Russia wants to put reactors in space again

Undeterred by the failure of its last lunar mission (which was also its first in 47 years), Russia says it wants to put a nuclear reactor on the moon. The project would be a joint-venture with China aimed at generating enough power to sustain a permanent lunar base for humans. The head of the Roscosmos space agency told a press conference in Moscow the goal was to deploy the reactor by 2030-35, and said all technical hurdles bar cooling had been overcome. Every official Russian pronouncement since February 2022 should be taken primarily as propaganda, but there’s an element of truth to Roscosmos’ cosmic nuclear know-how boasting. Two types of nuclear power source were deployed in space during the Sputnik-Apollo era – thermoelectric generators (RTGs) to convert heat from naturally decaying plutonium-238 into electricity, and miniature fission reactors that actually split atoms. Nasa used mainly RTGs; Roscosmos used both. Its director general says he’s also working on a nuclear-powered space tugboat to haul heavy loads to orbit and beyond, but he may be getting ahead of himself. Russia’s Luna 25 mission to the moon last year spun out of control on final approach and crashed.