MOSCOW, April 17. /TASS/. There is no alternative to the use of nuclear energy in the exploration of Mars and the Moon, President of National Research Centre Kurchatov Institute Mikhail Kovalchuk said.
As the scientist noted, new resources are required to explore planets and deep space. "When we talk about flights to Mars, as our American colleagues often do, we must understand that it takes 250 days to reach Mars one way - meaning the round trip takes 500 days. Now imagine: you send a spacecraft toward Mars, something happens there, and you are unable to influence it. There must be some sort of planetary base. Clearly, the easiest location to establish such a base is on the Moon," he said.
Kovalchuk emphasized that the first step must be the installation of a power station on the Moon. "There is no alternative to nuclear energy when it comes to the exploration of planets, asteroids, and deep space flights, because you cannot bring along an enormous fuel supply. There simply is not enough fuel that could sustain a round-trip mission lasting 500 days," he added.
"Everything falls into two parts. The first is the creation of nuclear power in the form of a planetary-based station. The second is powerful, multimegawatt nuclear energy onboard. <...> The key issue in the exploration of the Moon is energy, and the only viable energy source is nuclear. In this regard, we have virtually no competitors in the world," he said.
The scientist further noted that Russia is entirely self-sufficient in space-related activities, but that the country had lost "its launch capabilities and many other assets," because the rest of the world had begun actively developing commercial space industries.
Kovalchuk pointed out that Russia has all the technological capabilities necessary for developing commercial space ventures. "We are not dependent on anyone. We have only two objectives. First, we need to reduce the cost of launches. Second, we must create a reusable spacecraft. These two technological challenges must be solved," he concluded.