The US is seeking to quickly establish a lunar nuclear base before China or Russia, according to US Secretary of Transportation and acting Administrator of NASA Sean Duffy.
“We’re in a race to the moon, in a race with China to the moon. And to have a base on the moon, we need energy,” Duffy exclaimed during a press conference. “And some of the key locations on the moon, we’re going to get solar power, but this fission technology is critically important, and so we’ve spent hundreds of million [of] dollars studying.”
“We are now going to move beyond studying. Let’s start to deploy our technology to move to actually make this a reality,” Duffy declared.
A DOT memo shared with The Hill states possibilities regarding nuclear development and planetary exploration.
“Fission surface power (FSP) is both an essential and sustainable segment of the lunar and Mars power architectures for future human space exploration missions,” the memo states. “To properly advance this critical technology to be able to support a future lunar economy, high power energy generation on Mars, and to strengthen our national security in space, it is imperative the agency move quickly.”
The Daily Wire reported that a lunar nuclear base would aid NASA’s Artemis Campaign, the goal of which is to explore “the Moon for scientific discovery, technology advancement, and to learn how to live and work on another world as we prepare for human missions to Mars.”
Concerning Russia and China, both nations are predicted to establish moon bases sometime in the 2030s. Duffy cautioned this possibility, claiming they “could potentially declare a keep-out zone which would significantly inhibit the United States from establishing a planned Artemis presence if not there first.”
