Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Credit: Roscosmos/Keldysh Research Center

Russia’s go-it-alone space station plans include cosmonauts visiting a nuclear tug to turn on the system.

As reported by TASS, Dmitry Rogozin, Director General of Roscosmos, has stated that crews of the Russian Orbital Service Station (ROSS) would trek to the nuclear tug “Zeus” before turning on its reactor in order to control the deployment of systems.

“The new station will operate in an orbit from which the crew with their manned spacecraft will be able to visit our nuclear space tug Zeus to control the deployment of all its key elements and structures,” Rogozin wrote in his Telegram channel.

Credit: Roscosmos/Keldysh Research Center

Rogozin said a visit to the nuclear tug will be possible in a safe orbit of roughly 500 miles (800 kilometers) above the Earth prior to the reactor being turned on. Astronauts will primarily control the deployment of radiators to dump excess heat.

Transport and energy module

Zeus details are being fleshed out at the Keldysh Research Center. Work is ongoing at the center that carries out experimental, calculation and theoretical studies on improvement of power supply characteristics in rocket and space technologies.

Credit: Roscosmos/Keldysh Research Center

For example, a  Transport and Energy Module (TEM) concept is based on a megawatt-class nuclear power propulsion system.

TEM is envisioned as hardware to implement expeditions into deep space; increase the efficiency of transport operations in space by 20 times; augment more than 10 times the use of electric power in space, according to the Keldysh Research Center website.