{"id":17059,"date":"2026-01-30T19:08:59","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T11:08:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/why-nasa-is-going-nuclear-for-americas-power-play-on-the-moon\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T19:08:59","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T11:08:59","slug":"why-nasa-is-going-nuclear-for-americas-power-play-on-the-moon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/why-nasa-is-going-nuclear-for-americas-power-play-on-the-moon\/","title":{"rendered":"Why NASA is going nuclear for America\u2019s power play on the moon"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/260128-nuclear-moon.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-911918\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/260128-nuclear-moon.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/260128-nuclear-moon-768x432.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" class=\"wp-element-caption\">An artist\u2019s conception shows a nuclear power plant on the moon. (Lockheed Martin Illustration)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Almost 60 years after America won the first space race, the moon is once again the focus of a competition between superpowers: Who\u2019ll be the first to put a nuclear-powered base on the lunar surface?<\/p>\n<p>And just as President John F. Kennedy set a goal of landing astronauts on the moon and bringing them back safely&nbsp;\u201cbefore the decade is out,\u201d&nbsp;NASA and the Department of Energy have set another end-of-decade deadline for developing a nuclear reactor for use on the moon. The current plan calls for&nbsp;demonstrating a 40-kilowatt power plant by 2030.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Why 2030?<\/h2>\n<p>Roger Myers, an aerospace consultant who has been in the business of developing in-space power and propulsion systems for decades at NASA and Aerojet Rocketdyne, says the timing is tied to China\u2019s ambition to set up its own moon base by 2035.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cChina has announced many times in the last few years that they plan to land their astronauts, their taikonauts, on the surface of the moon by 2030, and they want to have a sustained presence on the surface of the moon by 2035,\u201d he says in the latest episode of the&nbsp;Fiction Science podcast. \u201cThe United States has a decision to make: Do we want every human on the planet to look up every night and see just a Chinese flag? Or do we want them to see a Chinese and an American flag?\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe data-testid=\"embed-iframe\" style=\"border-radius:12px\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/episode\/2VXXfgMm5Oy7E2i7hsV2J3?utm_source=generator\" width=\"100%\" height=\"152\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Myers says there are economic reasons as well as geopolitical reasons for establishing a sustainable lunar base on the moon.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs we think forward 10 years, 20 years, and ask ourselves what future we want for our economy, one of the big questions is, \u2018How do we grow the space economy beyond low Earth orbit?\u2019 And to do that, we need resources,\u201d he says. \u201cIf we want ready access to resources, we\u2019ve got to go to the moon.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Those resources could include helium-3, which is more abundant on the moon than it is on Earth. Seattle-based&nbsp;Interlune&nbsp;is already working on a plan to extract helium-3 from lunar soil and ship it out for use in&nbsp;quantum computers,&nbsp;neutron detectors,&nbsp;medical scanning systems&nbsp;and future-generation&nbsp;fusion reactors. The price for helium-3 is said to range as high as $20 million per kilogram.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Why nuclear?<\/h2>\n<p>The way Myers sees it, nuclear power is the energy source most suited for supporting long-term, continuous operations at a moon base. \u201cNuclear power is important because the lunar night is two weeks long,\u201d Myers says. \u201cThere are a few places where you could&nbsp;use solar with power towers. \u2026 The challenge that we have is that to scale that to where we can use the power for resource exploitation to grow the economy, we need a lot of power. We need 100 kilowatts and up, and solar doesn\u2019t scale well for that application.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman agreed with that assessment last month during his second&nbsp;Senate confirmation hearing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think NASA should be evolving to work on grand, almost mini-Manhattan Project nuclear programs that have the benefit for surface power applications, especially when you\u2019re out of sunlight or you\u2019re undertaking discovery missions \u2014 let\u2019s say past Mars, for example, or even actually on the surface of Mars for manufacturing propellant.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"alignright size-medium\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"201\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/myers-201x300.jpg\" alt=\"Roger Myers portrait photo\" class=\"wp-image-911926\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/myers-201x300.jpg 201w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/myers-200x298.jpg 200w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/myers-67x100.jpg 67w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/myers.jpg 486w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 201px) 100vw, 201px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" class=\"wp-element-caption\">Aerospace consultant Roger Myers currently serves as chair of the National Research Council\u2019s Space Technology Industry-Government-University Roundtable. (Photo via Washington State Academy of Sciences)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The federal government\u2019s to-do list for space nuclear power draws upon recommendations that were detailed in an&nbsp;84-page report&nbsp;Myers wrote up last year in collaboration with tech policy analyst&nbsp;Bhavya Lal.