Russia intends to deploy a nuclear power plant on the Moon and create transport systems with nuclear power units for interplanetary flights within the next ten years. The draft presidential decree outlining the space strategy until 2036 has been published on the portal of regulatory legal acts.
The document outlines a series of lunar missions: "Luna-26" will launch in 2028, "Luna-27" in 2029–2030, and three more spacecraft will be sent in 2032–2036 to deliver soil samples. Separate provisions are made for the exploration of Venus and Mars by automatic stations, as well as the search for and development of resources on asteroids.
The reliance on nuclear energy in space is easily explained: helium-3, which is planned to be extracted on the Moon, is considered an ideal fuel for future thermonuclear reactors. As Boris Glazkov, Deputy General Director of Roscosmos, explained, a teaspoon of this isotope would be enough to heat the Earth for a year. For now, the program relies on a strict schedule of automatic stations.
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