Humanity has long dreamed of establishing a robust and continuous presence on another world, such as the Moon or Mars. One of the keys to such a successful colony would be the continuous generation of power, with nuclear power plants remaining a prime, and arguably our best, option. But that may not be the true motive behind NASA administrator Sean Duffy’s recent announcement. (Credit: NASA; edited by E. Siegel)
There are real concerns with long-term power generation on the Moon; nuclear could be the answer. But for NASA, will the cost be too high?
For many years, NASA’s science mission directorate — which leads humanity in studying the Earth, the Sun, other planets and world and the greater Universe from space — has focused on maintaining a balanced portfolio. This plan ensures that:
flagship missions, like Hubble and JWST or the most recent Mars rovers,
medium-sized missions, like the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, SPHEREx, TESS, or the Europa Clipper,
would all continue to take place. A balanced portfolio prevents any one mission, no matter how important, from going over budget and diminishing needed funds to support the other important vital endeavors.
The great danger to a balanced portfolio, which ensures the maximum amount of across-the-board success for science and society, is that one endeavor without an additional source of…
