The goal of a nuclear reactor on the moon is a heady one for an administration full of people who can barely bang two rocks together
Replies
A moon base needs power but there is no moon base in need of power.
aug 4, 2025, 11:44 pm • 1 0 • view
Omg, I legit thought this was an Onion article.
aug 4, 2025, 11:45 pm • 1 0 • view
The administration that accidentally fired nuclear experts and is gutting NASA now wants to build a nuclear reactor on the moon?
aug 5, 2025, 12:05 am • 0 0 • view
I was interested to hear your thoughts on this 😂😂
aug 5, 2025, 5:54 am • 0 0 • view
But why?
aug 5, 2025, 4:07 am • 0 0 • view
The moon is a harsh mistress, probably. They aren't that bright
aug 5, 2025, 4:10 am • 0 0 • view
I was literally just asking @markbeekeeper.bsky.social if he thinks there are any rocks dumber than Sean Duffy. I hope the nuclear reactor doesn't melt all the cheese! 🧀
aug 4, 2025, 10:32 pm • 1 0 • view
As if we could trust these charlatans with a nuclear reactor 238,855 miles away.
aug 5, 2025, 1:35 am • 0 0 • view
If Musk can’t stop rockets exploding, who knows what heights of ineptitude this ninny will rise to. I suppose the upside is that it the nuclear conflagration will be on the moon, not firr we n here…
aug 5, 2025, 5:53 pm • 1 0 • view
What is the point of doing this?
aug 4, 2025, 10:29 pm • 0 0 • view
Didn’t they try that back in 1999? It didn’t go so well. (If you know, you know)
aug 4, 2025, 10:08 pm • 1 0 • view
I'm so confused, didn't Alexander Abian die in like 1999?
aug 4, 2025, 10:09 pm • 0 0 • view
The goal is not to actually build a reactor on the moon. The goal is to funnel billions and billions of tax payer dollars to private sector corporate donors for "research and development"
aug 4, 2025, 11:56 pm • 4 0 • view
Wonder which billionaire is building their survival bunker on the moon and needs us to help fund it?
aug 5, 2025, 3:47 pm • 1 0 • view
Now you know why they want to send a nuclear reactor there
aug 5, 2025, 3:48 pm • 4 0 • view
Look, those of us at a certain age all watched Space:1999 and we know how this ends.
aug 5, 2025, 5:10 pm • 1 0 • view
Are they going to take water up there also? Or are they going to discover it up there?
aug 5, 2025, 4:41 am • 0 0 • view
It's an idiotic idea but one of the best this administration has to offer so far.
aug 5, 2025, 4:47 pm • 0 0 • view
Commander John Koenig might have some thoughts on this.
aug 4, 2025, 10:05 pm • 0 0 • view
No worries. There's a good 50% chance that the SpaceX launch with the fissible materials won't blow up in atmo.
aug 5, 2025, 9:11 pm • 0 0 • view
It's a shame, I liked the Moon, but soon there won't be any more. Joking aside, nuclear appropriation of space goes against international treaties and will surely lead to an arms race. And that's never good. Nobody likes having nuclear hanging over their heads.
aug 4, 2025, 10:04 pm • 11 1 • view
I hate that my first thought in this administration is "I wonder if that's the reason they're doing it."
aug 4, 2025, 10:07 pm • 6 0 • view
Or have their spaceships blow up. But I will say again it won’t be “ allowed”. Just look at the Navy’s reports on UFO’s if you think I’m crazy They believe the crafts they see are “otherworldly “.
aug 4, 2025, 11:50 pm • 0 0 • view
I mean Apollo left an RTG up there, so it won't even be a first.
aug 4, 2025, 10:04 pm • 3 0 • view
No one tell them about the real energy problem with space exploration or they’ll end up blowing up half of Florida. Or, I dunno, maybe tell them.
aug 4, 2025, 10:03 pm • 3 0 • view
Isn't it a little late to be setting up the premise of Space, 1999?
aug 4, 2025, 11:42 pm • 0 0 • view
They’re going to crash-land a probe carrying an RTG and claim that counts
aug 4, 2025, 9:59 pm • 2 0 • view
Are you kidding? They're going to nuke the effing moon!
