Kovalchuk says Russia is ready to ensure the operation of power plants on the Moon

The National Research Center (NRC) "Kurchatov Institute" together with the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) and Rosatom may in the future provide delivery and operation of special power plants on the Moon at the expense of their own technologies. This was announced on February 21 by Mikhail Kovalchuk, President of the Institute, at the plenary session of the Future Technologies Forum.

The scientist noted that the above scientific corporations are working together on the creation of electrodeless rocket plasma engines for spacecraft of the future, including missions to the Moon and Mars.

"We once said that we fly into space today like Munchausen at the core. Our RD engine gave there several hundred seconds of acceleration, on a ballistic trajectory - counted incorrectly, we did not hit the Moon," said Kovalchuk.

Therefore, currently need an engine that will be able to accelerate its motion, slow down or barrage to dock to the asteroid.

"We have prototypes of such engines, we have been doing this for many years. And now, together with the Academy [of Sciences] and Rosatom, we have a chance to do it. And put energy on the Moon. <...> There are special variants of stations of a completely new principle," the scientist said.

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At the end of 2024, the American entrepreneur, founder of SpaceX company Ilon Musk called interesting information about Russia's plans to deliver a nuclear power plant to the Moon by 2035. It was about the message of the RT TV channel, which said that by 2035 a nuclear plant will be erected on the Moon in partnership with China and India. Such data was provided by the state corporation Roscosmos.