Russia will send cosmonauts to the moon in 2025

Three years later, the construction of a manned Russian permanent station is expected to begin. These details and other details from the vision of the Russian Space Agency were given on Friday by the director of the agency, Anatoly Paraminov

Russia will send cosmonauts to the moon in 2025, and it plans to build a permanent manned base there. This is what Anatoly Ferminov, the head of Russia's space agency, said on Friday (31/8/2007), who also added that Russia intends to send humans to Mars ten years later. As for the present, Ferminov says that by the end of the year Russia will have 103 satellites in orbit.

As for space tourism, which until now has been reserved for wealthy Western tourists, although it is carried out in Soyuz spacecraft from Baikonur - in 2009 the mix of tourists is expected to change when the first paying Russian citizen will fly to the station that year. The man, whose name was not given, is a young businessman and politician. The tickets for the tourist flights, whose price, according to the news agencies, has already risen to 30 million dollars, are an important source of income for the Russian space agency.
Paraminov also stated that the agency seeks to reduce its dependence on the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for manned space launches.
"If we build a new manned spacecraft, which is our plan for 2015, we will require a new launcher and this launcher will require a new launch," Ferminov told reporters at a press conference in Moscow. "We haven't decided whether to build this launch pad in Baikonur or in Russia."
Space.com reports that while Ferminov did not specify the name of the new spacecraft, the Russian space agency has already reserved the Clipper spacecraft of the Russian rocket company Energia, as a replacement for the Soyuz-TMA and which can also be used for interplanetary flights.
If Russia wants to launch the new spacecraft from its territory, it will have to build a cosmodrome - a new spaceport from scratch. None of the spaceports that exist in Russia - including Plastsk in northern Russia or Svobodny and Ekpostin Yar in the Far East and in the south of the country (respectively and which are rarely used) meet the requirements of the new spacecraft, he said. However, Russia will continue to lease the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan whether it builds a new cosmodrome or not. In 2004, Russia and Kazakhstan extended their agreement, which was signed back in 1994 by Yeltsin and Nazarbayev, according to which Russia pays 115 million dollars for the lease for 20 years (not much for an area equal to half the area of ​​Israel).

future tasksParaminov stated that Russia will ask its partners for the space station to extend its activities until 2020 instead of 2015. By then, Russia will be able to launch the next generation space station and, as mentioned, it is also planning missions to other planets - in 2025, Russia intends to send cosmonauts to the moon and later - in 2028 - 2032 to establish an outpost on the surface of our natural satellite, and as mentioned, the flight to Mars is not expected to take off before 2035. According to him, problems involving the extreme conditions on Mars have not yet been resolved, and in addition, he said, "The existing spacecraft do not provide the necessary protection for the crew to survive there and return to Earth," he said. " The journey, which will last between two and three years, will require meeting the challenges in terms of storage space and the pressure that will be exerted on the isolated crew members." said.
Paraminov was also asked about the idea of ​​mining helium 3 on the moon, and he said that at this stage it is not a practical project.