An electrical grid on the moon? Colorado School of Mines students work with NASA to make it possible

In The NoCo

An electrical grid on the moon? Colorado School of Mines students work with NASA to make it possible

By In The NoCo,

Ariel Lavery, Brad Turner, Erin O'Toole

Published January 2, 2025 at 5:35 AM MST

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A woman and three men, all engineers from the Colorado School of Mines and Orbital Mining Corporation, work on a prototype of an electrical grid being developed to power infrastructure on the surface of the moon. — "On the moon there's no coal, there's no oil, and everything's going to be electric vehicles. Everything's going to run off of electricity," says Ken Liang (pictured second from the right), a graduate student from the Colorado School of Mines and co-founder of Orbital Mining Corporation. He's part of a team that built a prototype of an electrical grid they hope one day can provide power on the lunar surface.

An electrical grid on the moon.

It鈥檚 an idea that could eventually power a small lunar colony and help take space travel to a new level.

And research by two graduate students may help make it a reality.

Chris Tolton and Ken Liang built a prototype of that lunar grid and presented it during a recent competition run by NASA. The prototype worked 鈥� and Chris and Ken to continue developing their idea.

Their vision ultimately found on the moon to fuel lunar habitats, rovers, and spacecraft heading to more distant points in the solar system.

Tolton and Liang joined host Erin O鈥橳oole to share more about their work, and how the future of space travel may be just a step closer than we think.

Two men, wearing safety glasses and baseball caps, peek around a door as they work on an electrical grid protoype inside a round metal chamber. — Chris Tolten (top) and Ken Liang work on the grid prototype inside a thick metal chamber.

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In The NoCo Aerospace Colorado School of Mines National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

In The NoCo

KUNC's In The NoCo is a daily slice of stories, news, people and issues. It's a window to the communities along the Colorado Rocky Mountains. The show brings context and insight to the stories of the day, often elevating unheard voices in the process. And because life in Northern Colorado is a balance of work and play, we celebrate the lighter side of things here, too.

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Ariel Lavery

Ariel Lavery grew up in Louisville, Colorado and has returned to the Front Range after spending over 25 years moving around the country. She co-created the podcast Middle of Everywhere for WKMS, Murray State University鈥檚 NPR member station, and won Public Media Journalism awards in every season she produced for Middle of Everywhere. Her most recent series project is "The Burn Scar", published with The Modern West podcast. In it, she chronicles two years of her family鈥檚 financial and emotional struggle following the loss of her childhood home in the Marshall Fire.

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Brad Turner

Brad Turner is an executive producer in KUNC's newsroom. He manages the podcast team that makes In The NoCo, which also airs weekdays in Morning Edition and All Things Considered. His work as a podcaster and journalist has appeared on NPR's Weekend Edition, NPR Music, the PBS 暗黑爆料hour, Colorado Public Radio, MTV Online, the Denver Post, Boulder's Daily Camera, and the Longmont Times-Call.

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Erin O'Toole

As the host of KUNC鈥檚 new program and podcast In the NoCo, I work closely with our producers and reporters to bring context and diverse perspectives to the important issues of the day. Northern Colorado is such a diverse and growing region, brimming with history, culture, music, education, civic engagement, and amazing outdoor recreation. I love finding the stories and voices that reflect what makes NoCo such an extraordinary place to live.

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