aug 4, 2025, 10:01 pm • 0 0 • view
And they'll use electric car trump's delivery vehicle, which means that of the first dozen attempts there will be 12 separate radioactive incidents when the thing blows up and scatters the reactor across the sky.
aug 4, 2025, 11:01 pm • 5 0 • view
Hahahahahaha, take a breath, hahahaha. WTAF morons?
aug 5, 2025, 1:39 am • 0 0 • view
Is the plan to build a fully automated reactor that requires no human oversight or maintenance, or are nuclear technicians going to be living on the moon?
aug 4, 2025, 11:59 pm • 1 0 • view
Haven't they ever seen Space 1999? Seriously though - what gives America the idea they own the rights to put a reactor on the moon? It doesn't belong to the orange fart!
aug 4, 2025, 10:20 pm • 2 1 • view
I'm going to miss tides
aug 4, 2025, 10:13 pm • 3 0 • view
It's hard to tell whether this administration is Dunning-Kruger made flesh or a bunch of chaos monkeys hyped up on crystal meth and entitlement. Both is obviously also possible.
aug 4, 2025, 10:17 pm • 6 0 • view
Windmills on the moon would kill the whales.
aug 4, 2025, 11:56 pm • 0 0 • view
Sounds like a B sci-fi movie.
aug 4, 2025, 11:23 pm • 0 0 • view
Wait that's NOT the Onion?!
aug 5, 2025, 9:37 pm • 0 0 • view
Thanks, John! I needed a chuckle before bedtime!
aug 5, 2025, 3:01 am • 0 0 • view
Given the recent ad campaign from the DOE, you'd think they'd rather put a coal-fired power station on the moon.
aug 4, 2025, 11:17 pm • 1 0 • view
And what would be the freaking point, who's it going to generate power for? 😶
aug 5, 2025, 5:51 am • 0 0 • view
To paraphrase someone else: How they gonna do that? Thoughts and prayers?
aug 6, 2025, 3:46 pm • 0 0 • view
Why though?
aug 5, 2025, 12:45 am • 0 0 • view
My guess is if you let these doofuses try to build a nuclear reactor on the moon the net result will still be the banging together of two rocks: Earth and the moon.
aug 4, 2025, 10:09 pm • 0 0 • view
Can they actually count to two?
aug 5, 2025, 12:14 am • 0 0 • view
It's got real bridge-to-nowhere vibes.
aug 4, 2025, 9:59 pm • 6 0 • view
You think they've got a team of the "best reactor techs" in the world that they're secretly training to be astronauts? Did NASA steal their designs for a min buggy and screen up the assembly? What's Ben Aflek's role in this?
aug 5, 2025, 11:59 am • 0 0 • view
Did they watch too many reruns of Skycaptain and the World of Tomorrow? (That was the one about nazis on the moon wasn’t it)
aug 4, 2025, 10:07 pm • 0 0 • view
Iron Sky is what you are thinking of.
aug 4, 2025, 10:33 pm • 1 0 • view
Surprised to find out it's a trilogy now. The third one involves Mars.
aug 4, 2025, 11:00 pm • 0 0 • view
Can’t even fix the department of transportation they purposely destroyed because of fraud, waste and abuse and diversity equity inclusion and because Biden, BUT for no scientific reason at all they plan to put this on the moon. They are a joke.
aug 5, 2025, 5:59 pm • 0 0 • view
Nuclear? Not Beautiful Clean Coal?
aug 5, 2025, 4:20 am • 0 0 • view
Them are play gods!
aug 4, 2025, 10:00 pm • 6 0 • view
Oh-oh. Earth and the moon could be the two rocks in this particular image...
aug 4, 2025, 10:10 pm • 0 0 • view
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...
aug 5, 2025, 5:35 pm • 0 0 • view
I'm sure they'll give some dipshit tech "visionary" a few billion to figure out that putting a reactor on a rocket is fucking stupid, but not before irradiating several protected wildlife areas in failed attempts.
aug 4, 2025, 10:07 pm • 2 0 • view
Now we know how everything leading to the Breakaway in Space: 1999 started. Just 26 years later.
