Sputnik | The Russian Space Agency (Roscosmos) first showed off the preliminary design of its prospective Zeus nuclear-powered space tug last year. If all goes to plan, the spacecraft’s design will be completed by 2024, and it will kick off its first autonomous mission in 2030.
Cosmonauts
will fly between the new Russian space station and the Zeus space tug
aboard a separate pilotable craft to oversee construction, Roscosmos
chief Dmitry Rogozin has indicated.
“The
new station will operate at an orbit from which the crew will be able
to visit our nuclear space tug Zeus with their manned aircraft to
control the deployment of all of its key components and structures
–first and foremost, its giant radiators to dump excess heat – until the
reactor is turned on in a safe orbit 800 km away,” Rogozin wrote in a post
on his Telegram channel Monday, summarizing a weekend meeting he’d had
with chief orbital manned systems general designer Vladimir Solovyov and
Igor Khamits, designer of the prospective Oryol spacecraft.
“It
should finally be recognized that long-distance flights by human beings
into outer space are impossible using current chemical propulsion
engines. Their power and fuel reserves will not be sufficient not only
to return a manned mission home, but even to ensure the initial stages
of the flight. That is why it is necessary to find a solution on how to
safely connect an orbital manned station to a nuclear tug,” Rogozin
mused.
The
Roscosmos chief emphasized that “only the growing power of a nuclear
space tug is capable of moving a manned station in low earth orbit to
high orbits and to deep space,” and noted that nuclear energy has the
potential to move humanity toward a “fundamentally new direction in
manned cosmonautics.”
Rogozin
also revealed that Russia’s new space station, which will be situated
in a more radiation-intensive polar orbit, will require technologies
cosmonauts will need in the future for flights to other planets in our
solar system, including the associated life support systems, and
arrangements for the provision of food, water and fuel without the need
for these to be delivered by cargo ships from Earth.
Rogozin
accompanied his post with rendered images of the prospective Russian
space station – known as the Russia Orbital Service Station (ROSS), as
well as a concept drawing of the Zeus space tug.
