NASA’s acting administrator Sean Duffy has unveiled a bold plan that reshapes the agency’s priorities. Instead of focusing on Earth’s climate, he says the United States must turn its attention to space exploration, beginning with a nuclear reactor on the Moon that will serve as a springboard to Mars.
Duffy has made it clear that NASA’s mission is space exploration, not climate monitoring. Speaking in a Fox Business interview, he argued that NASA has been distracted by a “smorgasbord of priorities.” He insisted the agency should redirect its efforts toward missions to the Moon, Mars, and low Earth orbit. “All of the science that we do is going to be directed towards exploration, which is the mission of NASA,” he said. His comments echo the Trump administration’s push to strengthen human spaceflight programs while cutting Earth science budgets.
The Role of the Nuclear Reactor on the Moon
Central to Duffy’s vision is building a 100-kilowatt nuclear reactor on the lunar surface by 2030. The idea is simple but powerful: launching spacecraft from the Moon, where gravity is weaker, is far easier and cheaper than from Earth. A nuclear power source would provide steady energy for lunar bases, overcoming the limitations of solar panels during the two-week lunar night. “We’re 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 told reporters.
China has already made progress in lunar exploration and has announced its own ambitions to land astronauts on the Moon by 2030. NASA officials worry that if China establishes a lunar base first, it could declare so-called “keep-out zones,” restricting U.S. access to key lunar sites rich in ice and sunlight. By fast-tracking its reactor project, NASA hopes to ensure that America, not China, leads in setting up long-term lunar infrastructure that can support missions deeper into space.
The Fate of Climate Science
NASA has long been the world’s leader in climate and weather research. Its satellites track sea level rise, monitor carbon dioxide, and map changes in Earth’s atmosphere. But Duffy says this work can be taken over by other agencies like NOAA, freeing NASA to focus on exploration. This shift comes as the administration has proposed cutting NASA’s Earth science funding nearly in half, raising fears among researchers that decades of continuous data could be disrupted.
Supporters argue that exploration has always been NASA’s true mission. They point to the Apollo program and the current Artemis missions as sources of national pride and inspiration. Building a lunar base and reaching Mars, they say, will not only secure America’s place in the new space race but also spark new technologies, jobs, and global leadership. To them, the nuclear reactor is a necessary step to make that vision possible.
Skeptics warn that abandoning climate science at NASA could create dangerous gaps in understanding and responding to global warming. They worry that cutting Earth observation programs could disrupt weather forecasts, disaster planning, and long-term climate records that the world depends on. Others question whether nuclear technology can be safely deployed on the Moon, and whether the Outer Space Treaty allows countries to “claim” parts of the lunar surface, as Duffy hinted.
The race to build a nuclear reactor on the Moon and use it as a launch point to Mars captures both the promise and the tension of America’s space program. For Duffy and his supporters, the Moon is the logical next step to Mars and beyond. For critics, the move signals a dangerous retreat from the urgent challenges facing Earth. What is clear is that space exploration has once again become a central arena of competition — with China, and with the limits of human ambition itself.
