Space Politics

The publicity of the Artemis II mission revealed the public’s interest in space and lunar exploration, reflecting NASA’s ambitions in a rising competitive field. ●The Artemis program sees significant collaboration with the private sector, including in manufacturing and developing spaceship components, lunar habitats, resource exploration and extraction, energy infrastructures, etc.

Nuclear power is deemed the most cost-effective, efficient, and safe energy source to power lunar operations, including powering a permanent moonbase, resource extraction, and mining initiatives. The major spacefaring powers, China, Russia, the US, and Canada have all begun developing mini nuclear reactors to be used on the Moon and power the lunar bases they plan to build. Small modular reactors, an umbrella term for mini nuclear reactors, are an emerging technology in ful