Russia plans a nuclear power plant on the moon within a decade

Russia’s state space corporation, Roscosmos, said in a statement that it planned to build a lunar power plant by 2036 and signed a contract with the Lavochkin Association aerospace company to do it.

Roscosmos said the purpose of ‌the plant was to power Russia’s lunar programme, including rovers, an observatory and the infrastructure of the joint Russian-Chinese International Lunar Research ‌Station.

“The project is an important step towards the creation of a permanently functioning scientific lunar station and ‌the transition from one-time missions to a long-term lunar exploration program,” Roscosmos said.

Roscosmos did not say explicitly that the ‌plant would be nuclear ‍but it ⁠said the ​participants included Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom and the Kurchatov Institute, Russia’s leading nuclear research institute.

The head ⁠of Roscosmos, Dmitry Bakanov, said in June ⁠that one of the corporation’s aims was to put a nuclear power plant on the moon and to explore Venus, known as earth’s “sister” planet.

The ‌moon, which is 384,400 km (238,855 miles) from our planet, moderates the earth’s wobble on its axis, which ‌ensures a more stable climate. It also causes tides in the world’s oceans.