MOSCOW. April 26 (Interfax) - The Zevs (Zeus) nuclear-powered space tug, currently in development in Russia, could be involved in the Russian-Chinese lunar program to deliver large cargo to the Moon, Roscosmos CEO Yury Borisov said.
"The Zevs nuclear tug, which we are planning to create in practice by 2030, is one of the devices which would help in expansion for the Moon, and we are planning to use it in joint project with China," Borisov said at the Knowledge.First Enlightenment Marathon on Wednesday.
The tug is expected to be used to deliver large cargo from a near-Earth orbit to near-Moon one, he said.
It was reported earlier that Russia is developing a space nuclear propulsion system with a capacity of up to one megawatt. The project was dubbed Zevs. Roscosmos Executive Director for Science and Long-Term Programs Alexander Bloshenko said on May 22, 2021, that the first production prototype of the Zevs space nuclear propulsion system would be ready by 2030.
On April 5, Vladimir Koshlakov, the general director of the Keldysh Center, the developer of Zevs, said the tug would be capable of operating in space continuously for up to ten years.
Nuclear power has been used in space projects before. Between 1970 and 1988, the Soviet Union launched 32 spacecraft with thermoelectric generators, and a nuclear-powered rocket engine was designed and tested in Semipalatinsk in the 1960s-1980s.