NASA and DOE commit to a lunar surface reactor by 2030

NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy have signed a memorandum of understanding to develop a fission surface power system for the Moon, meaning a nuclear reactor that splits atoms to make electricity, with a lunar surface reactor targeted for 2030. NASA has not named a builder.

A memorandum that formalizes the 2030 goal

The agreement was announced on Jan. 13, 2026, and NASA’s release was updated on Feb. 2 to include the signed text. It covers a fission surface power system for the Moon under the Artemis campaign and for later Mars missions. The Department of Energy published a matching announcement the same day.

Both agencies describe a reactor that would run for years without refueling and supply power regardless of sunlight or temperature. That is the core argument for nuclear power on the surface: it does not depend on solar arrays and batteries. The agencies say the work builds on more than 50 years of collaboration.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said in the release: “Achieving this future requires harnessing nuclear power.” Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the agreement “continues that legacy.”

What NASA asked industry to build

The program is older than the memorandum. In 2022 NASA awarded three fission surface power concept contracts. In August 2025 NASA sought industry feedback, with responses to its request for information, a formal call for industry input, due Aug. 21. A draft Announcement for Partnership Proposals followed on Aug. 29, and an industry day was held at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland on Sept. 9.

A second draft, issued Dec. 5, 2025, added a statement that NASA intends to offer launch and landing services through the Human Landing System Program. NASA’s description of the system calls for at least 100 kilowatts of electrical power using a closed Brayton cycle power conversion system, which turns the reactor’s heat into electricity with a gas circulating in a sealed loop, with a goal of a reactor on the Moon by the first quarter of fiscal year 2030.

NASA has not issued a final solicitation, a winner or a contract value, and the Department of Energy’s announcement does not name a builder either.

A White House directive and a smaller nuclear mission

On April 14, 2026, the White House science and technology policy office released a new directive on nuclear power for American space activities. According to SpacePolicyOnline’s summary, it gives NASA 30 days to start a program for a mid-power space reactor, with a lunar fission surface variant ready for launch by 2030, and it leaves open a variant for a nuclear electric propulsion demonstration, in which reactor power would run electric thrusters. The same summary says the Department of Defense should pursue its own mid-power in-space reactor by 2031, pending funding.

Separately, NASA announced Space Reactor-1 Freedom on March 24, 2026. As World Nuclear News reports, it would be a nuclear-powered spacecraft bound for Mars before the end of 2028, carrying a NASA-developed 20-kilowatt reactor fueled with high-assay low-enriched uranium, a nuclear fuel enriched beyond the level used in most power reactors. That reactor is a spacecraft power source, not the lunar surface system.

The 2030 target against the landing schedule

A surface reactor is useful only if hardware and crews can reach the surface, and the Artemis plan has changed since the first version of this story. Artemis II launched on April 1, 2026, with astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen. NASA now describes Artemis III as a crewed demonstration in low Earth orbit in 2027, testing one or both commercial landers, to prepare for landings beginning with Artemis IV.

Much is still unsettled. NASA’s draft asked for 100 kilowatts and the launch goal is fiscal year 2030, but the Artemis landing system that would carry the reactor has not yet flown. The January memorandum itself, as the agencies describe it, sets a goal and a division of labor rather than a power rating, a price or a test date.

Uncertain points include who will build the reactor, how the fuel will be launched and handled, and whether the 100-kilowatt figure from the 2025 draft survives into the final requirements. By comparison, the 20-kilowatt SR-1 reactor is the smaller, in-house design that NASA says it will share with industry.

Where it sits among lunar surface plans

Power is one piece of surface infrastructure. Europe’s PROSPECT drill, covered in our report on its deployment test, is aimed at the south pole, where commercial landers are also headed, as in our earlier look at NASA’s push to the south pole. Any of those payloads would need dependable electrical power during the lunar night, which is the gap a fission system is meant to fill.

The next milestones to watch are a final NASA solicitation and any selection of builders, along with the schedule for Artemis III in 2027.