Стало известно, когда Россия начнёт пилотируемые полёты на Марс

In the next 50 years, Russia plans to begin manned flights to Mars and explore deep space for scientific research. According to Yuri Borisov, Director General of Roscosmos, in an interview with Solovyov Live TV channel, "nuclear tugs" and new technologies will help in this.

Image source generated by the DALL•E 3 neural network

I think that maybe even faster, in the next 50 years. [...] Relevant technologies will be accumulated, tested, and new carriers will be created that will allow us to reach this remote planet much faster. And, of course, then the mission becomes more realistic. But, at least for [American entrepreneur Elon] Musk, it is in the coming decades — a visit to Mars.

Yuri Borisov, head of Roscosmos State Corporation

According to him, by 2030, a prototype of the Zeus nuclear tug will be created to explore not only Mars, but also deep space in general. This is an exclusively Russian space project.

We are doing this project on our own so far, and it is progressing quite successfully. The corresponding reactor capacities have been achieved. And I think that we will not stop work in this direction, and somewhere in the 2030–40s, the product will already be practically used for the exploration of deep space, for scientific programs.

Yuri Borisov, head of Roscosmos State Corporation

Earlier in 2023, the State Scientific Center of the Russian Federation "Keldysh Research Center" (part of Roscosmos) noted that they are already working on a new Russian spacecraft for flights into deep space. It is assumed that it will make transport operations in space more economical, and also provide "a significant increase in electrical power in space and the creation of spacecraft with variable orbital parameters".

Later, in 2024, the Troitsk Institute for Innovative and Thermonuclear Research Institute (JSC "SSC RF TRINITI", part of the Rosatom State Corporation) announced that it is working on a new rocket engine for flights into deep space. According to scientists, the engine is being built on the basis of a magneto-plasma accelerator.