Miami, (EFE) .- NASA plans to build a nuclear reactor of the United States on the moon to operate from 2030 as part of the space “race” with China, exhibited this Tuesday Sean Duffy, interim administrator of the American special agency.
Duffy, who is also secretary of Transportation in the current administration of Donald Trump, acknowledged in a press conference the existence of the project, which first reported the political medium based on an internal report of NASA.
“This is not a new concept, this has been discussed under Trump 1 (2017-2021), under (the presidency of) Biden (2021-2025), but we are in the race towards the moon and in the race towards the moon with China, and to have a base on the moon we need energy,” said the official questioned by the media.
The United States government has already “spent hundreds of millions of dollars studying” if it is possible to build the reactor, said Duffy, who will make an official announcement of the topic later.
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The reactor will generate 100 kilowatts of energy, the amount of electricity equivalent to that required by a house of 2,000 square feet (almost 186 square meters) every third day and a half, the secretary described.
“They have instructed us to start displaying our technology, to move and make this a reality,” said the official.
The NASA chief acknowledged that it is not “a huge technology,” but argued that “energy is important and, if you talk about sustaining life on the moon and then going to Mars, this technology is critically important.”
The official framed the project within the “race towards space” promoted by Trump, who in his first management created the space force (Space Force) as part of the United States armed forces.
“If we are going to get involved in the race towards the moon, towards Mars, we have to put the batteries. We have to focus our efforts to go to the moon, which is what we are going to do,” he said.
The interim director recalled that NASA will launch at the beginning of next year the Artemis 2 mission for four astronauts to turn the moon, while Artemis 3 will seek that the crew make a alunage and remain six days in the satellite, twice as much time as the previous record.
After that, NASA expects to send supplies to the moon to start building a base, he added.
“There is a certain part of the moon that everyone knows that it is the best. We have ice there, we have sunlight there, we want to get there first and claim it for the United States,” he said
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