Transportation Secretary and interim NASA Administrator Sean Duffy outlined the space agency’s fast-track plan to build a nuclear reactor on the moon on Tuesday.
“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. 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,” Duffy said during a Department of Transportation (DOT) press conference.
“Can we do it? We are now going to move beyond studying, and we are going to be given direction to go,” Duffy added. “Let’s start to deploy our technology to move to actually make this a reality.”
Duffy said that the reactor will have to generate 100 kilowatts of output.
“That’s the same amount of energy a 2,000-square-foot home uses every three and a half days. So we’re not talking about massive technology,” he stated. “We’re not launching this live.”
The plan appears to be Duffy’s first major directive since being selected by President Trump to lead NASA on an interim basis in early July. The selection came after the president pulled his initial nominee, tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, days before his confirmation vote.
In late July, NASA said that nearly 4,000 of its 18,000 employees would depart the agency through two rounds of deferred resignation programs.
NASA has invested money in nuclear reactor research, including awarding three $5 million contracts in 2022 to companies developing initial designs for a 40-kilowatt class fission power system. Fission refers to the practice of splitting atoms apart to create nuclear power.
The acceleration of the plan is part of the administration’s attention to human spaceflight.
“But again, energy is important, and if we’re going to be able to sustain life on the moon, to then go to Mars, this technology is critically important. And I would just note that … we’re behind, right? If we’re, if we’re going to engage in the race to the moon and the race to Mars, we have to get our act together,” Duffy said on Tuesday. “We have to marshal all of our resources, all of our focus on going to the moon, which is what we’re going to do.”
“And again, there’s a lot of things that NASA does, and a lot of people love a lot of the things that NASA does, but this is about space exploration, and this is about this next phase,” the interim NASA administrator stated.
The news about the moon reactor was first reported by Politico.
A memo recently issued by Duffy and shared with The Hill on Tuesday outlines further details of the effort to use nuclear energy technology.
The memo says that the administration will designate a “Fission Surface Power Program Executive” who will be responsible for executing the program.
In addition, it will issue a request for the industry to submit proposals to be part of the program. It plans to award contracts to up to two companies with the goal of being ready to launch by the first quarter of fiscal year 2030.
“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 document 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.”
Rachel Frazin contributed to this report.
Updated at 4:44 p.m. EDT
