by Dean Andromidas (EIRNS) — Mar. 16, 2024
March 16, 2024 (EIRNS)—Speaking before government officials on March 14 to address some of the programs President Vladimir Putin had referenced in his Feb. 29 Address to the Federal Assembly, Trade Minister Denis Manturov stated: “In general, the development of telecommunications services is extremely important for the digitalization of all stages of the life cycle of industrial products. They are now actively moving into space. In order to strengthen our sovereignty in this area, a new national project is being formed on your instructions. Among its main areas, I would like to note the development and production of promising launch vehicles, including reusable ones, the creation of transport modules based on a nuclear power plant and, of course, the construction of a Russian orbital station.”
The President replied, in part: “You have just mentioned some areas in which we have good competencies and, moreover, we even have some groundwork that we can be proud of and that we can count on in the future. For example, the nuclear power plant you mentioned for operation in space. Funding needs to be done on time… There are issues that require additional attention. This topic is important. It seems that we are all accustomed to the fact that we have competencies that other countries do not possess, but we need to pay special attention to it so that it develops and can be used in the future to solve those problems that can and should be solved with using these technologies.”
Speaking on March 5 at the World Youth Festival in Sirius, the director general of the Russian space agency Roscosmos Yuri Borisov said that Russia and China are working to install a nuclear power unit on the Moon. “Today, we are seriously considering a project to deliver to the Moon and mount a power reactor there jointly with our Chinese partners somewhere between 2033 and 2035,” he told the festival.
He cited the fact that Moscow and Beijing, as early as March 2021, had signed an agreement on building an international lunar research station, which project is still in the works. The automation of the project has pushed its implementation year to 2035. He also outlined Russia’s intention of developing a nuclear-powered cargo space vessel. “We are indeed working on a space tugboat,” he said. “This huge, cyclopean structure would be able, thanks to a nuclear reactor and high-power turbines to transport large cargoes from one orbit to another, collect space debris, and engage in many other applications.”