https://ria.ru/20220410/roskosmos-1782763007.htmlAccording to the presented scheme, the coolant, which is the gas, is pumped through the reactor, where heat is released under the action of the decay of atomic nuclei. The heated gas rotates a turbine, which is connected to a generator to generate electricity, and a compressor, thanks to which the coolant circulates in a closed circuit.
When the coolant is pumped through the heat exchangers, heat is released. In order to implement this process, the secondary coolant is simultaneously fed into the radiators-emitters. Energy is received by the payload and electric rocket engines. As noted in the journal, their specific consumption of the working fluid is more than twenty times lower than that of their chemical counterparts.
The magazine also demonstrates one of the variants of a megawatt-class reactor and a TEM unit assembled on the basis of such a reactor.
The nuclear tug has been developed in Russia since 2010. Earlier, Yury Urlichich, First Deputy General Director of Roscosmos , spoke in one of his presentations about plans for the first flight into orbit in 2030 for flight tests. It was reported that the nuclear tug will be designed for flights to the moon and the planets of the solar system. It was named "Zeus", and the research and development work itself is called "Nuklon".
The first Russian Zeus mission to Jupiter will take 50 months and will last from 2030 to 2034. Zeus and the payload module will be launched into orbit from the Vostochny cosmodrome on separate launch vehicles. They will dock, go to the Moon, fly around it and return to Earth . Then another payload module will dock to Zeus, after which the station will fly towards Venus, perform a gravity maneuver and head towards the moons of Jupiter. The mission will be fully automatic.
