In 2024, the Russian Federation may send its own independent expedition to explore the surface of Mars. Information about this was provided the day before by the press service of Roscosmos.
According to representatives of the Russian space department, according to the Federal Space Program, designed for the period until 2025, Roskosmos plans to conduct at least three expeditions directly to Mars. Astronauts from Russia will conduct two of them together with colleagues from the European Space Agency. The missions were named "ExoMars" and are scheduled for 2016 and 2018. In addition, scientists are going to organize a separate independent expedition to the red planet. The main task of "Expedition-M" will be to study the soil of Mars and its satellites.
Roscosmos added that the launch of a mission to Mars is planned in 2024 and this will happen with the help of the unique Proton-M launch vehicle. For this, the department is ready to allocate about 10 billion rubles from the general budget for the Federal Space Program. The mass of the spacecraft of the unique Expedition-M is expected to be no more than five tons.
Liza Morskaya