aug 5, 2025, 12:12 am • 0 0 • view
it has to sound impressive or else people won't vote for them to do it
aug 5, 2025, 12:20 pm • 0 0 • view
They plan on doing all of this while cutting funding to NASA *and* many of the research agencies/groups that would be involved in the design or operation of said reactor.... These people are fascinatingly stupid
aug 4, 2025, 10:21 pm • 6 0 • view
TheY only care about headlines and providing a distraction from Trump's latest scandal of the day. That's why they had ICE barbie and Dr Phil wearing vests and helmets on ICE raids a few months ago. It just had to look cool for Trump to see on Fox News that evening.
aug 4, 2025, 10:57 pm • 3 0 • view
Of all the human spaceflight and science priorities for NASA, I’m pretty sure a reactor on the moon was low down on the list. Duffy was just like, “Oooh, reactor on the moon. Mein Führer will like the sound of that!”
aug 4, 2025, 10:36 pm • 84 7 • view
A lunar base would have two weeks of sunlight followed by two weeks of darkness due to the Moon's orbit, so solar is basically impossible and a reactor is probably a prerequisite for any permanent base Broken clock is right twice a day...
aug 4, 2025, 11:12 pm • 3 0 • view
You build solar arrays in space and microwave the energy to the moon. I read Project Hail Mary so I am an expert.
aug 5, 2025, 11:29 am • 1 0 • view
Arthur c Clarke and some more sci-fi authors. Worked out a plan to ring the moon with solar panels. Or a more practical solution beam power down from orbit. Also finding a country that will be happy to have nuclear material in a rocket going through their airspace. Differently not a musk rocket.
aug 5, 2025, 7:58 am • 2 0 • view
We already have RTG’s, which are proven space technology. But, solar is limited, and batteries are killed by the cold.
aug 4, 2025, 11:18 pm • 0 0 • view
The New Horizons RTG was 300 watts, and in 2017 NASA was looking for 40kW (40,000 watt) reactor designs for a lunar base A Moon base needs a nuclear reactor (and this administration is still full of morons)
aug 4, 2025, 11:48 pm • 3 0 • view
A logical solution would be solar panels, for when the sun is up, coupled with a reactor, whose heat can be radiated into space when the sun is not. The problem with any heat engine on the moon is providing an efficient heat sink.
aug 5, 2025, 1:11 pm • 2 0 • view
The lunar subsurface is a constant temperature but I’d have to look up how deep you’d have to dig for that.
aug 5, 2025, 2:17 pm • 2 0 • view
So you insulate them. Vacuum is one commodity that is widely available on the moon.
aug 5, 2025, 1:14 pm • 1 0 • view
Batteries are a wonderful invention. How do you cool your Sterling engine when the sun is above the horizon?
aug 5, 2025, 1:09 pm • 1 0 • view
Subsurface lunar temp is constant -21 C at approx 1 meter depth, so our heat sink is... The Moon
aug 5, 2025, 1:39 pm • 1 0 • view
It doesn't just have to be cold, it has to conduct several kilowatts of heat away continuously. The heat conductivity at that depth is less than 0.01 W/m/K (Xiao et al., 2022). Back of the envelope, that says 1 m^2 cooling surface with a temperature differential of 100K will dump 1 W of heat. 1/2
aug 5, 2025, 2:29 pm • 1 0 • view
(That's assuming moving the heat 1 m away from the heat exchanger is sufficient, which is probably true, given the constant temperature at a depth of 1 m.). Stefan-Boltzmann radiation into space might be more efficient. But during the lunar day, scattered sunlight would probably kill you. 2/2
aug 5, 2025, 2:40 pm • 1 0 • view
This is one huge advantage of solar panels; they're not heat engines.
aug 5, 2025, 2:41 pm • 1 0 • view
I want you to spec out the weight on a battery that provides 40kW of power for 14 days of lunar night, and then spec out the mass required to build a few kilometers of moon-crete terracotta style piping to pump chill water through
aug 5, 2025, 9:30 pm • 0 0 • view
And the equipment to bury kilometers of piping 1 m underground, in vacuo? Terracotta? You do know that’s porous? Gonna take a lot of water. Good think there are all those lunar seas (LOL). But if we’re talking 40 kW, that’s (optimistically) 100 kW of heat to be dissipated. Never mind.
