In late August, NASA asked contractors to prepare to build a nuclear reactor that could survive a space voyage and run without maintenance near the moon’s south pole. The agency wants it ready to be launched by December 2030.
Russia aims to have a lunar reactor running by 2036 as part of a secretive partnership with China. NASA has already sped up its schedule to beat its rivals. The race is for the very future of space exploration. The United States and China want to be first to establish a moon base, to search for resources like frozen water and to launch missions deeper into the solar system.
Some leading scientists caution that governments are moving too quickly. In the last six years, multiple Chinese, American and Russian rockets have failed and exploded, and a Russian lander has crashed into the moon. Failures could cause a chain reaction with dire consequences. Falling reactor debris could scatter radioactive material, as happened in Canada in the late 1970s.
No country has more experience than Russia in this area. It launched more than 30 reactors into orbit, mostly in the 1970s and 1980s, and controls the largest supply of the safest nuclear fuel. NASA is playing catch-up. The United States has spent more than $20 billion on space nuclear programs since then but has never deployed another reactor. The race is as much a spectacle of power as it is a matter of exploration.
Source: New York Times Top Stories · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing