The term “moon shot” was launched in the 1940s, according to research by the Oxford English Dictionary. “The real result of all the work which would have to go into the moon shot,” Rotarian magazine wrote in 1949, “would be the knowledge of how to build and operate rockets of such size.”
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Eventually, the space program threw off scores of scientific advances, some of which are more useful here on Earth than in the cosmos. “Water filtration systems, adjustable smoke detectors, and anti-icing technology all trace their lineage to space research,” NASA writes. High technology spawned by the space exploration program now powers CAT scanners, LEDs, and PCs.
Earlier this year, Americans looked to the sky once again with awe. Four Artemis II astronauts engaged in a 10-day mission that ventured deeper into space than any human ever has. It was the first trip to the moon since 1972, and it unlocked the door to do much more.
NASA plans to visit the lunar surface three more times this year to begin constructing a base there. “We intend to take an iterative approach, sending a demand signal to industry for a lot of landers and rovers and tech demonstrations, and all the scientific payloads these missions can accommodate,” NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said.
That is exactly the right approach: let the market understand that there is a need, and entrepreneurs will step up and step in to fill that need. Here on Earth, something similar is underway with fusion technology. Investments in fusion technology today could unlock the next big clean energy revolution in the way that natural gas innovation did with the shale revolution.
To prime the pump, the Energy Department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA-E) has promised to invest $135 million over the next 18 months to help boost the deployment of fusion energy technologies. It is an attempt to keep the U.S. on the cutting edge, and especially ahead of China.
It is a good start that can get the fusion project growing by getting many sectors involved. “I personally take our combination of capital, venture capital and investments from the private sector, along with government spending,” ARPA-E director Conner Prochaska, said, “versus that pure government spend in China any day of the week.”
>>>READ: Five of the World’s Leading Fusion Energy Technologies
Fusion is the cleanest form of energy. The process works the same way that our sun and other stars do. It combines two light atomic nuclei (such as hydrogen) into a single, heavier nucleus (such as helium). Turning the two into one reduces mass and thus releases a massive amount of energy. Fusion, if it can work at utility scale, could deliver as a limitless, clean, and carbon-free energy source that could work almost anywhere.
Scientists at MIT developed fusion technology and spun their idea off into a company called Commonwealth Fusion Systems. CFS is now at work building what would be the world’s first grid-scale fusion power plant. The trick will be getting the process to work at a large enough scale. But that is an effort worth making. The plant, in Chesterfield County, Virginia, could be able to generate some 400 megawatts of clean, zero-carbon power by the early 2030s.
That would be enough to power 150,000 homes, and it could also provide green electricity to power Virginia’s famous data centers, thus leaving more electricity on the grid for domestic users. Either way, if the technology works at scale, and Commonwealth thinks it can, it could unlock a clean electricity revolution.
>>>READ: The Fusion Energy Fast Forward
Virginia is the ideal place to debut a fusion plant, because it is noted for its “all-of-the-above” approach to energy. A fusion plant there, outside Richmond, would be proof of concept and would encourage further experiments in fusion technology.
The American economy has evolved from one that ran on wood to one that ran on coal to one that runs on everything from natural gas, nuclear, hydropower, coal, solar, geothermal, wind and batteries. It will eventually add fusion as well. That’s a down to earth moonshot that could guarantee the cleanest of futures.
