Russia to send humans to Moon in 2029
Russia intends to launch a manned lunar mission after it successfully landed the first man-made object on the moon in the late 50’s.
“A manned flight to the moon and lunar landing is planned for 2029,” Vladimir Solntsev, the head of the Russian Federal Space Agency commonly known as Roscosmos, announced during a space technology conference in the capital Moscow on Tuesday.
Solntsev added that Russian scientists in Moscow were currently building a new spacecraft made of composites specifically designed for moon missions.
The maiden flight has been scheduled for 2021. In 2023, the spacecraft is due to dock with the International Space Station and the first unmanned mission to the moon has been set for 2025.
Russia reportedly plans to land the Luna 25 research vessel on the south pole of the moon to explore its internal structure and the impact of the cosmic rays and electromagnetic radiation on its surface.
According to Igor Mitrofanov, a leading scientist at the Russian Space Research Institute, Russia hopes to return to the Earth’s natural satellite and establish a human settlement and a research station there.
"We have to go to the Moon. The 21st century will be the century when it will be the permanent outpost of human civilization, and our country has to participate in this process. It will be for astronomical observation, for the utilization of minerals and other lunar resources and to create an outpost that can be visited by cosmonauts working together as a test bed for their future flight to Mars,” he told the state-run BBC on October 16.
Russia’s Luna 2 spacecraft touched the lunar surface on September 14, 1959 after the failure of the Luna 1, marking it the first ever landing of an artificial object on the moon.
The Lunar 2 successful mission staged a tense competition between Russia and the United States during the heydays of the Cold War.
Ten years later, on July 20, 1969, Americans, with their Apollo 11 spacecraft, managed to land humans on the moon in their first ever manned lunar mission, and sent humans for five more times to the Earth’s natural satellite till 1972.
On August 9, 1976, the Luna 24, the last Russian unmanned mission to the moon, was launched and managed to bring samples from the moon’s soil back to the Earth.
Russia has so far failed to send its astronauts to the moon.
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