Jared Isaacman: NASA's Moon Base by 2028, Optimus Robots on the Moon, The Truth About UFOs | Ep #274

**Peter Diamandis** (0:00)
2028, an aggressive timeline for landing on the Moon. Steps getting there, when do humanoid robots enter that equation? Can you give us a few details?

**Jared Isaacman** (0:09)
The most expensive part of doing that is not the nuclear fuel, it's not the modifications needed for lunar surface. We all enjoyed the headlines of Artemis 2 but reminded us of what's possible and got us all excited. We don't want to wait several years in between the next episode, right?

**Alexander Wissner-Gross** (0:25)
I'd be curious to hear your timelines for deploying humanoid robots with your NASA hat on.

**Jared Isaacman** (0:30)
Any area that you're going to have human involvement eventually, it would be crazy not to make a force multiplier and put humanoid robots there to do some of the work.

**Alexander Wissner-Gross** (0:40)
This is, I think, the question on the minds of many people I've spoken with. Are we alone?

**Jared Isaacman** (0:46)
In my mind, I would think...

**Dave Blundin** (0:50)
Now that's a moonshot, ladies and gentlemen.

**Peter Diamandis** (0:55)
We just flew humans around the moon for the first time since 1972 We've announced plans to land American astronauts on the lunar South Pole in 2028 Two competing moon landers are being built right now. And there's plans to run NASA, a $25 billion agency, more like a startup than a bureaucracy.
And the man driving it all flew to space twice as a private mission commander before even taking the job. I've known most of the NASA administrators in the last 40 years. And in my humble opinion, our guest today is the greatest of them all.
I want to welcome everybody to Moonshots. Your number one podcast in all things AI and exponential tech, your front row seat to Singularity. Today my Moonshot mates and I are going to be diving deep into humanity's future in space with our extraordinary guest, Jared Isaacman, the 15th administrator of NASA. Let me take a moment to properly introduce Jared. He didn't come up through the regular route of being a member of the National Core or Government Agency. He's a builder. He founded his first company, Shift 4 Payments, at the age of 16 in his parents' garage and then built it into a payments company processing hundreds of billions of dollars annually. He's a jet pilot who's flown in air shows and set around the world's speed records. And then he did something epic, purchasing two private Falcon 9 Dragon missions. He commanded Inspiration 4 in 2021, the first all civilian orbital mission. And then in 2024, he commanded Polaris Dawn, where he performed the first ever commercial space walk, stepping out of a Dragon capsule into the vacuum of space. During his start at NASA, he laid out five key objectives, get America back to the moon, build a permanent moon base, begin using nuclear power in space, ignite a real orbital economy, and reinvigorate the science that lets us look for life among the stars. Jared, welcome to the Moonshots and Moonshot mates.
We've known each other for 17 years, and I could not be more proud to have you on the show.

**Jared Isaacman** (2:55)
Well, Peter, thanks for having me on the show. It's an absolute pleasure to reconnect. I'm going to challenge you a little bit on that. I appreciate the generous introduction. It's super early right now.

**Peter Diamandis** (3:05)
I know it is.

**Jared Isaacman** (3:07)
I have plenty of time to screw things up, but I'll tell you right now, we are all, everybody at NASA, from leadership down to the engineers and technicians, we are having a great time right now. We're moving very quickly. There isn't a person who shows up to work every day at NASA that's not excited about changing the world in air and space, and everybody is just really enthusiastic about getting after it.

**Peter Diamandis** (3:27)
Yeah, agreed. You said something very nice that 17 years ago in Baikonur, I got you started on this mission. Is that actually true?

**Jared Isaacman** (3:35)
That is. Now, I mean, since kindergarten, right, I wanted to be an astronaut. Like a lot of kids that just look up at the night sky and imagine the possibilities. I just never thought it was even close to possible or achievable. That's why I became a pilot and I started undertaking some mini adventures, like flying around the world on those speed records.
Somehow along the way, you found me and invited me to Baikonur. It was during that trip, I was like, well, maybe it is a possibility. So you absolutely helped steer me down this path.
Just so you know, it's only been a matter of days since I came back from my second visit to Baikonur. I have to tell you, it was very different than the first trip. I didn't have any Russian delegations coming out to meet with me when you and I were on that journey.