SpaceX's Employee No.1 Reveals Shelved 1MW Nuclear Reactor Concept for Making Mars Propellant
JoeJustice · x · 2026-09-12
Tom Mueller, SpaceX's first employee, revealed a little-known project: Musk tasked the team with figuring out how to make propellant on Mars and bring it back, with nuclear power as the answer. Around 2018 they designed a conceptual 1 MW electric (3.5 MW thermal) reactor, but Musk declined to fund it while Starship and Starlink were consuming heavy capital. Mueller also said he's staying long on SpaceX, arguing the valuation prices in "crazy things in space" rather than current revenue, and compared Starship to the internet in 1995.
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