Russia’s proposed nuclear rocket

Elon Musk and SpaceX won’t be leading the reusable rocket space race long, at least not if Russia has anything to say about it. Russia’s Keldysh Research Center has been working on a reusable rocket solution for nearly a decade now, and now it’s ramping up the hype with a new concept video showing how its spacecraft works.

Speaking with reporters, Vladimir Koshlakov explained that Elon Musk and SpaceX pose no real threat to the group’s plans. Musk, Koshlakov says, is relying on technology that will soon be antiquated, while Russia is looking towards shaping the future of spaceflight.

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XP67_Moonbat said:

Yeah right!!

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Flyaway said:

All I can say to this is hmmm!

Elon Musk and SpaceX won’t be leading the reusable rocket space race long, at least not if Russia has anything to say about it. Russia’s Keldysh Research Center has been working on a reusable rocket solution for nearly a decade now, and now it’s ramping up the hype with a new concept video showing how its spacecraft works.

Speaking with reporters, Vladimir Koshlakov explained that Elon Musk and SpaceX pose no real threat to the group’s plans. Musk, Koshlakov says, is relying on technology that will soon be antiquated, while Russia is looking towards shaping the future of spaceflight.

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https://bgr.com/2018/11/14/russia-nuke-rocket-spacex-rocket/

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Russia is building a nuclear-powered spaceship. Yes, you heard that right - Bellona.org

The last time Russia brought up the notion of atomically powered space travel, it was to threaten the United States with cruise missiles propelled by miniature nuclear reactors.

bellona.org

The main feature of Moscow’s nuclear space push is something called a Transport and Energy Module. But new as that may sound, Koshlakov and his team have, like Musk, blown the dust of some ideas that were already out there and repackaged them for this newest space race. The Soviets and the Americans, it turns out, have been fiddling with this technology for more than 50 years.

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The Soviets, meanwhile, were quietly busy developing a thermal rocket of their own, called the RD 0140. The Russian’s began experimenting with the RD as far back as 1955. But testing the rocket, which was far smaller than the Project Rover designs, didn’t start until well after the NASA projects had ended, in 1978.

The RD-0140 might have reached the stars had the funding for the project not been cancelled amid the economic turmoil of 1990 – a year before the Soviet Union collapsed.

Now, the project might be getting a second chance. As Popular Mechanics explains, the details of Koshlakov’s new design is a direct descendent of the RD-0140, only with newer materials, and combining results from both Soviet and American experiment with the nuclear thermal rocket.

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