In the 1960s, the US won the space race to the Moon, defeating the Soviet Union in the biggest space rivalry of that time. Now, nearly five and a half decades later, Washington is determined to win once again the new ‘space race’ to establish the first nuclear reactor on the Moon.
The stakes could not be higher. The first country to establish a nuclear reactor on the moon will have access to a constant source of power on the lunar surface, and thus, could establish a permanent colony on the moon.
Not only that, the first to establish a nuclear reactor and colony “could potentially declare a keep-out zone” on the Moon.
The first space race to the moon was fought between the US and the erstwhile Soviet Union. This time around, the rivalry is between the US on the one side, and Russia-China combined on the other side.
NASA Gears Up For The New Space Race
The acting administrator of NASA, Sean Duffy, has issued a directive to fast-track efforts to put a nuclear reactor on the moon.
NASA has discussed building a reactor on the lunar surface, but this would set a more definitive timeline for the ambitious project, which could be the first stepping stone for establishing human colonies on the Moon, and further away on Mars and even in deep space.
“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,” Duffy wrote in the directive, according to the New York Times.
One lunar day is equivalent to four weeks on Earth, which means two weeks of continuous sunshine, followed by two weeks of cold darkness. These extended timelines mean that spacecraft and colonies could not wholly depend on solar power for their batteries. Hence, there is a need for a nuclear reactor for power generation on the Moon.
Furthermore, the directive orders the agency to solicit industry proposals for a 100-kilowatt nuclear reactor to launch by 2030. NASA has previously funded research into lunar nuclear reactors, but those projects were for a much smaller reactor, a 40-kilowatt reactor.
“Building even a modest lunar habitat to accommodate a small crew would demand megawatt-scale power generation. Solar arrays and batteries alone cannot reliably meet those demands,” Dr Sungwoo Lim, senior lecturer in space applications, exploration, and instrumentation at the University of Surrey, said.
“Nuclear energy is not just desirable, it is inevitable,” he added.
The directive underlines that China and Russia are already working to put a reactor on the moon by the mid-2030s as part of a partnership to build a base there. If that happens, the directive warns, China and Russia “could potentially declare a keep-out zone” that would inhibit what the United States could do there.
“It is about winning the second space race,” a NASA official told Politico.
Russia-China Plan For Nuclear Reactor On Moon
Notably, last year, the head of Russia’s space agency revealed plans for a joint project with China to establish a nuclear power plant on the moon by 2035.
In a lecture, Roscosmos CEO Yury Borisov disclosed that Russia and China were seriously considering installing a nuclear power reactor on the lunar surface between 2033 and 2035.
The collaborative effort stems from a memorandum of mutual understanding signed in March 2021 between Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos and the China National Space Administration (CNSA), outlining cooperation in establishing the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS).
Earlier this year, in May, Roscosmos and the CNSA signed an agreement to construct a lunar power station dedicated to fundamental space research.
NASA Aims To Beat Russia-China Timeline
China aims to put an astronaut on the moon by 2030, and establish a nuclear reactor there by 2033-2035.
However, NASA has set an even more ambitious timeline. It aims to have the first moon landing since Apollo 17 (1972) by mid-2027. NASA’s return-to-the-moon project is named Artemis.
Further, NASA aims to establish the first nuclear reactor on the moon by 2030, around the same time as China is planning to have its first crewed lunar landing.
However, many experts warn that the NASA timeline is too ambitious, and perhaps, even political, to align the lunar landing within Trump’s second term in office (ending January 2029).
Many of the needed components, including the Starship lunar lander under development by SpaceX, are still unproven.
Russia-China Still In The Game
Notwithstanding NASA’s ambitious timelines, which aim to beat the Russia-China combine in the second space race to the moon by nearly half a decade, some experts believe that Moscow and Beijing are still in the game and can beat NASA this time.
Space exploration historian Alexander Zheleznyakov told TASS in an interview that the United States’ efforts to accelerate the development and deployment of a nuclear reactor on the Moon are unlikely to outpace a similar initiative by Russia and China.
“There has been previous work in this area – perhaps this project will be revived. But I believe they won’t manage to surpass Russia and China,” he said.
Zheleznyakov pointed out that Russia possesses substantial technological heft for such projects.
“Recently, Mikhail Kovalchuk, president of the Kurchatov Institute National Research Center, mentioned that a prototype of a lunar nuclear reactor could be developed by the early 2030s. Naturally, there will be questions about how to deliver it to the Moon, but overall, our resources are far more robust than those of the US,” Zheleznyakov emphasized.
He also underlined that China often keeps its advancements in the space program under wraps.
Earlier on June 12, Roscosmos head Dmitry Bakanov had also declared that Russia’s nuclear power plant would be the first on the Moon.
It remains to be seen who will win this second race to the moon. However, what is certain is that just like the 1960s and the Cold War era, once again, the space race is fueled not by the desire to push scientific boundaries but to advance narrow geopolitical goals.
“It seems that we’re going back into the old first space race days of competition, which, from a scientific perspective, is a little bit disappointing and concerning,” Dr Simeon Barber, planetary science specialist at the Open University, told BBC.
“Competition can create innovation, but if there’s a narrower focus on national interest and on establishing ownership, then you can lose sight of the bigger picture, which is exploring the solar system and beyond,” he added.
- Sumit Ahlawat has over a decade of experience in news media. He has worked with Press Trust of India, Times Now, Zee News, Economic Times, and Microsoft News. He holds a Master’s Degree in International Media and Modern History from the University of Sheffield, UK.
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