NASA is experimenting with how to use fuel cells on the moon.
The effort is mostly in-house today, but might require assistance from fuel cell companies in the future.
Bloom Energy (NYSE: BE) stock took off like a rocket Monday morning, soaring 10% through 10:35 a.m. ET. And here's the weird thing:
There doesn't seem to be any news behind the move.
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No earnings reports (that was last month). No analyst upgrades -- on Wall Street, there's not even a change in Bloom's price target to explain today's move. What there is, though, is a news story out of NASA about how the space agency hopes to make hydrogen fuel cell technology a key element of the upcoming Artemis moon base.
As NASA.gov reports, researchers at the NASA Glenn Research Center's Fuel Cell Testing Laboratory in Cleveland are testing fuel systems to "revolutionize the way NASA stores energy during future Moon missions." Through chemical processes, a fuel cell system can transform hydrogen and oxygen into water for drinking and into electricity and heat to support a moon base. It can also run the same transformation in reverse to create oxygen to breathe.
Sound like a technology that might be useful to have in space? I think so, too. And Bloom Energy investors may be thinking along the same lines today.
Dr. Kerrigan Cain, NASA's lead engineer in Cleveland, calls fuel cells "an ideal technology for habitats, exploration with rovers." But here's the thing:
While NASA is tinkering with the tech, ensuring it can work on the moon, it will need manufacturers like Bloom, who are experienced in building fuel cells in quantity, to deliver the scale of production necessary to sustain astronauts on the moon.
This isn't even a rounding error on Bloom's business today.
It might grow into much more than a rounding error in the future.
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Rich Smith has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bloom Energy. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.