Imagine using your home base on the moon to watch your favorite show or browse through your mobile while doing it. That sci-fi vision will become more real within the next ten years; the question is, does an American, Chinese, or Russian arrive there first?
Finding waters and generating power are two major issues that scientists may address in order for people to settle and live on the moon. Russia and the United States are currently engaged in a high-stakes battle to overthrow China by building solar nuclear reactor.
Both superpowers are now making progress with their plans to put nuclear energy plants on the surface of the moon. NASA in America intends to launch its Fission Surface Power ( FSP) system by the early 2030s, while China and Russia intend to construct a lunar reactor between 2033 and 2035.
However, this is more than just a storage competition for power. Who will determine the rules of the new frontier and receive the rewards is in a battle. A senior Chinese space official spoke for the first time on April 23 about the country’s plans to build a celestial nuclear base.
According to Wu Weiren, the director of China’s lunar exploration program, he anticipates that Russia and China will jointly construct a reactor to power the International Lunar Research Station ( ILRS ), citing Russian space technology’s leadership globally.
Power supply is an important issue for the International Lunar Research Station ( ILRS ). When it comes to nuclear power plants, Russia has a clear benefit, especially when it launches them into storage. It is back of the US and leads the world, Wu said.
In past conversations, he claimed that China would take two Chang’e 7 and Chang’e 8 unmanned spacecraft to the sun, both, in 2026 and 2028. Around 2030, Chinese pilots did set foot on the moon.
He claimed Chang’e 7 would seek for ice at the South Pole of the moon and Chang’e 8 may install communications and energy systems there. He claimed that to make bricks, solar minerals can be melted at temperatures of 1, 400, 1, and 500 degrees Celsius. He claimed that this method could be used to build homes for the ILRS task.
The 2028 project’s Chief Engineer Pei Zhaoyu demonstrated that the solar facility’s power supply may also depend on large-scale solar arrays, pipelines and cables for heating and electricity built on the planet’s surface, as demonstrated in a demonstration in Shanghai cited by Reuters.
Russia’s State Corporation for Space Activities , ( Roscosmos ), the main successor to the Soviet space program, announced on March 5 last year that Russia and China planned to install a nuclear reactor on the moon in 2033-2035.  ,
He claimed that machines would be used to construct the reactor and that almost all technical advancements were in place. He claimed that solar energy would not be sufficient to support solar towns. Borisov argued that Russia lacked any plans to launch nuclear weapons into place.
According to an educational paper, the ILRS may cover an area with a diameter of up to six meters. The main action area will include an area of three km in the center, while the circle with a diameter of one mile may serve as the center.
in the direct NASA strategy
NASA has a detailed blueprint while China and Russia have a goal for a celestial nuclear power.
To construct the FSP reactors, NASA awarded three US$ 5 million contracts in 2022 to teams led by Lockheed Martin, Westinghouse, and IX ( a joint venture of Intuitive Machines and X-Energy ). At Idaho National Laboratory, they tested their initial patterns.
The reactor must still be able to operate at a weight under six metric tons and have 40 kilowatts (kw ) of electrical power, making enough power for demonstrations and making additional power available for running lunar habitats, rovers, backup grids, or scientific experiments. 40 watt you, on regular, provide electrical energy for 33 homes in the US.
This year, NASA will request the industry’s assistance in designing the ultimate furnace. NASA did give the furnace to the sky for a one-year demo in the first 2030s, followed by nine years of operation. The design of the reactor will then be modified, sending one to Mars.
Researchers from the China Institute of Atomic Energy ( CIEA ) and Zhao Shouzhi published a paper in January of this year with the title” Study on nuclear design of long-life lunar surface nuclear reactor power supply based on annular fuel.”
They suggested minor adjustments that could lower the nuclear fuel (uranium-235 ) load on the American FSP reactor by 75 % to 18.46 kilograms.
In China’s Journal of Deep Space Exploration, Zhao and another CIAE scholar, Hu Gu, co-published a report titled” Overview of place nuclear reactor energy systems.”  ,
They claimed that” place nuclear reactor energy has clear and broad military and civilian purposes.” One of the most innovative technology is this one.
They acknowledged that the US and the Soviet Union had spent years creating space-use nuclear reactor and having developed a number of key systems. They claimed that China should be the world’s first to develop area nuclear reactors.  ,
Amendment dog
The technological battle on the sun is an expansion of the global conflict.
The Artemis Accords, an global initiative to promote healthy and green space exploration, were released by NASA in October 2020. The agreements have been signed by fifty-four states, including developed and emerging ones.
China and Russia signed a Memorandum of Understanding to create the ILRS in March 2021. By 2035, the trio intended to construct the fundamental concept of a lunar base, with an extension built in the 2040s.
17 nations and more than 50 foreign research organizations, primarily Russian and Chinese allies in the Global South, have so far joined the ILRS. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the European Space Agency ( ESA ) ruled out joining the ILRS.  ,
Wu told foreign press on April 23 that the ILRS ‘ development trend is “very good,” but ours is much smaller in terms of nations because the US is usually interfering with our assistance, including Europe, in comparison.
Before this, Beijing had repeatedly criticized the US for passing the Amendment dog in 2011, which prohibited NASA from partnering with Chinese institutions.
China has pushed its solar exploration strategy and gotten Russian support for its storage technologies over the past ten years. Russia reportedly has resisted giving China access to its nuclear technology and jet turbines.
When Russia’s Luna-25 aircraft crashed on the moon’s area in August 2023, it experienced a major setback in the space race.
On April 23, Bian Zhigang, deputy director of the China National Space Administration ( CNSA ), stated that lunar exploration activities are changing from short-term missions to long-term construction, from single-craft exploration to multi-craft collaboration, and from national missions to international cooperation.
According to Bian, the methods of inquiry and cooperation are going through important changes. He added that the ILRS may provide new opportunities and systems for fosterring equitable participation and shared development in addition to technological advancement.
Read: China and SpaceX have various plans for Mars.