There are no coal plants on the moon. Because, you know, there's no coal.

There's also no hydroelectric dams, because there's no water.

There are also no wind farms because there's no, well, you know.

So how are we going to power a theoretical space base there? Well, Rolls-Royce has an idea:

As humanity resets its gaze toward Moon, British aerospace company Rolls-Royce Holdings is continuing its work on developing nuclear power sources for spaceflight and exploration. Today, the company announced funding from the U.K. Space Agency to further research and develop a nuclear reactor that's meant to power a future base on the Moon.

I don't know about you, but I really love watching this stuff happen in real-time. A moon base has been a part of the global imagination for roughly a century. It still feels almost borderline impossible that it will ever happen.

But you don't pour millions of dollars into a project if you don't think it has a good chance of success:

The U.K. Space Agency provided Rolls-Royce Holdings with £2.9 million, which is about $3.5 million USD, according to a press release from the agency. Rolls-Royce elaborated in its release that the funding will be to specifically study the fuel that the reactor will use to generate heat, study ways to transfer that heat, and evaluate the technologies needed to transform that heat into electricity. The reactor could be used to power rovers, communications systems, and science experiments on the lunar surface. Rolls-Royce hopes to have the nuclear reactor ready to send to the Moon by 2029.

By 2029! That's barely half a decade away. That's nothing.

The future is here, folks. The lowly little human race is on the verge of becoming a spacefaring species. It's happening, much sooner rather than later.

Ad astra!