Signed by the current Acting Administrator Sean Duffy, NASA Headquarters released a plan that calls for creating a new position, the Fission Surface Power Program Executive, who would oversee this effort, working to award contracts within the next eight months to up to two industry providers to push forward this effort.

The United States is rushing to put nuclear power reactors on the moon and Mars, and hopes to launch the first system by the end of the decade.

Placing an atomic energy source on the lunar surface is “not science fiction,” experts say, but does pose technical challenges.