Roscosmos and the European Space Agency (ESA) are going to launch a lander to the Moon in the next five years, which will study its South Pole.
The Luna-27 mission will be the first step towards returning a person to an Earth satellite and the subsequent construction of a permanent base there, according to BBC News.
In fact, this will be a continuation of the Soviet program for the exploration of the Moon, which was curtailed in 1976 - the last one was the flight of the Luna-24 station.
- We have to go to the moon. In the 21st century, it will become a permanent outpost of human civilization, and our country should participate in this process, - Igor Mitrofanov, head of the nuclear planetology department at the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told BBC News. - We must work together with our foreign colleagues.
“We have ambitions to send European astronauts to the moon. Currently, broad cooperation is being discussed at the international level on how to get back there, - said in turn the head of the lunar research group at the ESA European Center for Space Research and Technology.
First, a robot will be sent to the Earth satellite. Luna 27 will land on the edge of the South Pole Basin - Aitken (the largest known crater on the Moon). This is one of the coldest places in the solar system, there are areas where light does not penetrate.
They became a kind of ice prison for water and other chemical elements. The task of the lunar rover will be to determine whether this water is suitable for human use. Other chemical elements can be useful as rocket fuel. In addition, research may shed light on the origin of life in the solar system.
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The constant presence of a man on the moon, according to Igor Mitrofanov, will bring a lot of benefits - for astronomical observations, in terms of mining and creating an outpost that astronauts will visit as a test bench for a future flight to Mars.
ESA and its industry partners are now developing a new type of "Pilot" landing system that can more accurately navigate the terrain. It uses special cameras and lasers that will scan the topography of the lunar surface and decide on the possibility of landing.
Also under development is a new drill that will be able to drill lunar soil up to two meters deep to take samples. In this case, the principle of a perforator will be used: a combination of rotational and percussion movements.
The participation of European countries in the mission is to be finally approved at a ministerial meeting at the end of 2016.