The U.S. plans to send astronauts to circle the moon next year in the "next phase" of space exploration that ultimately will lead to lunar colonization and travel to Mars, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Tuesday.
During a press conference about the unleashing of American drone dominance, Duffy, who also serves as interim NASA administrator, was asked about the challenges of building a lunar nuclear reactor, which had been reported.
"This is not a new concept. This has been discussed under [President Donald] Trump I, under [former President Joe] Biden, but we are in the race, we are in a race to the moon, in a race with China to the moon; and to have a base on the moon, we need energy," Duffy said. "And some of the key locations on the moon, we're going to get solar power."
"Energy's important. And if we're going to be able to sustain life on the moon and to then go to Mars, this technology is critically important."
Duffy said reaching the moon before China also is "critically important."
"There's a certain part of the moon that everyone knows is the best," he said. "We have ice there, we have sunlight there. We want to get there first and claim that for America."
Duffy indicated China is ahead in the race at the moment.
"I always note that we're behind, right?" Duffy said. "If we're going to engage in the race to the moon and the race to Mars, we have to get our act together. We have to marshal all of our resources, all of our focus on going to the moon, which is what we're going to do."
After saying vision technologies are vital, Duffy said the government has spent "hundreds of millions of dollars studying [whether we can] do it."
"We are now going to move beyond studying, and we've given direction to go; let's start to deploy our technology to move to actually make this a reality," he said.
Politico reported Monday that NASA plans to solicit industry proposals for a 100 kilowatt nuclear reactor to launch by 2030.
"It's a 100-kilowatt output. That's the same amount of energy a 2,000-square-foot home uses every 3½ days," he said Tuesday.
NASA's Mars exploration program is called Artemis.
"A lot of people don't know even what Artemis is?" Duffy said. "Everybody knew what Apollo was. The whole world knew what Apollo was. We were going to the moon. Artemis is we're going back."
Duffy said he has met the four astronauts who will travel to the moon in Artemis II early in 2026. (Artemis I was an unmanned test flight in 2022.)
"We're going to go up, around the moon and come back. Artemis III, we are going to go back to the moon, we're going to land … the longest time we've spent in the past was three days … we're going to stay for six days," he said.
"And then after that, we'll be able to start shipping our assets to the moon unmanned, and we'll have those assets there as our astronauts arrive, and we're able to build a base."
NASA also aims to replace the International Space Station, Politico reported.
Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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