Sean Duffy wants to put a nuclear reactor on the moon. People on Earth just want their bus to come on time.
Nearly 23,000 people have signed a petition urging the federal Department of Transportation Secretary and interim NASA administrator to "fund transit, not fantasy" and focus on the challenge of decarbonizing America's transportation system, rather than building a lunar power plant that could someday power a long-term base on the moon.
That project, which the petition from the National Campaign for Justice dubbed "a space vanity project that diverts funding and focus from the urgent work of fighting climate change," has become a focus for Duffy since Trump named him acting NASA administrator in July, giving him the unprecedented workload of managing two major federal agencies.
Duffy argues that fast-tracking the construction of the reactor by 2030 is essential to winning the next "space race" against China and Russia, both of which have launched plans for a moon nuke that would allow human beings to establish colonies and conduct research in darkness. That would also potentially make it possible for astronauts to conduct more ambitious space explorations, including crewed missions to Mars.
But to advocates, it's ludicrous to even think about exploring other planets when there are so many problems ravaging Earth, including how to generate clean energy and greening the transportation sector, which is America's largest contributor to climate change.
"To spend huge amounts of money on this space program and not to be willing to move people around on Earth — there is an absurdity in the juxtaposition there," said LeeAnn Hall of the Alliance for a Just Society. "[We need to] stay active on how the administration is prioritizing what they're willing to invest in, and to put pressure [on them] to shift."
Hall has no illusions that a climate argument will bring Duffy's ambitions back down to Earth, considering the former Fox News host's history of climate change denial and removal of climate science from NASA's core mission. Still, she says it's important for advocates to call out absurdities when they see them, if only to remind other Americans how abnormal it is for a sitting transportation secretary to divide his responsibilities between American commuters and American astronauts.
"I do not believe that [the petition] will change the administration's behavior, but it educates the public about the choices that are being made," she added. "It keeps pressure on the administration around what the public feels is the right thing to do."
Hall argues there's a fiscal argument for deprioritizing space travel, too. The estimated $3-billion cost of a lunar reactor won't directly subtract from public transportation funding, any federal spending for frivolous projects has downstream consequences for local communities, just like federal cuts to local priorities.
"The administration right now is cutting Medicaid and education," she added. "That's not a direct cut to transportation — but when you get to the state level and the states have to make hard choices, it puts pressure on the overall budget [which can lead to cuts to transportation downstream]. You can't look at spending as a siloed activity. The budget reflects the public priorities of the country, and the money isn't unlimited."
Even some astrophysicists argue that Duffy's nuclear quest is questionable. In a recent article for the Big Think, science writer and astrophysicist Ethan Siegel pointed out that Trump's recent budget slashed funding for scientific research overall and reduced the headcount at NASA itself by 20 percent — and that the money for a lunar reactor would need to be siphoned from already-thin budgets.
"Diverting NASA’s valuable resources away from the science that drives our society forward, with nothing to show for it that will benefit humans back here on Earth, is precisely what NASA’s new lunar nuclear reactor plans will lead to: a costly smokescreen that sucks up vital resources, leading to the ultimate elimination of what actually made America great," Siegel wrote.
As DOT endures deep staffing cuts of its own, Hall says that it's more important than ever that transportation officials like Duffy stay in their lane and stick to tackling America's daunting mobility challenges, like traffic violence, inequitable access to jobs and services, and whether he believes its real or not, climate change. Because after a century of autocentric planning, even those will be something of a moonshot — and an opportunity to make a far more important impact on the lives of U.S. residents than any space quest.
"We want to see secretary of Transportation relating to the everyday needs of the majority of people in this country who want livable communities," Hall added. "That means improving public transit. That means fixing the roads and bridges that we have. That means making those roads and bridges safe. That means creating opportunities for people to ride bicycles or use wheelchairs to be that our communities are fully accessible to everybody."
