Moon race II: Squash the risk of a lunar meltdown

The US plans a nuclear reactor on the moon. This may enable another leap for humankind but the lunar imprint of this project must not end up as a space-age memorial to human folly

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"Didn't I promise you the moon?" That's what a harried-looking Uncle Sam is seen telling protestors in a cartoon published in a US newspaper on 20 May 1969, two months before Apollo 11 landed on the moon. In Frankie Morse's drawing, Uncle Sam stands under our only natural satellite, emblazoned with "US Space Feats" on its dark side. Placards on planet Earth yelled 'end the war,' with street crowds drawing attention to disarmament, pollution, human needs, inflation, law-and-order, urban crises and so on.

Things seem to have come full circle. Fifty-six years on, as the US plans to set up a nuclear reactor on the moon by 2030, the cartoon's message has a familiar ring. With some variations and updates, that litany of complaints has held constant, just as charges of skewed priorities remain resonant. But this century's race for the moon has a new driver: As the world heats up and worsens our lives, what if we need other habitable places? No wonder the lunar-reactor plan has made the world sit up.