Russia, US space chiefs to discuss nuclear-powered craft

MOSCOW, April 15 (Itar-Tass) -- Head of the Russian space agency
(Roskosmos) Anatoly Perminov will offer to NASA Administrator Charles
Bolden on Friday to join efforts and finances in the creation of a
nuclear-powered spacecraft that will make the voyage to Mars and other
planets much faster.
Perminov earlier told reporters "Russia initiated the design of
one-megawatt nuclear engine as existing engines make a flight to Mars too
long." The proposed craft will make the flight 20-times faster.
He said the project may be ready in 2019 and Russia "does not object
other countries joining it."
Chief designer of Energiya Space Corporation Vitaly Lopota estimated
the project might cost dozens of billions of rubles and said "so far much
less has been appropriated."
He insisted "only a nuclear engine allows travel to distant space."
"Since 2010 the project to design a transport-energy module based on a
nuclear reactor and an electric-jet engine has been implemented in the
framework of the presidential economic modernization program," Lapota said.
He believes nuclear-powered spacecraft will travel at a speed of
90-100 kilometers per second against current 11.2 and 16.6 kilometers.
"With current boosters we are unable to accelerate more than the
second-third space speed," he said.