Isaacman: NASA Aims to Build ‘Martian Outpost’ on Mars With Nuclear Propulsion

The administrator said that a nuclear power and propulsion rocket will launch before the end of Trump’s term.

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman (L) speaks at a press conference at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on Jan. 17, 2026. (T.J. Muscaro/The Epoch Times).

NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman announced his agency’s commitment to developing a nuclear propulsion system for missions to Mars within the next three years.

“Before the end of @POTUS‘ term, @NASA will lay the foundation of a ’transcontinental railroad' to Mars,” Isaacman wrote on X on Jan. 30. “By utilizing nuclear electric propulsion, our nation will have the tools necessary to establish a Martian outpost and maintain American superiority in deep space.”

The administrator shared a clip from a Jan. 30 appearance on Fox News in which he explained that while NASA continues its work to put boots back on the moon, it will also launch its first nuclear power and propulsion rocket by the end of President Donald Trump’s term.

“That’s going to essentially almost establish the transcontinental railroad to Mars,” he said. “It’s how you efficiently move lots of mass to Mars. So it’s not necessarily always the fastest way to get there, but it gives you the tools to build out potentially a Martian outpost, certainly to mine and refine propellant on Mars, which is what you’re going to need to bring your astronauts back home.”

He explained that America would have the capability to send astronauts to Mars, but the hard part was bringing them back. Nuclear power and propulsion solved that problem.

Meanwhile, Isaacman reaffirmed that the Artemis program would continue to push forward the goal of the president’s national space policy to not just land humans back on the moon, but to construct a lunar base in order to stay and fulfill its scientific, economic, and strategic potential.

That base, he said, will involve a nuclear power plant, as well as mining operations, and refining Helium 3, which is considered to be the best fuel for nuclear fusion reactors, and plan to do it before communist China’s plan to do so by 2030.

“The Chinese said they’re going to do it,” Isaacman said of a nuclear reactor on the moon, “We’re going to do it first.”

But all of these plans still start with the mission whose rocket stands at Launch Complex 39-B at Kennedy Space Center in Florida: Artemis II. That 10-day mission, which will carry humans around the moon for the first time since Apollo 17 in 1972, and could do so as early as Feb. 8, awaits the results of a crucial dress rehearsal of launch day conditions set for Feb. 2.

“America’s mission to the Moon won’t end with a handful of landings,” Isaacman said on X. ”We will undertake repeatable and affordable missions that expand our presence across the lunar surface, fulfilling a 35-year promise to the American taxpayer.”