OREANDA-NEWS. The nuclear tug Zeus, which is being developed by Russia, will search for life in the Universe, the head of Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin said on Tuesday.

"And missions that are sent to Mars, to Venus, and in the future, after the creation of thermonuclear capabilities, when moving outside the solar system, it will be the most important task to discover and understand: are we alone in space, or is there another life," he said on International Conference on Space Exploration GLEX-2021.

The creation of elements of a nuclear tug on the basis of a transport and energy module with a nuclear power plant of a megawatt class has been carried out in Russia since 2010.

In 2019, at the International Aviation and Space Salon MAKS, a model of a tugboat was presented for the first time, and at the Army-2020 forum, a three-dimensional schedule of its work in space was presented.

In January 2020, in a presentation by Yuri Urlichich, First Deputy General Director of Roscosmos, presented at the Royal Readings, plans were made to launch a nuclear tug into orbit in 2030 for flight tests.

After that, developers are planning to start its production and use on the commercial base. In accordance with the contract previously posted on the public procurement website, the development of the preliminary design of the tug will be completed by July 2024 and will cost 4.2 billion rubles.

It was reported that the nuclear tug will be designed for flights to the Moon and the planets of the solar system. It got the name "Zeus", and the research and development work itself is called "Nuclon".