Russia Plans a Nuclear Power Plant on the Moon Within a Decade (reuters.com) 43
Russia plans to put a nuclear power plant on the moon in the next decade to supply its lunar space programme and a joint Russian-Chinese research station, as major powers rush to explore the earth's only natural satellite. Reuters: Ever since Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to go into space in 1961, Russia has prided itself as a leading power in space exploration, but in recent decades it has fallen behind the United States and, increasingly, China. Russia's ambitions suffered a massive blow in August 2023 when its unmanned Luna-25 mission smashed into the surface of the moon while attempting to land, and Elon Musk has revolutionised the launch of space vehicles - once a Russian speciality.
Russia's state space corporation, Roscosmos, said in a statement that it planned to build a lunar power plant by 2036 and signed a contract with the Lavochkin Association aerospace company to do it. Roscosmos did not say explicitly that the plant would be nuclear but it said the participants included Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom and the Kurchatov Institute, Russia's leading nuclear research institute. Roscosmos said the purpose of the plant was to power Russia's lunar programme, including rovers, an observatory and the infrastructure of the joint Russian-Chinese International Lunar Research Station.
Russia's state space corporation, Roscosmos, said in a statement that it planned to build a lunar power plant by 2036 and signed a contract with the Lavochkin Association aerospace company to do it. Roscosmos did not say explicitly that the plant would be nuclear but it said the participants included Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom and the Kurchatov Institute, Russia's leading nuclear research institute. Roscosmos said the purpose of the plant was to power Russia's lunar programme, including rovers, an observatory and the infrastructure of the joint Russian-Chinese International Lunar Research Station.
Russia's nuclear power plant on the Moon? (Score:1)
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Whatver you do (Score:2)
Do NOT take an iPad to the Moon.:-)
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I've watched Space 1999 (Score:4)
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You mean we didn't have an old moon base already from 1999? But I saw that show on Fox News!?
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That was a nuclear waste storage site.
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Given the history of the USSR and Russia with nuclear stuff in space... Probably.
Hahaha no they don't. (Score:1, Insightful)
lol not even slightly.
They are spending money they don't have on making sure every last young man is either killed, maimed or flees the country. And now they can't get hold of decent machine tools or high end alloys either.
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The summary indicated that it would be a joint project with China.
Re: Hahaha no they don't. (Score:2)
That's very old news (Score:5, Informative)
Originally, the moonbase was announced in 2004 to be ready by 2025.
https://lenta.ru/news/2004/11/... [lenta.ru]
Then in 2006 the schedule moved closer, to 2015, with helium-3 extraction beginning in 2020.
https://lenta.ru/news/2006/01/... [lenta.ru]
Obviously the base is already there and working, and the only thing that's missing is the nuclear reactor to burn that helium-3.
Any day now.
nuclear power plant on the moon? no way (Score:2)
Radioactive crater on the moon won't hurt anyone (Score:2)
Yeah right (Score:3)
Yeah, well! (Score:5, Funny)
I'm gonna go build my own nuclear reactor on the moon! With blackjack! And hookers!
In fact, forget the nuclear reactor!
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While you’re there could you pick up some of that nice green moon money for me? Royce McCutcheon!
Iâ(TM)m planning a nuclear fusion reactor (Score:1)
My guess is Elon musk or Amazon guy put them up to (Score:1)
Yea the russian know there is no value on the moon it make no sense what so ever. But for musk and amazon guy its a lot of funding and money.
The USA falls behind due to Republicans (Score:4, Insightful)
You may think of this as a troll, but the, "how will we pay for it, what do we get for it?" crowd, which is primarily Republicans, are against research in science for the sake of learning and discovering. What they ALWAYS forget is that the things discovered during the planning and these pure science projects almost always lead to scientific discoveries that make a LOT of money. People who are short sighted just can't figure it out. Republicans of today would be against the ARPANET, because they don't have enough understanding of ANYTHING in science to understand the idea of potential.
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That's currently true. Does it have to remain true?
Of course, I think the smaller bodies hold greater promise. It's easier to rebuild an asteroid.
But will it make NFTs of Lenin? (Score:2)
If I'm not mistaken (Score:5, Interesting)
A lot of the engineers that the Soviet Union and then Russia used in their space and nuclear programs were Ukrainian. I imagine even a signing bonus won't turn up many volunteers today or for the next 20 years.
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Sounds cool (Score:2)
The senseless attack on Ukraine, the human cost, the economic damage, the prestige and reputation...Putin has doomed Russia. At the rate this continues Russia and it's population will not recover for decades.
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With the government of the trumpistan rooting for them at every opportunity, yes they do plan to make it as far as 2030, and even 2036.
Re: Sounds cool (Score:2)
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That's a lot of words to say "I don't understand Russia government long term imperialism goals"
How will they cool it? (Score:2)
How do they cool it? You can't use cooling towers like on a planet with atmosphere.
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That's a real problem for all spaced based nuclear reactors (fusion included). It's a difficult problem, but not one that's intrinsically insoluble. And it really should be solved.
(My design goal here is building a large mobile habitat, but not within the next few decades. Ideally something that could be converted into a SLOW interstellar vehicle... say averaging less than 10 km/s different from the local drift. And subsisting by savaging off that drift. So it needs to be a pretty closed ecology.)
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Space nukes are radiation cooled (thermal radiation). Prototypes exist. Working deployments (e.g. Voyager) exist. These are RTGs though, not steam-engines. And they are small. Like 100kW small.
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I must admit I am not that deep into these things, but I really wonder if a power plant of usual scale would be work out. But could one maybe cool down on the surface/inner of the moon? I'd think it may be quite cold a few meters below the surface, maybe one can get rid of the waste heat with something like inverted geothermal?
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No. You cannot keep a steam-engine type reactor going in space. There are too many elements that depend on conditions on earth. Basically nothing works out. Add to that that using the lunar surface for cooling is not going to work as it will heat up far too fast. What makes that work in some places on earth is circulating water. Don't have that on the moon.
How will they build the sarcophagus? (Score:2)
A Russian nuclear reactor on the moon? How will they build the sarcophagus [wikipedia.org] to enclose the thing?
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why would ruzzians care about safety?
Because if they don't build the sarcophagus, they can't invade and damage it to induce terror.
Don't worry about those radiological alarms (Score:2)
All these noisy payloads emitting radiation we're about to start sending up are for our moon base, not for any kind of space weapons, we promise.
In other news (Score:2)
Nuclear requires steam for power generation (Score:2)
The environment on the Moon seems overly harsh for depending on creating and maintaining systems to keep a contained system of water to be boiled/steam pressurized for turbine spin and power generation over the long term. Seals wear out. Joints weaken a break.
Solar and solid state battery type systems seem much more feasible as a stable long term system of off world reliable power. Removing the need for highly pressurized water containment will be important.
Perhaps there is a way to use the heat from a n