# The Moon is a proving ground for Mars and interstellar travel

Markdown copy of https://realalpha.app/s/the-moon-is-a-proving-ground-for-mars-and-interstellar/ on Real Alpha, the best minutes from long interviews with the people building AI. Cite and link the page, not this copy.

- Speaker: [Jared Isaacman](https://realalpha.app/people/jared-isaacman/) · Jared Isaacman is an NASA administrator. · Commanded Inspiration4, the first all-civilian orbital flight, and founded Shift4 payments; now runs NASA.
- Host: [Theo Jaffee](https://realalpha.app/people/theo-jaffee/) · Co-founder & host, MTS · One of the first members of a16z's new media team; earlier hosted the Emergent Ventures-backed Theo Jaffee Podcast.
- Host: [Sophia Dew](https://realalpha.app/people/sophia-dew/) · Host, MTS
- Show: MTS
- Episode: [NASA Chief: How To Reach Another Star System | Jared Isaacman](https://realalpha.app/v/7_ci-2zoMH8/), Sep 17, 2026
- Moment: 5:09 to 8:04 of the episode (3 min), playing on https://realalpha.app/s/the-moon-is-a-proving-ground-for-mars-and-interstellar/; the episode from there: https://realalpha.app/v/7_ci-2zoMH8/?t=309

## Quote

> “So moon is a **great proving ground** for where we go next, which is Mars.”
> — [Jared Isaacman](https://realalpha.app/people/jared-isaacman/) at [5:51](https://realalpha.app/v/7_ci-2zoMH8/?t=351) · MTS

## Takeaways

1. Use the Moon to test habitats, spacesuits, mobility, and power.
2. Fission could help spacecraft travel farther without refueling.
3. Isaacman sees fusion and matter annihilation as later steps.

## About this segment

Jared Isaacman frames the Moon as a place to test the skills and systems needed for Mars, then traces interstellar travel to increasingly powerful energy sources. It shows why lunar missions are a step toward much longer journeys.

From “NASA Chief: How To Reach Another Star System | Jared Isaacman”, Sep 17, 2026. [Watch the full episode](https://realalpha.app/v/7_ci-2zoMH8/)

## Transcript

Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.

[5:21](https://realalpha.app/v/7_ci-2zoMH8/?t=321) Well, first of all, I'm very appreciative that there is now almost complete alignment from the private sector, from the government, that we need to go to the moon. We've made promises for 36 years. We've committed a lot of taxpayer resources. We must return to the moon. We need to do so to stay, build the base for a lot of reasons. And some of it is extremely important to companies like SpaceX that do want to unlock the economic potential.

[5:46](https://realalpha.app/v/7_ci-2zoMH8/?t=346) I mean, you know, Elon and SpaceX talked about mass drivers on the moon, you know, 3D printing satellites and shooting them off from the lunar surface. That's awesome. Like we want an orbital economy. We don't we will never have the future that probably a lot of us imagined as kids if it's only paid for by taxpayers. So moon is a great proving ground for where we go next, which is Mars. So I guarantee you SpaceX has not taken their eye off the prize, which is making life multiplanetary, which means you need to get to another planet.

[6:15](https://realalpha.app/v/7_ci-2zoMH8/?t=375) And that planet is Mars. But we'll certainly take a proving ground three days away from home to test out habitability, test out new spacesuits, mobility, power, all the things necessary to keep, you know, this fragile human body alive out in space. Let's test that out on the moon before we go to Mars. But Mars is always part of the, you know, it's always just one more step on the grand journey. Does NASA have any kind of plans at the moment, including sort of very abstract far future ones for like going to permanently like other solar systems?

[6:44](https://realalpha.app/v/7_ci-2zoMH8/?t=404) So the first step on that journey is fission power. So like really in my like, I guess, simplistic view on it, for us to overcome the tyranny of distance in space, we need to continue to unlock more of the energy potential in matter. And chemical rockets, it's negligible. Now with fission power, we're unlocking like 0.5% of it, but that's a huge deal. I mean, that really helps us go farther into space without having to refuel. And we're going to get very good at that. And we've only done it once, 1965, but we're going to build a grand nuclear powered Starfleet, you know, and then next up is going to be fusion power. And then we're going to be able to unlock a little bit more of that potential of matter until eventually you get to like, which is something that my kids and my grandkids and future grandkids probably won't

[7:31](https://realalpha.app/v/7_ci-2zoMH8/?t=451) ever live to see which is something like uh any matter annihilation where now you're unlocking like the full potential of matter and that's what's gonna get you to the type of speeds that are gonna be necessary the velocities to go out and venture to uh you know to another star system but this is all going to happen at some point we just got to keep pressing on outward i want to shout out our sponsor lovable you know the app you've been meaning to build