China Nuclear Spaceship at Final Application Stage after 30 Years Research

China’s future space exploration depends on success in the development of nuclear spaceship

Sun Zezhou, chief designer of China’s Chang’e III lunar spaceship told Oriental Outlook weekly that for exploration of the planets further from the sun such as Jupiter, it is not practical to rely wholly on energy from the sun. By that time there will be greater demand for nuclear power for spaceships.

China began the research into space nuclear reactor in the 1970s but suspended the research for some time.

During the ninth five-year plan (1996-2000), China completed the design in concept of space nuclear reactor.

Since the tenth five-year plan (2001-2005), China began the initial design and the tackling of key technical problems of space nuclear reactors.

In December 2013, China openly announced that it had successfully completed the research of its “scheme for large space nuclear propulsion”.

Sun said that at present, China is entirely capable of Mars exploration including the capabilities of launching the carrier rocket, control and surveillance.

According to his analysis, the Changzhen V rocket that will soon be successfully developed can send spaceship able to soft-land on Mars but not to bring back samples to Earth. He believes that China will explore Jupiter within the coming 15 years; therefore, there will be more urgent demand for space nuclear propulsion technology in the coming decade.

Sun and other experts talked about the difficulties in building a space nuclear reactor and America’s and Soviet Union’s failure in developing such reactors in the past but did not reveal what progress China has made in overcoming the difficulties.

Source: huanqiu.com “China at the final application stage of nuclear spaceship development after 30 years of research” (summary by Chan Kai Yee based on the report in Chinese)

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