According to Breitbart (yes, I occasionally peruse Breitbart to see what propaganda spin they are putting on current events and because they occasionally pick up on a story others do not), Russia and China are considering a joint moon research base powered by a nuclear reactor. NASA is also considering a research base powered by nuclear power. This makes sense to me in a technological sense. What is concerning is the end of an era of international cooperation symbolized by the International Space Station, which Russia has said it is backing out of this year. An international moon base would just make a lot of sense rather than competing national bases.

Now, for some fun science fiction references. In Kim Stanley Robinson’s 1993 novel Red Mars, which I enjoyed unlike his recent book Ministry for the Future which I couldn’t finish, the first thing humanity does when it gets to Mars is build a nuclear reactor.

In the 1968 Godzilla entry Destroy All Monsters, it is assumed that by the year 1999 humanity will have settled their differences and established an international moon base led by a world government. This is important because they will need to cooperate to deal with threats such as aliens and monsters.

And finally, let’s just watch the Russian space station Mir blow up in the 1998 movie Armageddon. In 1997, there really was an explosion and fire aboard the actual Mir, which the cosmonauts present were able to put out. In 2001, most of the station was intentionally burned up in Earth’s atmosphere, and the rest allowed to crash into the Pacific Ocean. The Mir was originally a Soviet project. NASA had plans to put up its own competing space station, but after the fall of the USSR the two countries agreed to cooperate on the International Space Station instead. Seems long ago now.