Russia hopes to land humans on the Moon in 2029
Russia’s growing interest in the Moon manifests itself in more and bolder announcements regarding the future manned landing on the lunar surface. On Tuesday, October 27, 2015, one of the country’s top space industry officials, Vladimir Solntsev, revealed that Russia aims to land a man on the Moon in 2029.
“A manned flight to the Moon and lunar landing is planned for 2029,” said Solntsev, the head of the RKK Energia company.
RKK Energia is the manufacturer of spacecraft and space station components. The company is the prime developer and contractor of the Russian manned spaceflight program.
Artist’s rendition of Luna 25 (Luna-Glob Lander) on the surface of the Moon. Image Credit: NPO Lavochkin
Solntsev said that Russian scientists in Moscow are building a new spacecraft made of composites specifically for Moon missions. Its first flight is scheduled for 2021. Two years later, the vehicle will be sent to the International Space Station (ISS), and in 2025 it will complete an unmanned lunar mission.
Russia also plans to send a lunar polar lander around 2024, named Luna-25 (formerly known as the Luna-Glob lander). It will be the country’s first step toward the creation of a fully robotic base on the Moon. Currently, five Luna missions are planned. The European Space Agency (ESA) has lately expressed interest in Russian efforts to colonize the Moon. The agency said it would offer key technical expertise for future lunar missions.
ESA also hopes that a possible cooperation with Russia could help the agency send European astronauts to the Moon.
“We have an ambition to have European astronauts on the Moon. There are currently discussions at [an] international level going on for broad cooperation on how to go back to the Moon,” said Berengere Houdou, the head of the lunar exploration group at ESA’s European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC).
Tuesday’s announcement coincides with the start of the Russian isolation experiment Luna-2015 (Moon-2015) at the Institute for Biomedical Problems (IBMP) of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The experiment simulates an eight-day-long flight from the Earth to the Moon and aims at testing the psychology and physiology of female humans – as the crew consists of six women. RKK Energia said that its specialists will closely study the results of this experiment and, possibly, will take them into account when developing the hardware to support a manned lunar mission.
“Our specialists will conduct a detailed analysis of all the data obtained in the Luna-2015 experiment. We hope that this will help us improve the characteristics of the habitable environment inside the hardware which is being developed to deliver man to the Moon, as well as thoroughly work out the issues of medical and biological support for the missions,” said Mark Serov, the head of the flight testing department at RKK Energia.
The last Russian unmanned mission to the Moon, Luna 24, landed on the lunar surface on August 18, 1976. It was also the last spacecraft to make a soft landing on the Moon until the landing of China’s Chang’e 3 on December 14, 2013.
In 1989, the then Soviet Union officially acknowledged the existence of its manned lunar program. The former USSR and now Russia has, so far, failed to land cosmonauts on the Moon.
Tomasz Nowakowski
Tomasz Nowakowski is the owner of Astro Watch, one of the premier astronomy and science-related blogs on the internet. Nowakowski reached out to SpaceFlight Insider in an effort to have the two space-related websites collaborate. Nowakowski's generous offer was gratefully received with the two organizations now working to better relay important developments as they pertain to space exploration.
Well, in 2006 they were planning a moonbase mining helium-3 by 2015.
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/11045876/ns/technology_and_science-space/t/could-russians-build-moon-base/
I will believe it when I see it….
All space agencies are targeting the Moon which is the platform from which humankind will expand into the solar system. By sharing costs and knowledge all agencies will achieve their goals. The International Lunar Decade to be launched in 2017, the 60th anniversary of the International Geophysical Year and of the launch of Sputnik will start a process that will lead to a breakthrough to sustainable operations in space. Abundant resources on the Moon and asteroids will provide fuel and construction materials and the basis for a space economy.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/30/russia-to-scale-back-space-programme-as-economic-crisis-bites