The Technology of Discovery

4Nuclear Systems Used for Space Exploration by Other Countries

Christofer E. Whiting

University of Dayton Research Institute, Dayton, Ohio

While the United States is undoubtedly the world leader in spaceborne RTGs, a few other countries have also attempted to develop this capability. The European Space Agency is probably the most well‐known because they have been very open about developing their americium‐241 RTG. [1] China and the Soviet Union are also known to have launched radioisotope power systems into space, but detailed discussions of their space programs are not in the open literature/media. This absence of information makes it very difficult to find authoritative references that can discuss, or even confirm, the use of Soviet/Russian or Chinese RTGs in space. Thus, making it hard to appreciate the RTG capabilities held by these other countries.

Here we will review the verified capabilities of other countries with authoritative media or literature sources.

4.1 Soviet Union¹

The Soviet Union still holds the record for most nuclear space mission launches in the world. [2,3] However, most of these missions were powered by space reactors that only operated in Earth orbit for a few weeks or months. Between 1969 and 1988, the Soviet Union launched thirty‐five nuclear reactors that achieved stable orbit. The vast majority of these reactors were of the RORSAT design, which used a highly enriched uranium‐based fission core to produce heat and thermoelectric couples to convert ...