain readiness, protect sensitive information, or support anti-tamper functions.

City Labs’ NanoTritium™ betavoltaic technology can provide persistent onboard power for systems that need long-duration operation without periodic battery replacement. In COMSEC applications, this supports crypto key retention, anti-tamper electronics, and other secure low-power functions.

This is one of City Labs’ clearest defense applications — connecting core betavoltaic technology to a specific mission need: secure, maintenance-free power for critical electronics.

Implantable medical devices require compact, reliable power sources that can operate for many years without replacement. For leadless pacemakers, battery life is especially important because device replacement can require additional procedures over a patient’s lifetime.

City Labs is developing betavoltaic battery technology for leadless pacemakers with the goal of extending device lifespan and reducing the need for replacement surgeries.