News

January 26, 2010, S.P.Korolev RSC Energia,
Korolev, Moscow region - Moscow, Bauman Technical University

S.P.Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia takes an active part in the proceedings of the 34th Academic Lectures on Cosmonautics.

The lectures are dedicated to the memory of Academician S.P.Korolev and his associates - outstanding scientists who pioneered space exploration in our country. The Lectures are held from January 26, 2010, at the Bauman Moscow State Technical University.

The Lectures proceedings were opened by the Organizing Committee Chairman, Chief Scientific Consultant of the S.P.Korolev RSC Energia, a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences B.Ye.Chertok.

The participants in the Lectures heard welcoming speeches from representatives of the Bauman Moscow State Technical University, Federal Space Agency and the European Space Agency. They wished successful completion of the proceedings and new creative achievements to the participants.

Heard with great interest was the lecture by RSC Energia President and General Designer V.A. Lopota on the subject of "The Mission of the 21st Century Generation: Exploration of the Solar System".

Having recounted the activities and achievements of the company in the fields of rocketry and spaceflight, including manned spaceflight, in the past, he proceeded to present the Corporation's proposals on the possible strategy for the Solar System exploration and the use of the gained knowledge and technologies in the interests of humankind.

His lecture presented the case for the need to develop nuclear-power based space systems and technology. Their basic elements are to be a high-power space Nuclear Power Unit (NPU) and a multi-purpose space platform with NPU, which are expected to be developed within the next 10 to 15 years.

Presented among possible applications for the NPU were concepts of large specialized spacecraft for global space telecommunications, for all-weather Earth monitoring, including both radar- and optic-based observations, for information support in the areas of natural disasters and local conflicts, as well as for an integrated ground system for repelling asteroid/rocket threat.

Also reviewed were the concepts of using the power units within space tugs to address the tasks which may in the future be of interests to both mankind as a whole and to individual countries. For example: Transportation of various payloads to high Earth orbits, to the Moon, to the planets of the Solar System, removal of expended spacecraft from high-orbits, including geostationary orbit, to disposal areas, protection of Earth against asteroid/comet threat. A similar power unit may also find application within a power plant supplying power to a planetary or a lunar base.

The lecture also presented proposals on the evolutionary development of Russia's manned space program, the modular construction of space hardware for its implementation, on expansion of human presence in near-Earth space, on space hardware for the Martian and lunar programs.

Participants in the Lectures include outstanding scientists, employees and veterans of space companies and organizations from Russia and abroad, N.S.Koroleva - daughter of academician S.P.Korolev, young scientists and students.

The Lectures will continue till January 29.

Explanatory comment:

News reports in certain publications incorrectly construed the part of the lecture, which showed one of the possible concepts for the use of NPU on-board of a hypothetical specialized spacecraft, which was described in some publications as a "military spacecraft" that would be capable of "addressing, among other tasks, the task of making a kill". What was really meant here was the concept of using such a spacecraft for all-weather monitoring of territories and air-space, information support in the areas of natural disasters and local conflicts, as well as its use within an integrated ground system for repelling asteroid/comet threat.