A Russian rocket engine company, with the assistance of a major research and development institute, will work on a project to create a powerful electrodeless plasma rocket engine, Russia's Roscosmos space corporation said Wednesday.

The project will be developed by the Kurchatov Institute, Russia's leading research and development institution in the field of nuclear energy, and the Chemical Automatics Design Bureau (CADB).

"The project involves the development of a new-generation electrodeless plasma engine. It is a high-power engine using fuel in a plasma state. It has a high energy efficiency, an ability to use almost any kind of rocket fuel... and its maximum engine power is limited only by the power supply of a high-frequency generator," Roscosmos said in a statement.

According to Roscosmos, the implementation of the ideas incorporated in the proposed project became possible due to the advance made in the study of plasma fusion process, in the development of high-temperature superconducting technology and modern electronic components of high-frequency generators.

++Roscosmos Proposes International Team to Create Super-Heavy Carrier Rocket++ Russia offers its international partners to jointly create a new super-heavy-lift launch vehicle, the deputy head of Russia's space agency Roscosmos said Tuesday.

"The work on establishing the following means of the development of outer space - a joint creation of a super-heavy launch vehicle - may be organized within the framework of the international cooperation. We propose to our partners to create [the carrier rocket] together," Sergei Saveliev told reporters.

In April 2015, the Russian space agency abandoned plans to develop a super-heavy space launch vehicle after re-allocating funds and focusing on modifying a heavy Angara-A5 rocket to lift super-heavy loads.

In late March, Roscosomos announced that Russia would show the design of a super-heavy space launch vehicle before the end of 2016.

Source: Sputnik News