aug 5, 2025, 10:00 pm • 0 0 • view
I really mean, ‘never mind’. I’m not going to get into a discussion of the carbon footprint of the tooth fairy. I can’t see a practical way of dissipating the heat from a 1 kW nuclear reactor on the moon, and you’re talking about terracotta pipes. FFS.
aug 5, 2025, 10:18 pm • 0 0 • view
you can potentially have solar at the poles, as the moon's rotational plane is only 1.5 degrees away from the ecliptic
aug 5, 2025, 5:45 am • 1 0 • view
Frankly, you are so blinded by a seething hatred for some politicians that you are just as dumb and ignorant as them www.nasa.gov/centers-and-... ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citation... www.bbc.co.uk/future/artic... ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citation...
aug 5, 2025, 1:47 am • 1 0 • view
Moon Kampf?
aug 5, 2025, 1:43 pm • 3 0 • view
Well played!
aug 5, 2025, 6:13 pm • 1 0 • view
Should be a lot of fun planning for that after a 20% reduction in force and slashed budget.
aug 5, 2025, 11:28 am • 1 0 • view
Didn’t the Nazis have a moon base with a nuclear reactor in one of the Wolfenstein games?
aug 4, 2025, 10:59 pm • 15 0 • view
Don’t know.
aug 4, 2025, 11:03 pm • 0 0 • view
Yup! wolfenstein.fandom.com/wiki/Moon_Ba...
aug 4, 2025, 11:07 pm • 4 0 • view
Nice!
aug 4, 2025, 11:09 pm • 1 0 • view
It’s all just a little on the nose when a camp Indiana Jones-inspired action game turns out to be a blueprint.
aug 4, 2025, 11:10 pm • 1 0 • view
When are we getting Venusian colonies?
aug 5, 2025, 1:28 am • 0 0 • view
Wasnt it the plot of Iron Sky?
aug 4, 2025, 11:34 pm • 12 0 • view
I think both would be quite near the top of the "what's most expensive" list though. 1. Going to moon - super expensive 2. Build a reactor for the moon - really expensive 1+2. Really fricken super expensive Tick.
aug 6, 2025, 6:07 am • 1 0 • view
Did nobody ever watch "Space 1999"?
aug 4, 2025, 11:50 pm • 2 0 • view
This was literally what my husband said when I told him!
aug 5, 2025, 12:05 am • 2 0 • view
One of my favorite shows as a kid.
aug 4, 2025, 11:53 pm • 1 0 • view
UFO was better tho.
aug 4, 2025, 11:54 pm • 1 0 • view
Agreed. A couple years ago I found all the UFO episodes on YouTube, and rewatched the series. Held up better than I thought it would. Gerry Anderson was great.
aug 4, 2025, 11:59 pm • 1 0 • view
With all the cuts they made to NASA, the idea that the administration with the lowest collective iq in history will somehow accelerate what should take a decade to accomplish at previous funding levels is so absurd it makes my brain hurt.
aug 5, 2025, 4:52 am • 0 0 • view
aug 5, 2025, 12:02 am • 0 0 • view
The same people who do not understand how solar or wind power works (that it can be collected & stored for later use) want to put a nuclear reactor on the moon because they dont understand how nuclear power works. Reactors need to be in a certain proximity to the use areas to be cost effective
aug 4, 2025, 10:34 pm • 0 0 • view
BREAKING: Intelligent beings discovered on the Moon when they object to proposed location of NASA nuclear reactor. The aliens say they are called The Nimby. 👽
aug 4, 2025, 10:13 pm • 3 1 • view
Pretty sure Duffy's plan is to have an astronaut bang two uranium rods together under a pot of water.
aug 5, 2025, 1:41 am • 1 0 • view
Nuclear power sources are used in space all the time, but a reactor? Don’t those things require a constant supply of water?
aug 5, 2025, 2:34 pm • 0 0 • view
I was wondering how that Neal Stephenson novel started...
