Russia just announced plans to build a nuclear power plant on the moon within the next decade to power a joint Russian-Chinese lunar research station.
This comes after Russia's space program has fallen dramatically behind the United States and China in recent decades.
Their last lunar mission, Luna-25, crashed into the moon's surface in August 2023 while attempting to land.
Now they're planning to install a nuclear reactor up there.
The plant would power Russia's entire lunar infrastructure including rovers, an observatory, and the International Lunar Research Station they're building with China.
Roscosmos, Russia's state space corporation, signed the contract with aerospace company Lavochkin Association.
Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom and the Kurchatov Institute, Russia's leading nuclear research center, are also involved.
Russia wants this to mark the transition from one-time moon missions to permanent lunar presence.
Whether they can actually pull it off after their recent track record is another question entirely.
But if successful, we'll have a nuclear power plant 238,855 miles away from Earth.
What could possibly go wrong?
Source: Reuters