Russia's united state space program, set to start next year, will include launches of heavy lunar rovers that will bring soil samples from the Moon and study the lunar surface, the chief of Russian space corporation Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, said on Friday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th December, 2019) Russia's united state space program, set to start next year, will include launches of heavy lunar rovers that will bring soil samples from the Moon and study the lunar surface, the chief of Russian space corporation Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, said on Friday.In early January, Rogozin said that the Luna-25 unmanned lunar exploration mission, initially planned for 2014, would be sent to the Moon in 2021. The Luna-26 and the Luna-27 missions are slated for 2023 and 2024, respectively. These missions are included in Russia's Federal Space Program for the period until 2025. Meanwhile, Luna-28, which will deliver samples of lunar soil to Earth, and Luna-29 lander set to deliver a rover to the Moon are not included in any space program yet.
"The new program that we will develop and adopt next year the state program 'Space Activity of Russia' will include the following vehicles [after Luna-25, -26 and -27]. These are heavy rovers able to drill regolith, select needed minerals and subsequently deliver them to the Earth," Rogozin said at a press conference at the Rossiya Segodnya International news Agency.
Rogozin added that work on building the Luna-25 and Luna-26 had already started. He also said he saw no reason to think that the Luna-25 launch would be delayed.
