Public-private partnerships are key to innovation. Government agencies bring the R&D scale and regulatory stability, while the private sector offers agile capital, competitive speed and “fail-fast” execution. These collaborative efforts can take initiatives farther with higher impacts (think GPS, the Human Genome Project, and mRNA vaccines). The rise of a new lunar economy is another prime example. This month, humanity witnessed the Artemis II mission blast off — ferrying astronauts toward the moon and back for the first time in half a century. As NASA seeks a dual strategy to establish a permanent moon base and launch interplanetary spacecraft featuring nuclear propulsion, they’re bringing big tech into the picture. Science News’s Nikk Ogasa and Lisa Grossman map out the plans.

☢️ Hot cores and high stakes

The upshot: NASA has announced two critical initiatives to solve the logistics of deep space. First, the Fission Surface Power project aims to demonstrate a small nuclear reactor to provide continuous energy for a lunar base, an important need considering lunar nights last for two Earth weeks. Second, for their upcoming Mars missions, they’re developing a nuclear reactor that generates electricity for the spacecraft’s thrusters to maximize speed, cost and efficiency. To meet their timelines, they’re leaning on a select group of commercial players who already have experience launching and landing payloads.