aug 5, 2025, 12:05 am • 0 0 • view
As I have been saying recently, for some people it's a gift to breathe and think at the same time.
aug 5, 2025, 2:56 pm • 0 0 • view
Good people will waste time, energy and money on this project only to have someone at the ‘top’ take credit for the whole deal.
aug 4, 2025, 11:38 pm • 0 0 • view
Isn't that all you need to do for a nuclear reactor? (Erm... well, yes, but...)
aug 4, 2025, 10:43 pm • 1 0 • view
Can’t barely get a propulsion tank to not blow up on the pad and take the whole complex with it. Let’s put a few uranium fuel rods on top like a birthday candle and see how it goes.
aug 5, 2025, 12:00 am • 1 0 • view
Apollo missions when we were also trying to fight poverty? I think it was good. But now? Given attacks on the poor, immigrants, and civil rights, and oh yea, Epstein...You know, Gil Scott Heron might need more airplay. Cuz ain't no whitey like this admins whiteys. www.youtube.com/watch?v=goh2...
aug 5, 2025, 2:52 pm • 0 0 • view
I've seen Space 1999 I know how this ends.
aug 5, 2025, 4:51 am • 2 0 • view
Roadtrip!* *Sort of.
aug 5, 2025, 5:52 am • 1 0 • view
What could possibly go wrong? 🤯😱
aug 4, 2025, 10:10 pm • 1 0 • view
Oh, so we're on target for this in 2037. Ok. Everyone find out where your designated evacuation location is. m.youtube.com/watch?v=odrg...
aug 5, 2025, 4:31 pm • 0 0 • view
I can’t imagine that this wouldn’t violate some treaty…oh wait…they don’t care either way. A power generator on the moon would make housing humans on the moon much more feasible, but it’s grossly un-necessary. Bet Alligator Alcatraz wasn’t enough for them, they gotta build an off world prison.
aug 4, 2025, 11:15 pm • 0 0 • view
It a interesting idea that will go nowhere because they just sacked the very people they needed to do this. Anyway the next admin will be sacking it anyway, because of obvious safety issues.
aug 4, 2025, 10:01 pm • 2 0 • view
This man thinks he’s a Bond villain
aug 5, 2025, 1:55 am • 0 0 • view
*hands Secretary Duffy two chunks of highly-enriched uranium to bang together instead, then runs*
aug 4, 2025, 10:01 pm • 5 0 • view
The blinding incompetence of Republican administrations is always notable.
aug 4, 2025, 10:04 pm • 0 0 • view
Conventional requires water, and there isn't hardly any on the moon. Why not install nuclear heated thermocouple arrays instead. They wouldn't require enriched fuel or s single type.
aug 4, 2025, 10:37 pm • 1 0 • view
Seems to set up something apocalyptic like Seveneves or the Time Machine! @nealstephenson.bsky.social
aug 4, 2025, 10:03 pm • 0 0 • view
It comes from a fundamental misunderstanding of thermodynamics. A source of heat (e.g. nuclear fission) is useless unless you have a sink into which to dump the heat. Useful work comes from allowing heat to flow from a hot place to a cold place. The moon doesn't have enough cold.
aug 4, 2025, 10:22 pm • 1 0 • view
they can't even say Nu-cle-ar
aug 5, 2025, 3:09 am • 1 0 • view
Trump's uncle had a degree in nu-cle-ar. He loves to boast about that fact.
aug 5, 2025, 4:59 am • 0 0 • view
nope, not in noo klee ur. in engineering.
aug 6, 2025, 10:23 pm • 0 0 • view
Yep...
aug 4, 2025, 11:20 pm • 0 0 • view
I’m going to have to re-read a couple of Heinlein short stories—Blowups Happen and The Man Who Sold The Moon. Pretty sure that’s where they got their plan.
aug 5, 2025, 12:55 am • 1 0 • view
Right🤦🏻♀️
aug 5, 2025, 2:15 am • 0 0 • view
I'm sure he will be just as competent in this endeavor as he was with safety at the Newark airport...
