install a nuclear reactor on the moon before China and Russia create its exclusion zone

The Space race has warm upthis time in the heat of a nuclear reactor on the surface of the moon. And as already happened in the 60s, the urgency is not scientific, but fundamentally geopolitical.

The Duffy directive. The break between Elon Musk and Donald Trump trunciated Jared Isaacman’s career as future NASA administrator. The current acting administrator of the Space Agency, Sean Duffy, is in turn Trump’s Secretary of Transportation, faithful to the priorities of the White House.

In a movement that will mark the priorities of the agency, Duffy has launched an accelerated plan to build a small nuclear power plant on the moon. The directive urges NASA to have a satellite functional reactor by 2030.

Why 2030. The main motivation is get ahead of the Chinese and Russia Alliance to build your own lunar reactor. “We are in a race towards the moon, a race with China. And to have a base on the moon, we need energy,” Duffy explained In a later press conference.

The fear of Washington is explicit in the directive itself: “The first country to do so could declare an exclusion zone, which would significantly limit the United States for establishing the Presence of Artemis If I will not arrive first. “

A new plan. NASA was already working on a project called Fission Surface Power (FSP) with the intention of installing a 40 kW reactor on the surface of the moon at the beginning of the next decade. The new directive, published entirely By NASA Watch, raise the bet to a more efficient Bryton cycle turns and a minimum power of 100 kW.

The dates are also more ambitious. The United States government requires NASA to be installed for the first 2030 quarter using a launch system of at least 15 tons of capacity. The reactor and all transportation logistics and installation will be open to the American private industry through a future public tender.

More astronauts, less science. Nuclear energy will be crucial for any manned lunar base. The moon has a day and night cycle of approximately 29.5 terrestrial days, which means that any type of lunar colony faces two weeks of icy darkness.

Solar energy is unfeasible to feed the life support equipment and heating that will keep astronauts alive. A fission reactor, on the other hand, would provide a constant and reliable source of energy.

This Directive is the first important movement of Sean Duffy as an acting administrator, and reflects the change of course that began the 2026 Budgets of the White House: an increase in the funds for human exploration of deep space, especially if they can prevent China from getting to Marsand cuts of up to 50% in purely scientific areasincluding many of the probes that study the solar system.

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