俄罗斯航天局提议在火星上建造核电站

时间：2023-07-08 14:15:01 | 来源：网站运营

时间：2023-07-08 14:15:01 来源：网站运营

俄罗斯航天局提议在火星上建造核电站：工程师们表示，该电厂可以使用“宙斯”号运送到火星——“宙斯”号是一种俄罗斯核动力太空拖船，预计将于 2030 年开始飞行测试。

军火库设计局的专家们 - 俄罗斯 Roscosmos 航天局位于圣彼得堡的子公司，专门生产航天器、卫星和其他空间技术 - 提议为未来的俄罗斯火星基地建造一座核电站。

该提案建议使用为宙斯星际太空拖船开发的技术，用于火星表面固定核反应堆。

根据军火库的提议，作为“宙斯”核动力拖船的一部分，向火星轨道运送火星核电站，用降落伞降落到表面。着陆后，“启动核动力装置”并且进行“火星基地供电”。

最重要的是，工程师说，如果宙斯被部署在太阳和火星之间的拉格朗日点(即这些天体的引力同样强大的空间点)，它所携带的通信传感器和发射器可以充当“从火星表面和绕火星运行的航天器向地球传输信息的高速通道”。

早些时候，宙斯计划提出的兆瓦级电力推进系统将允许它使用电磁脉冲禁用敌方航天器的控制系统，甚至允许它发射激光束。

位于莫斯科的 Keldysh 研究中心的设计师还建议，这种航天器级可以用作俄罗斯防空网络的一个组成部分——从轨道上探测目标并将此信息传递给地基导弹系统。

自 2010 年以来，俄罗斯一直致力于建造带有核电站的行星际飞船。 2019 年，在莫斯科郊外的 MAKS 国际航空航天展上首次展示了太空拖船的概念，并在陆军-2020论坛上给出了更详细的介绍。

去年 12 月，俄罗斯联邦航天局(Roscosmos) 与军火库设计局(Arsenal Design Bureau)签署了一份价值 5650 万美元的合同，用于宙斯的实验设计工作。这项工作预计将于 2024 年完成，飞行测试有望在 2030 年开始。

6 月，Roscosmos 负责人德米特里·罗戈津 (Dmitry Rogozin) 表示，除了火星，宙斯拖船还可以被送往包括金星在内的其他行星，甚至可以飞越太阳系，在那里寻找外星生命。

Roscosmos 近年来宣布了一系列雄心勃勃的计划，包括建造自 2001 年和平号脱离轨道以来的首个俄罗斯专用空间站，并计划进行一系列载人和无人登月任务，甚至可能建立一个月球基地. 然而，俄罗斯的太空计划面临两个主要问题：缺乏足够的资金来实现其一些雄心勃勃的项目，以及资金和其他资源集中用于有争议的目的——比如正在莫斯科传奇的赫鲁尼切夫(Khrunichev)太空火箭工厂旁边建设一个25万平方米的办公中心。

尽管有很多太空第一(包括第一颗卫星、第一个进入太空的男人和女人、第一个空间站、第一次登月和火星着陆等)，但俄罗斯在 2020 年的太空计划上只花费了 35.8 亿美元，仅比日本多 2.6 亿美元，并且低于法国(40.4 亿美元)、中国(88.5 亿美元)和美国(476.9 亿美元)。随着中国航天局和美国宇航局展示他们的漫游车在火星表面漫游的最新图像和镜头，这些和其他因素让这个曾经享有太空先驱地位的国家望而却步。

原文阅读：

Engineers say the power plant can be delivered to the Red Planet using the Zeus – a prospective Russian nuclear-powered space tug design expected to begin flight-testing in 2030.

Specialists from the Arsenal Design Bureau – a St. Petersburg-based subsidiary of Russia’s Roscosmos space agency specialising in the production of spacecraft, satellites, and other space technologies – have proposed the creation of a nuclear power plant for a future Russian Mars base.

Sputnik was able to familiarise itself with the proposal – which recommends using technologies developed for the Zeus interplanetary space tug for a stationary nuclear reactor for the Martian surface as well.

Under Arsenal’s proposal, the reactor would be delivered to Red Planet aboard the Zeus, and floated down to its surface using a parachute system. After landing, the power plant would be activated to provide energy to a prospective Russian martian base.

On top of that, engineers say that if the Zeus were to be deployed at the Lagrange point between the Sun and Mars (i.e. the point in space where gravitational forces of these bodies are equally strong), its onboard communications sensors and transmitters could serve as a “high-speed channel for the transmission of information to Earth from the surface of Mars and from spacecraft orbiting the planet.”

Earlier, Sputnik reported that the Zeus project’s proposed megawatt-class electric propulsion system would allow it to disable the control systems of adversarial spacecraft using an electromagnetic impulse, and even allow it to fire laser beams.

Designers at the Moscow-based Keldysh Research Centre have also suggested the spacecraft class can be used as a component in Russia’s air defence network – detecting targets from orbit and relaying this information to ground-based missile systems.

Russia has been working on the creation of an interplanetary spacecraft with a nuclear power plant since 2010. In 2019, a concept for the space tug was presented for the first time at the MAKS International Aviation and Space Show outside Moscow, with a more detailed presentation given at the ARMY-2020 forum.

Last December, Roscosmos signed a $56.5 million contract with the Arsenal Design Bureau for experimental design work for the Zeus. This work is expected to be completed by 2024, with flight testing hopefully starting in 2030.

In June, Roscosmos Chief Dmitry Rogozin said that in addition to Mars, Zeus tugs could be sent to other planets, including Venus, and even travel beyond our solar system, where they can search for alien life.

Roscosmos has announced a series of ambitious plans in recent years, including the construction of the first Russian-only space station since the deorbiting of Mir in 2001, and plans for a series of manned and unmanned missions to the Moon and even a possible Moon base. Russia’s space programme has faced two major problems, however: a lack of sufficient funding to realise some of its ambitious projects, and the concentration of funds and other resources for arguably questionable purposes – such as the ongoing construction of a 250,000 square metre office centre next to the legendary Khrunichev space rocket factory in Moscow.

Despite a long list of space firsts (including first satellite, first man and woman in space, first space station, first Moon and Mars landing, etc.) Russia spent just $3.58 billion on its space programme in 2020, just $260 million more than Japan, and less than France ($4.04 billion), China ($8.85 billion) and the United States ($47.69 billion). These and other factors have left the country which once enjoyed the status of a space pioneer looking on as China’s space agency and NASA show off the latest images and footage of their rovers roaming around on the Martian surface.