Russia ‘plays big’ with the mission to launch a nuclear spacecraft from the Moon to Jupiter

Russia is planning a bold plan to send a nuclear-powered spacecraft to the Moon, then continue to launch to Venus and Jupiter.

Design of a space tug to carry Russia’s 500kW Zeus nuclear reactor. Russia’s federal space agency Roscosmo announced that a “space tug” – a term used to refer to a spacecraft that transports astronauts or equipment from one orbit to another – is expected to carry out an interplanetary mission. planet by 2030. Accordingly, the spacecraft’s power module called “Zeus” is designed to generate enough power to propel heavy cargo into deep space. It is essentially a mobile nuclear power plant. Several countries have been eyeing similar technology as a way to shorten trips in space. Currently, spacecraft still rely on solar energy or gravity to accelerate. But that means it could take more than three years for astronauts to make a trip around Mars. Meanwhile, NASA estimates a nuclear-powered spacecraft could shorten that timeline by a year. NASA’s Juno unmanned spacecraft uses solar batteries to make a journey to explore Jupiter. Photo: NASA The US hopes to put a nuclear power plant – a 10-kilowatt reactor integrated with a lander to be exact – on the Moon as early as 2027. However, NASA has only sent one so far. nuclear reactor into space, on a satellite in 1965. Other spacecraft, such as the Mars rovers Curiosity and Perseverance, also run on nuclear power, but they do not use a reactor. Meanwhile, Russia has sent more than 30 reactors into space. Those efforts will be further pushed as the “Zeus” module uses a 500 kilowatt nuclear reactor to propel itself from planet to planet. Watch a video of a Russian space tug model announced in 2020 (Source: ETF News): According to the plan announced on the Russian state news agency Sputnik, the Zeus spacecraft will approach the Moon first, then move towards Venus. From here it can use the planet’s gravity to redirect toward its final destination, Jupiter. That will help save propellant fuel. According to Alexander Bloshenko, Roscosmos Science and Long-Term Programs Executive Director, the entire mission will last 50 months (more than four years). During a presentation in Moscow on May 22, Bloshenko said that Roscosmos and the Russian Academy of Sciences are still working to calculate the trajectory of the flight, as well as the mass it can carry. Going further, this mission could be the precursor to a new frontier of Russian space. Sputnik reported that Russia is designing a space station using similar nuclear-powered technology. The Soyuz rocket launches the spacecraft to the International Orbital Station (ISS) from Baikonur, Kazakhstan. Photo: Getty Images Nuclear power has advantages over solar energy Most spacecraft get their energy from some source: the sun, batteries, or unstable atoms called radioisotopes. For example, NASA’s Juno unmanned spacecraft at Jupiter uses solar panels to generate electricity. Solar energy can also be used to charge batteries in spacecraft, but this energy source becomes less efficient as the spacecraft gets further and further away from the Sun. In addition, lithium batteries can power shorter missions. For example, the Huygens probe used batteries to briefly land on Saturn’s moon Titan in 2005. Design of a NASA spacecraft using nuclear thermal propulsion. Photo: NASA NASA’s Voyager spacecraft uses radioactive isotopes (also known as “nuclear batteries”) to survive in the harsh environments outside the Solar System and interstellar space, but that’s not the same thing. bring a nuclear reactor on board. Putting nuclear reactors on spacecraft offers several advantages: They can survive in the dark, cold regions of the Solar System without sunlight. They are also stable, reliable in the long run. The Zeus nuclear reactor, for example, is designed to last 10 to 12 years. Plus, with their powerful energy, they can propel spacecraft to other planets in less time. But nuclear power also has its own set of challenges. Only certain fuels, like highly enriched uranium, can withstand the extreme heat of a reactor – and they may not be safe to use. In December 2020, the US banned the use of highly enriched uranium to propel objects into space if that mission was possible with other sources of nuclear fuel or non-nuclear energy. Russia prepares to build a nuclear-powered space station Russian cosmonaut Sergey Kud-Sverchkov returning from the ISS landed in a remote area in Kazakhstan on April 17, 2021. Photo: Reuters Russian engineers began developing the Zeus module in 2010 with the goal of getting it into Earth orbit within two decades. And they’re on track to get there. This technology could help Russia develop a new space station by 2025. In April, the BBC reported that Russia plans to stop cooperating with the International Space Station (ISS), which it currently shares with the International Space Station (ISS). America, Japan, Europe and Canada – in that year. Russia cooperated with the United States to launch the ISS in 1998. However, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yury Borisov told Russia 1 state television last month that the status of the ISS “a lot of things are not yet achieved”. . Even recently, this orbiting station has experienced air leaks and oxygen supply system failures. NASA has announced that the ISS will operate until at least 2028, however, the agency will probably maintain the station for the next 10-15 years.