Nuclear power for space applications

Nearly all the current launch vehicles used for inserting satellites into Earth orbits and placing spacecraft on interplanetary trajectories utilize rocket engines which run on chemical fuels. This technology is already exhausting its upgrade potential, especially in terms of fuel efficiency, so experts believe that switching to nuclear-powered launchers is the way to go.

At the MAKS 2013 air show held in Zhukovsky outside Moscow this August, a team of Russian companies incorporated under the umbrellas of the Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) and the State Nuclear Energy Corporation (Rosatom) presented a project to develop a megawatt-class nuclear power propulsion system that would be used for interplanetary missions and for delivering satellites into high-energy orbits. Research into this technology was ordered by the Russian president back in June 2010. N.A. Dollezhal Scientific Research and Design Institute of Energy Technologies (NIKIET) is working to develop the reactor in conjunction with the Podolsk Research Institute of Technology (PNITI), Kurchatov Institute, Obninsk Institute for Physics and Power Engineering, and other Rosatom subsidiaries. The rest of the propulsion system will be designed by the Keldysh Centre, Energia Corporation, Chemical Engineering Design Bureau, Chemical Automatics Design Bureau, and other Roscosmos subsidiaries. The project’s 2010-2018 budget exceeds 17 bln rubles ($527 million).