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Engineers say the plant can be delivered to the Red Planet using the Zeus – a future nuclear-powered Russian space tug that is slated to begin flight tests in 2030.
Specialists from the Arsenal Design Bureau – a St. Petersburg-based subsidiary of Russian space agency Roscosmos specializing in the production of spacecraft, satellites and other space technologies – have proposed the creation of a nuclear power plant. for a future Russian base on Mars.
Sputnik was able to familiarize himself with the proposal – which recommends using the technologies developed for the interplanetary space tug Zeus for a stationary nuclear reactor for the Martian surface as well.
According to Arsenal’s proposal, the reactor would be delivered to the Red Planet aboard the Zeus and descend to its surface using a parachute system. After landing, the power station would be activated to supply power to a future Russian Martian base.
In addition to this, the engineers say that if the Zeus was deployed at the Lagrange point between the Sun and Mars (i.e. the point in space where the gravitational forces of these bodies are also strong), its On-board communication sensors and transmitters could serve as a “high-speed channel for transmitting information to Earth from the surface of Mars and from spacecraft orbiting the planet.”
Earlier, Sputnik reported that the megawatt-class electric propulsion system proposed by Project Zeus would allow it to disable the control systems of opposing spacecraft using an electromagnetic pulse, and even allow it to fire laser beams.
Designers from the Moscow-based Keldysh Research Center also suggested that the class of spacecraft can be used as a component of Russia’s air defense network – detecting targets from orbit and relaying that information to missile systems at ground.
Russia has been working on the creation of an interplanetary spacecraft with a nuclear power plant since 2010. In 2019, a space tug concept was presented for the first time at the MAKS International Aviation and Space Show at the exterior of Moscow, with a more detailed presentation. given at the ARMY-2020 forum.
Last December, Roscosmos signed a $ 56.5 million contract with the Arsenal Design Bureau for experimental design work for the Zeus. This work is expected to be completed by 2024, with flight tests starting, hopefully, in 2030.
In June, Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin said that in addition to Mars, Zeus tugs could be sent to other planets, including Venus, and even travel beyond our solar system, where they could search an extraterrestrial life.
Roscosmos has announced a series of ambitious plans in recent years, including the construction of the first Russian-only space station since the Mir desorbit in 2001, and plans for a series of manned and unmanned missions to the Moon and even a possible base. lunar. . Russia’s space program, however, faced two major problems: a lack of sufficient funding to carry out some of its ambitious projects, and the concentration of funds and other resources for questionable purposes – such as the ongoing construction of a 250,000 square meter office center next door to the legendary Khrunichev space rocket factory in Moscow.
Despite a long list of space firsts (including the first satellite, the first man and woman in space, the first space station, the first moon and Mars landing, etc.), Russia spent only $ 3.58 billion for its space program in 2020, only 260 million more than Japan, and less than France ($ 4.04 billion), China ($ 8.85 billion) and the States United ($ 47.69 billion). These and other factors have left the country that once enjoyed space pioneer status, watching the Chinese space agency and NASA show the latest footage and footage of their rovers roaming the Martian surface.
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