Powering the Space Economy: Experts Call for Nuclear Innovation, Lunar Resources, and Massive Energy Infrastructure

At spaceNEXT 2026, energy leaders and policymakers warned that the future space economy—from lunar mining to orbital data centers—will depend on solving a challenge often overlooked in space strategy: how to generate and distribute power beyond Earth.

During the panel “Ensuring Power for the Space Economy,” experts from the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), and nuclear power startup Zeno Power outlined the technologies, supply chains, and infrastructure needed to support a sustained human and commercial presence in space.

The panel featured Dan Monaghan and Kevin Kelly of EPRI, Rima Oueid of the DOE, and Harsh Desai of Zeno Power.

Their message was clear: energy will be the backbone of the space economy, and the scale of power required for lunar industry, orbital infrastructure, and deep-space missions will demand a combination of solar, nuclear, and resource extraction technologies.

Energy: The Foundation of Any Economy

Dan Monaghan opened the discussion by emphasizing a simple but often overlooked reality: every economy is fundamentally built on energy.

“When we talk about a space economy, it's incredibly important that we understand what that actually requires,” Monaghan said. “Everything we do in every economy is founded on energy.”

While much of today’s space activity focuses on satellites and data, the panelists argued that a real off-world economy will require a massive expansion in energy production and distribution.

Future space systems—from lunar habitats and mining operations to orbital data centers—will require orders of magnitude more power than today’s satellites, which typically operate on only watts of electricity.

Solar Alone Won’t Power the Future of Space

Kevin Kelly explained that while solar power has served satellites well in low Earth orbit, it cannot meet every energy need in space.

Solar systems degrade under radiation exposure and require massive surface areas to generate large amounts of power. In extreme environments—such as deep space, permanently shadowed lunar craters, or long-duration missions—nuclear systems become essential.

Radioisotope power systems can provide decades of low-maintenance energy, while nuclear reactors can deliver the kilowatt- to megawatt-scale power levels needed for industrial operations.

But scaling nuclear systems introduces its own challenges, particularly around fuel supply.

“There are supply chain limitations across the board,” Kelly said. “Highly enriched uranium is difficult to obtain, and even lower-enriched materials face production constraints.”

These supply challenges are compounded by growing global demand for nuclear fuel as countries expand terrestrial nuclear power to support rising electricity consumption.

The Moon’s Untapped Energy Resources

Rima Oueid of the Department of Energy highlighted another emerging opportunity: extracting energy-relevant materials directly from the Moon.

Recent research suggests the lunar surface contains a variety of valuable resources, including:

• Uranium deposits

• Silicon-rich regolith

• Rare earth elements

• Platinum-group metals

• Helium-3

Some of these materials could be used to power space operations, while others may have high-value applications back on Earth.

“Space is an opportunity for us to revitalize Earth,” Oueid said. “Accessing these resources could reduce reliance on foreign supply chains while driving innovation in extraction and manufacturing technologies.”

Helium-3, in particular, has attracted attention as a potential fuel for future fusion reactors, and early government contracts are already exploring its extraction from the lunar surface.

Nuclear Batteries for Harsh Environments

Harsh Desai of Zeno Power described another emerging energy technology designed specifically for extreme environments: radioisotope “nuclear batteries.”

These systems convert heat generated by naturally decaying radioactive materials into electricity. Unlike traditional reactors, they contain no moving parts and require minimal maintenance, making them ideal for remote environments such as deep space, the ocean floor, or the lunar surface.

Desai described the concept simply:

“It’s essentially a hot rock in a box,” he said.

While NASA’s radioisotope systems typically use plutonium-238, Zeno is exploring alternative materials such as strontium-90 and americium-241, which can be extracted from existing nuclear waste.

According to Desai, recycling these isotopes could simultaneously power space missions and reduce the long-term radioactivity of nuclear waste stockpiles.

“If you take out strontium-90 and americium from spent fuel, you can reduce the total radioactivity significantly,” he said. “What people think of as waste is actually fuel.”

Infrastructure Comes Before Industry

Panelists repeatedly returned to a central theme: space industry cannot scale without infrastructure.

Today, the Moon lacks even the most basic systems needed to support sustained operations.

“There’s no communications infrastructure, no GPS, no distributed sensors,” Desai said. “Right now the Moon is just a place where we land occasionally.”

The first step toward a lunar economy, he argued, is deploying distributed power systems capable of supporting communications nodes, navigation beacons, and environmental monitoring networks.

Only after those foundational systems exist can more ambitious activities—such as mining, manufacturing, or human settlements—begin.

Powering the Next Wave of Space Industry

Looking ahead, panelists identified several industries that could drive energy demand in space:

• Orbital data centers supporting artificial intelligence and high-performance computing

• Lunar resource extraction and processing

• Manufacturing in microgravity or partial gravity environments

• Semiconductor and quantum technology production

• Deep-space transportation infrastructure

Oueid suggested that some of the highest-value materials produced in space could support semiconductor and quantum computing industries on Earth.

Certain crystal structures grown in microgravity environments may yield high-value components worth thousands of dollars per kilogram, potentially justifying the cost of transporting materials between Earth and orbit.

A Two-Way Space Economy

Dan Monaghan concluded the session by emphasizing that the long-term success of the space economy will depend on bidirectional trade between Earth and space.

To date, most economic value derived from space has been data, not physical materials. But future industries may require transporting resources both to and from orbit and the Moon.

“To enable power in space requires us to export everything necessary from Earth,” Monaghan said. “And right now we’re barely keeping up with demand here.”

Ultimately, panelists agreed that building a true space economy will require major investments in energy infrastructure on Earth as well as in orbit.

Without that foundation, the visions of lunar cities, space manufacturing, and deep-space exploration will remain out of reach.

As Monaghan put it:

“If we want to build infrastructure in space, we have to build the infrastructure here first.”