Now it is the space to begin its journey of the nuclear age. The world has been nuclearized for a long time but this fanatic nuclear race is not going to end here. It is now expanding to outer space. This devastating race has already begun among the big powers of the world.
In November 2021, Russia hit an inactive satellite in space. The debris of which will orbit the Earth for decades. This was the first missile test performed by Russia. China also carried out the same missile test in 2007, creating a long-lasting cloud of shrapnel. India and the United States of America have also done the same experiment. All this is polluting the space with enduring space junk. This all is very dangerous and alarming. It will not only make the wars more lethal but also the space will become an extremely risky place.
This is the era of modern technology and now the world is run by satellites. If critical satellites are knocked out, it will be a blackout for the world. The big powers are now worried about the security of their satellites as wars can not be fought without modern satellites. Today's wars are satellites based wars. Therefore, the big powers of the world want to produce their next generation of satellites with enough power of escaping such attacks.
This is only possible if they make nuclear-powered propulsion satellites with the help of a technology known as nuclear thermal propulsion. Inside a small nuclear reactor of the spacecraft, atoms of Uranium will be split to produce enormous heat which will produce tremendous thrust when shooting out to the nozzle of the spacecraft. This will take the spacecraft to a geostationary orbit above the planet which is 36000 km up. This will be a matter of hours as compared to normal satellites taking several days for such trips. These abundantly powered satellites would be hard to hit. All this is going to happen in the next five years.
The biggest challenge in this regard for scientists is to make satellites harder to be tracked and disable. These kinds of satellites can also be produced with the help of nuclear batteries which are already used for sending probes into deep space.
we don't know what will be the consequences of sending nuclear equipment into space. Because such missions can confront the world and humanity with disaster. What if the launching rocket of such a satellite explodes at the launching pad or crashed into the sea or re-enters the atmosphere? The United States of America, China, and Russia are contesting each other in a nuclear quest for developing nuclear power for space.
China is determined to have a nuclear-powered fleet of space shuttles. Russia hopes to launch its nuclear-powered cargo spacecraft, Zeus, in 2030. With this development, spacefaring nations will be more suspicious as these kinds of spacecraft can jam communication, and can bring floods n certain areas. They think such systems are vital for space dominance.
The development of such systems is not only meant for the armed forces but they can be used to land astronauts on far clenched planets like Mars one day which will be much faster to reach Mars within six months.
It shows that in one way or another, space is about to begin its nuclear age.