Future Mars projects to use nuclear energy

Moscow, Oct 27 : The only way to implement the future Mars manned exploration projects would be by using nuclear energy, said Russia's Energia Aerospace Corporation president Vitaly Lopota.

Since current rocket technologies are not sufficient for future exploration of Mars and the Solar system, as no alternative energy resources have been found as of now, the only way to implement those projects would be by using nuclear energy, Lopota said at a conference here Monday.

He added that the Mars projects should be prioritised over the Lunar ones, because the technologies applied to the former could be used in the latter, but it would be more difficult to achieve the goal in the reversed order, Xinhua reported.