Franklin Foer, staff writer at The Atlantic , talks about his Atlantic feature story on the implications of NASA’s reliance on Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
Acting NASA Chief Tells Agency to Build a Nuclear Reactor on the Moon, Before China Does It First
By 2030. Good thing HLS is almost nearly ready!
“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, which was sent out on Thursday, July 31.
Right, right… Now it somebody could explain to me what a Lunar economy is supposed to be based on in the foreseeable future? You’d need something that is really, really valuable and can’t be found or made on Earth (or would be substantially cheaper to make on the Moon) to have a viable business model.
Deuterium is a possibility, but won’t be that valuable until nuclear fusion works. Oh wait, I forgot - that’s scheduled for 2030 as well.
Tourism doesn’t seem a viable option yet as well. I mean, anybody who has the money for a cost-covering ticket has the money to buy their own rocket.
A permanent base for research? Yes, please. Ideally as an international effort.
A military outpost? Nope, nope, nope. What is this, back to the 1950ies? Eisenhower knew what he was doing when he put space research into the hands of a civilian agency.
Good thing Trump hasn’t made any moves to cut back the personnel and budget of the agency. Oh wait..
Even under the best conditions i would guess that building a reactor on the moon would take like 50 years. There’s also the insanely abrasive moon dust, (micro)meteorites, and who knows what else to contend with.
I think this is great. Finally a reactor to feed with all the moonranium that’s just laying around up there. And with Trumpy’s tariffs on EU cheese, the moon will provide enough cheese to overflow our National Strategic Reserves!
Win win, IMHO!
This whole thing is so stupid and I hope that no shuttles get moved but it would be kinda funny if they ended up trying to take the one from Florida instead of D.C. because Discovery is the legal property of the Smithsonian. It would be amusing to see the infighting between the red-state Senators, at least.
Logistically, I think it would be a lot less complex to steal the Florida one. The Kennedy Space Center and Space Center Houston both have easy access to ports where a Shuttle could be floated on a barge rather than relying on getting a special 747 reassembled and flying again.
Maybe they could send them the Soviet version…
One of the most ridiculous parts about this whole thing is that Space Center Houston already has a Shuttle. Sure, it’s a replica, but it’s a high-quality, detailed one and I was just reading a comment from a docent there who said that in many ways it’s better than the real thing because they can let visitors into the cabin and flight deck. She said that most visitors don’t even realize that it’s not one of the real shuttles.
I’ve toured the replica shuttle and honestly its great, highly recommended.