August 4, 2014
Categories: Moon, Russia, Science

RIA Novosti – A manned mission to the Moon will cost Russia 100 billion rubles (about $2.8 billion), Igor Mitrofanov, laboratory director at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Space Research Institute said Sunday.

“An estimated cost of one project aimed at the development of an automatic lunar station is 10 billion rubles (about $280 million). The project is to be completed in five or six years. The manned lunar mission will cost ten times more,” Mitrofanov told reporters during the COSPAR Scientific Assembly in Moscow.

He elaborated that prior to the manned flight it is necessary to “learn to conduct the Moon landing all over again,” and automatic lunar stations are needed for this purpose.

According to Mitrofanov, one of the Space Research Institute’s partners is currently developing three stations called Luna-25 (Luna-Glob project), Luna-26 and Luna-27 under the Luna-Resource project.

He elaborated that Luna-25 and Luna-27 are landers aimed to run for one year, whereas Luna-26 is an orbiter, which will monitor the Moon for two years.

Mitrofanov stressed that within the next ten years lunar bases will likely to be created.

A mission to the Moon has become one of Russia’s top priorities in space. Russia plans to launch three lunar spacecraft — two to surface and one to the orbit — by the end of the decade.

The first mission, the long-delayed Luna-25, is slated for launch in 2016 and land at the Moon’s South Pole. The next two missions will include an orbiter to monitor the Moon in 2018 and a lander with a drill to search for water ice in 2019.

More from this category:
July 13, 2016

We are making apologize for not posting news for such a long period. Our specialists went to Baikonur spaceport to watch new Soyuz MS spacecraft…

full story
June 25, 2021

At the Baikonur Cosmodrome, the Progress MS-17 cargo spacecraft processing continues for the launch under the 78th re-supply mission to the International Space Station (ISS)….

full story
February 17, 2016

After station reboost maneuver medium altitude of the ISS increased by 1,8 km and amounted to 404,4 km, – spokesman for MCC reported. ‘Progress M-29M…

full story
September 28, 2016

The launch of Soyuz MS-02 spacecraft initially scheduled for September 23 and postponed due to technical reasons was preliminarily scheduled for October 19, – the…

full story
October 5, 2020

The first launch of reusable Amur booster with methane-powered engine is planned for 2026, Roscosmos reported. Reusability is the major current trend in space industry…

full story
November 29, 2018

On November 29, in accordance with the pre-launch preparation plan, the main and backup crews of the upcoming long-term expedition to the ISS conducted a…

full story
July 10, 2018

On 10 July 2018, at 4:31AM Moscow time, “Progress MS-09” cargo spacecraft has successfully docked the International Space Station. For the first time in the…

full story
May 27, 2019

The “Soyuz-2.1b” launch vehicle with the “Glonass-M” navigation satellite launched from the Plesetsk cosmodrome. The launch was performed at 09:23 am (Moscow time) by the…

full story