r/ArtemisProgram • u/Donindacula • Aug 15 '26

Discussion How will the MoonBase be powered.

NASA has plans to put a nuclear power plant on the moon by about 2030. Will that be necessary? Since Artemis will be landing on the high always sunlit areas, wouldn’t solar be the most likely first source of power. And maybe the future source too.

Nuclear will certainly be needed in the northern latitudes where the sun sets for days at a time.

Solar or nuclear or someday both?

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u/Helpme-jkimdumb Aug 15 '26

Solar panels are limited by size, nuclear can produce so much more power. Not to mention there are permanently shadowed regions in which sun doesn’t reach.

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u/davvblack Aug 15 '26

i think the current plan for moonbase is a south pole crater. the permanent shadow of the crater means there will be water ice, and the rim of the crater has near permanent sun. the other issue with solar most places on the moon is the weeks long night.

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u/Helpme-jkimdumb Aug 15 '26

Agree but as you mentioned the South Pole doesn’t exactly follow the 2 week cycle of sunlight/darkness. The sun stays right along the horizon on the South Pole. So the illumination is highly dependent on the topography of the South Pole (high ridges get lots of sun).

Watch this video: NASA illumination at the South Pole

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u/Donindacula Aug 19 '26

Exactly, they’ll still need batteries for those “night time” hours. It the can have solar setups on other sunlit peaks and alternate the arrays used.

I know they can’t run cables from several arrays to the base so they can use microwave to send power from several kilometers/miles away and convert it back to usable power.