Oh, those crazy optimists!
A year before the United States had even launched a human being into sub-orbital space, government scientists already had a detailed plan to establish a permanent military base on the moon. This wasn't even about science and research, it was purely about telling the Soviet Union – "Mine is bigger than yours."
Clearly a self-sustaining base was way beyond even the capabilities we have more than half a century later. Building a nuclear reactor on the moon to power this base would have been sheer folly. ?
More than 50 years ago, before man had ever stepped foot on the moon, the U.S. government hatched a plan whose ambitions were exceeded only by its total unfeasibility: A secret, self-sustaining, Soviet-shaming military moon base.