Image: Youtube
By Misty Severi,
Published by The Washington Examiner, 5 March 2024
Russia and China are looking to put a nuclear power plant on the moon in the next decade, which they hope would one day lead to lunar settlements, according to Russia’s space agency Roscosmos.
Yuri Borisov, the head of Roscosmos, said both countries have been working together on the project and that Russia has helped on the nuclear side by presenting its data on nuclear space energy.
“Today we are seriously considering a project — somewhere at the turn of 2033-2035 — to deliver and install a power unit on the lunar surface together with our Chinese colleagues,” Borisov said, according to Reuters. “This is a very serious challenge … it should be done in automatic mode, without the presence of humans.”
Borisov said that solar power would not be strong enough to power the settlements on the moon but that nuclear power could. Borisov said most of the technical questions had been solved, except for questions on cooling the nuclear reactors.
The former Russian deputy prime minister also said the space agency is looking to build a nuclear-powered cargo spaceship.
“We are indeed working on a space tugboat. This huge, cyclopean structure would be able, thanks to a nuclear reactor and a high-power turbine, to transport large cargoes from one orbit to another, collect space debris and engage in many other applications,” Borisov said.
Russia recently denied plans to put nuclear weapons in space, claiming that the United States was just trying to bring Russia into an arms negotiation.
NASA is also developing plans for nuclear power on the moon by the 2030s and is hoping to build settlements on the moon by the 2040s, according to Forbes.
China said it hopes to put a man on the moon by 2030.
See: Orignal Article
