Posted on 05/23/2021 1:03:19 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Alexander Bloshenko, executive director for advanced programs and science at Roscosmos, presented two images of future spacecraft with the Zeus nuclear-powered tug — one with rotary magnetoplasma engines, and one with ion engines.
According to the presentation, a satellite with a 500 kilowatt nuclear reactor will weigh up to 22 tons. It is expected to be launched from the Vostochny spaceport on board the Angara-A5V heavy rocket with the Fregat upper stage.
The nuclear-powered tug, also known as the Transport and Energy Module (TEM), has been in development since 2010 in Russia. The first prototype for a full-scale TEM vehicle was revealed in 2019, while a 3D animation of its deployment in orbit was shown in 2020.
(Excerpt) Read more at sputniknews.com ...
Almost no details about how the vehicle is supposed to work.
I have been saying for quite some time that of course we have enough safe experience with nuclear power for major transport, in the nuclear submarine area. The record has been screaming at NASA for years - here we are, small, safe, used throughout the world, can provide a space craft with years of power and what in the H are you waiting for.
Is this another “Sputnik” moment, where the Russians are out there first and then the U.S. develops a major response?
why not? we have nuclear subs, why not spaceships? and why is Russia the first to propose this?
bonus: nuclear doesn’t require O2, so more O2 can be carried for the crew (can you tell I just watched the space movie, ‘Stowaway’? lol)
And when it falls out of the sky —- who gets nuked?
Why not a reciprocating hydrodynamic plasma-pulse ion exchange module? Which works in a vacuum and at absolute zero unlike other materials?
Wait until Greta finds out they are polluting space too.
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