Space nuclear tug “Zeus” with an energy-mounted installation of a megawatt class can be used in the Russian air defense system (air defense), RIA Novosti reports, referring to the materials of the Keldysh Research Center.
According to the data presented, the towing can be used to track aircraft of the enemy, in particular, determining their location.
Similar features will allow “Zeus” to cover zones by a radius of 2,200 kilometers (if the power of the radar equipment is 50 kilowatt) or 4300 kilometers (200 kilowatt). “In the second case, all the airspace of Russia and part of the space of neighboring states will enter the zone of its actions,” the agency notes.
In October 2020, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Cosmonautics named after Tsiolkovsky Andrei Ionin said that Russia could catch up with the US in the lunar program if it created a nuclear tug.
In September of the same year, the executive director of Roskosmos on promising programs and science Alexander Bloishenko said that Roskosmos, by the end of this year, planned the signing of a contract that suggests the development of nuclear cosmobusir “Nucleon”, which in 2030 will be launched to one from Jupiter satellites.