---
title: "DARPA’s Working on a Nuclear-Powered Rocket for Easy Moon Access"
description: "The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is developing a nuclear-powered rocket to move cargo around Earth's orbit. For moon access."
date: "2020-02-25"
modified: "2020-02-25"
authors:
  - name: "Jon Christian"
    job_title: "Executive Editor"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jonc"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/darpa-working-nuclear-powered-rocket-moon-access"
categories:
  - "Astronomy"
  - "DARPA"
  - "Military"
  - "Moon"
  - "Science & Energy"
  - "Space"
tags:
  - "DARPA"
  - "moon"
  - "rockets"
  - "the digest"
---

# DARPA’s Working on a Nuclear-Powered Rocket for Easy Moon Access

![The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is developing a nuclear-powered rocket to move cargo around Earth's orbit.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/darpa-working-nuclear-powered-rocket-moon-access.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: NASA\</em\>*

## Nuclear Rocket

The Pentagon wants a way to move cargo around the expansive space between the Earth and the Moon, and it's directed DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) to develop a [nuclear-powered rocket](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/nasa-develop-nuclear-rockets>) for that precise purpose.

"An agile nuclear thermal propulsion vehicle enables the \[Defense Department\] to maintain space domain awareness of the burgeoning activity within this vast volume," DARPA spokesperson Jared Adams [told *The Daily Beast*](<https://www.thedailybeast.com/pentagon-prepping-nuclear-moon-rocket-to-beat-china-into-cislunar-space>).

## Enriched Uranium

The program, called the "Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations" (DRACO), would be powered by low-enriched uranium.

The basic idea, according to the *Beast*, is that a [small nuclear reactor](<https://futurism.com/physicists-horrified-militarys-portable-nuclear-reactor>) would heat up a propellant, and shoot it out at incredible speed, generating thrust in the process.

## Duke Nukem

Make no mistake: This is a low-thrust system that could never get a space vehicle off the Earth and into orbit.

Instead, the idea is that the new type of thruster could be used to effectively tow cargo around once it's already in space, a cool concept that could help [spark an orbital economy](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/nasa-robust-economy-space-habitats>) — or be used to fill up outer Earth orbit with space weapons and spy satellites.

**READ MORE:** [Pentagon Preps Nuclear Moon Rocket](<https://www.thedailybeast.com/pentagon-prepping-nuclear-moon-rocket-to-beat-china-into-cislunar-space>) \[*The Daily Beast*\]

**More on nuclear rockets:** [NASA’s “Cheap” Alternative for Reaching Mars? Atomic Rockets.](<https://futurism.com/nasas-cheap-alternative-reaching-mars-atomic-rockets>)

## Author
I'm responsible for editing, assigning, and scouting at Futurism, as well as occasionally writing for the site. That work involves keeping an eye on a wide range of narratives and issues, but over the past few years I've become increasingly interested in how AI is shaping the future of media, the web, and information itself. My day-to-day often involves collaborating on reporting and commentary projects bylined by my colleagues, but I try to find time to do my own reporting as well; stories I've broken for Futurism have been cited by publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Wired, Ars Technica, New York Magazine, the Columbia Journalism Review, Bloomberg, and more. I grew up in Southern Vermont and attended Vanderbilt University. Prior to Futurism, I contributed to outlets including the Boston Globe, Vice, Wired, Slate, the Atlantic, the Outline, Ars Technica and more, and did stints in farming and food service. I currently live in Brooklyn, New York, and in my free time I enjoy pinball, word games, cycling, running, and music production.

### Author social links  
[Bluesky](<https://bsky.app/profile/jonchristian.net>)