aug 5, 2025, 4:24 pm • 0 0 • view
Seems pretty easy to do, really. Rocket with a payload for a one-way trip landing a small reactor. It’s not like it has to do anything when it gets there. Nobody is going to plug into it.
aug 4, 2025, 11:31 pm • 1 0 • view
Cool, so those Epstein files?
aug 5, 2025, 2:07 am • 0 0 • view
They don’t even take care of the ones on earth. Pretty sure if we blew up the moon we’d be screwed but what do I know?
aug 4, 2025, 10:18 pm • 1 0 • view
I genuinely thought this was an Onion piece when I first heard it.
aug 5, 2025, 12:30 pm • 0 0 • view
I recommend everyone read “Moonseed” by Stephen Baxter.
aug 5, 2025, 1:08 am • 0 0 • view
If the Trump administration can put a reactor on the moon, why can't they put the whole administration on the moon? Goals, people...
aug 4, 2025, 11:27 pm • 2 0 • view
aug 4, 2025, 10:08 pm • 9 0 • view
Not loving the idea a rocket experiencing rapid unexpected disassembly with a uranium payload onboard.
aug 4, 2025, 11:04 pm • 3 0 • view
Yeah, and ship all the fissionable material via a SpaceX Starship, which promptly explodes above the stratosphere, distributing a fine layer of radioactive dust across half the earth.
aug 4, 2025, 10:09 pm • 2 0 • view
Let me guess..a very long extension cord to the moon to utilize the power, and it will cut "1500% of electricity costs!!"
aug 4, 2025, 10:32 pm • 3 0 • view
Wait until they find out it's made of cheese.
aug 4, 2025, 11:30 pm • 1 0 • view
On the plus side, when the reactor melts down, we get fondue? 😂
aug 5, 2025, 12:18 am • 3 0 • view
BONUS!!
aug 5, 2025, 12:42 am • 2 0 • view
Also a bit of a contradiction when their proposed budget was basically gutting NASA.
aug 4, 2025, 10:24 pm • 1 0 • view
I work in this industry. That goal makes no sense, but interesting they’re calling for exactly the size reactor being developed by a group that is cozy with the admin and seems to influence policy right now. They have many big investors. Smells like a boondoggle to pocket money and build nothing imo
aug 4, 2025, 10:04 pm • 18 0 • view
I was wondering how they planned to cool the thing.
aug 5, 2025, 5:30 am • 1 0 • view
That’s the kind of thing I get paid to think about. For a reactor that small, I imagine it’d use heat pipes to move heat to a large radiator. Like a fanless cpu cooler on a computer. The lack of air would make it less efficient, but it could work. Idk how the parts get to the moon by 2030 though 😂
aug 5, 2025, 6:24 am • 1 0 • view
Or maybe the heat pipes could just go through bore holes into the surface and conduct heat away. Idk enough about the moon to know what would be best. I just know that it would be easier said than done 😂
aug 5, 2025, 6:28 am • 1 0 • view
My big question is why (other than yay look what fascism can accomplish) there's nothing to fucking power there.
aug 4, 2025, 11:32 pm • 1 0 • view
Of course, the question is moot as they'll never be able to pull it off.
aug 4, 2025, 11:32 pm • 1 0 • view
There’s really scary stuff you can do with a nuclear powered installation on the moon. A 40 kW reactor could not accomplish much but it would be a foothold to expand into some nightmares for our children. Assuming it’s militarized, but this is America so obviously it will involve the military.
aug 4, 2025, 11:41 pm • 1 0 • view
Well, that's just both great and a nightmare I'd rather not contemplate. There's more than enough going on already to rob me of sleep forever. I think I'll just take comfort in the fact that they're all incompetent goons who could never actually pull it off.
aug 4, 2025, 11:46 pm • 1 0 • view
You've heard of pork barrel politics, now get ready for *radioactive* pork barrel action!
aug 4, 2025, 10:08 pm • 10 0 • view
Radioactive Pork Barrel Action is the name of my new Punk Rock band.
aug 4, 2025, 11:33 pm • 5 0 • view
Trying to start the Space: 1999 journey
aug 5, 2025, 6:07 am • 0 0 • view