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy co-author and I spent a lot of time in Washington briefing a lot of agencies and Capitol Hill, and so we see this continuing, mainly because of the geopolitical competition aspects of it,\u201d Myers says. \u201cOur government does not want our nation to be second. We want to lead. And if we\u2019re going to lead, that means we need to establish a sustained presence on the surface of the moon, and we need to do that in the early 2030s.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Myers notes that&nbsp;Congress appropriated $250 million&nbsp;for the current fiscal year to support the development of a nuclear reactor for the moon \u2014 \u201cwhich is, in fact, pretty much what we recommended.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>NASA and the Department of Energy are expected to enlist commercial partners that could include&nbsp;General Atomics&nbsp;and&nbsp;Westinghouse Electric, the heavy-hitters of the nuclear power industry; aerospace powerhouses such as&nbsp;Lockheed Martin&nbsp;and&nbsp;L3Harris Technologies; and startups such as&nbsp;Radiant, a nuclear technology venture that was founded by SpaceX veterans.<\/p>\n<p>Myers says the nuclear power plants that go to the moon are likely to be small modular reactors, or SMRs, which are also attracting interest for power generation here on Earth.&nbsp;TerraPower, a Seattle-area venture co-founded by Bill Gates, and Oregon-based&nbsp;NuScale Power&nbsp;are among the&nbsp;many companies&nbsp;working on SMR technology.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What could go wrong?<\/h2>\n<p>The potential perils of space nuclear power have been the stuff of science fiction since the dawn of the Atomic Age and the Space Age.<\/p>\n<p>In the 1950 movie&nbsp;\u201cDestination Moon,\u201d&nbsp;astronauts have to cope with the legal and technical problems associated with their rocket\u2019s nuclear propulsion system. A nuclear waste explosion knocks the moon out of its orbit around Earth in&nbsp;\u201cSpace 1999,\u201d&nbsp;a TV show that aired in the 1970s. And in the second season of Apple TV\u2019s \u201cFor All Mankind,\u201d astronauts&nbsp;narrowly avert a nuclear reactor meltdown&nbsp;on the moon.<\/p>\n<p>Myers says the scale of the nuclear reactors that are being designed for in-space operation makes such sci-fi nightmares far less likely. \u201cThe nice thing about these small reactors is, they don\u2019t melt down,\u201d he says. \u201cThere\u2019s not enough thermal energy in them to result in a meltdown.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>What about the nuclear waste issue? \u201cWe\u2019re only talking about a few of these [reactors] on the surface of the moon, even to get to megawatts. \u2026 And so you\u2019d probably just bury them once you have run them for 10 or 15 years, or however long,\u201d Myers says. \u201cBy that time, we\u2019ll have bulldozers on the surface of the moon, and you would dig a hole, and you\u2019d put the thing in there and bury it. So that\u2019s how you would dispose of the waste.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A company called&nbsp;Deep Isolation&nbsp;is already working on this deep-borehole strategy for next-generation nuclear waste disposal on Earth. Deep Isolation has its headquarters in California, but it also has an office in Richland, Wash., a global hot spot for nuclear engineering.<\/p>\n<p>Although Myers thinks nuclear power is the best energy source for a moon base, he acknowledges that other energy technologies also have their roles to play on the final frontier. Several Seattle-area companies are working on their own space power initiatives:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Zeno Power is developing a&nbsp;new kind of nuclear battery&nbsp;for rovers on the moon and Mars.<\/li>\n<li>Jeff Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin space venture has a project called Blue Alchemist that aims to&nbsp;manufacture solar cells from lunar materials.<\/li>\n<li>PowerLight Technologies partnered with Blue Origin&nbsp;to design a system that would use laser beams to transmit power on the moon.<\/li>\n<li>WiBotic\u2019s wireless charging technology&nbsp;is being put to use in a system that Astrobotic is developing to charge up moon rovers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u201cRovers might use an orbiting network of solar power satellites that are beaming power down to the surface, or they might use a power tower, depending on the range of transmission,\u201d Myers says. \u201cMy point in the report was that if we want multiple astronauts on the surface of the moon through a night, that\u2019s probably a minimum of 20 to 40 kilowatts of power. And that\u2019s where you really start to need nuclear.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\">\n<p><em>Roger Myers is due to discuss space nuclear power and the role it will play in future deep-space missions at 2 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 31, at Seattle\u2019s Museum of Flight. The event is free for museum members and included with museum admission.&nbsp;Check out the museum\u2019s website for further information about Myers\u2019 talk, and check out&nbsp;\u201cWeighing the Future: Strategic Options for U.S. Space Nuclear Leadership\u201d&nbsp;for the detailed road map drawn up by Myers and Bhavya Lal.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>The original version of this post was published on Cosmic Log. Fiction Science is included in FeedSpot\u2019s 100 Best Sci-Fi Podcasts. Stay tuned for&nbsp;future episodes of the&nbsp;Fiction Science podcast via Apple, Spotify, Player.fm, Pocket Casts and Podchaser. If you like Fiction Science, please rate the podcast and subscribe to get alerts for future episodes.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An artist\u2019s conception shows a nuclear power plant on the moon. (Lockheed Martin Illustration) Almost 60 years after America won the first space race, the moon is once again the focus of a competition between superpowers: Who\u2019ll be the first to put a nuclear-powered base on the lunar surface? And just as President John F. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17059"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17059\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}