Nuclear Energy Could Power A Lunar Colony

Sean Duffy, the Transportation Secretary currently serving as NASA’s interim administrator, is pushing the space agency to accelerate the creation of a nuclear-fission reactor for deployment on the Moon.

The Big Power Up: Setting up a lunar colony is seen as the “second space race,” with countries like China, Russia, India, and Japan vying for interplanetary dominance. Actually keeping the lights on up on the Moon is the first critical step toward that ambition.

Behind The Plan: NASA has been developing a fission reactor that can be sent to the Moon to provide energy during its two-week lunar night cycles — since relying solely on solar power won’t cut it.

• Duffy’s new directive calls on NASA to “put out a broad call encouraging private companies to craft designs for a powerful 100 kilowatt reactor that could be ready to go by 2030,” per Fast Company.
• As part of its “Fission Surface Power Project,” NASA already awarded three $5 million contracts to private companies to conceptualize the small reactors — each of them “weighed under six metric tons and were capable of producing 40 kilowatts of electricity.”
• That’s enough energy to help run “lunar habitats, rovers, backup grids, or science experiments.”

The Future: NASA may be facing serious budget cuts, but Duffy seems ready to spare no expense when it comes to nuclear power on the Moon — mirroring everyone’s sudden obsession with nuclear energy. Why the rush? Russia and China announced a joint lunar program that also calls for a nuclear reactor to be built on the lunar surface by 2033.

Just like with the Moon landing in the 1960s, America has no intention of letting a rival superpower get there first.

Prediction: In the race to create a fission reactor for the Moon, NASA could once again spark innovations in nuclear energy here on Earth — as it has many times before.