So is this what RSC Energia have been looking for? Federal government money to go after the Moon?
This will include two penetrators that will be fired toward the Apollo 11 and Apollo 12 landing sites to acquire subsurface data to build on the manned exploration and instrumentation left at those locations 37 years ago by U.S. astronauts.
"Tranquility Base here, we're being bombed by the Russians!"
Simon
Do the Russians on here think Russia will make it to the moon with the money being asked, or is it similar to the NASA aims, which obviously cost a lot more than they are claiming.
Does President Putin support the Moon/Mars visions for Russia? Has Russia/Soviet Union ever had a president that really was a big space fan?
how close do you suppose they will attempt to land near 11 and 12? It would be horrible if they somehow accidently disturbed the sites, especially tranquility base.
It would be one amazing shot if they did hit anything from the Apollo program
More here on Luna-Glob:
http://lunar.gsfc.nasa.gov/library/3-03RSA_Future-Mitrofanov.pdfThis is the official Russian Federal Space Agency plan, not the Energia plan, so at least there is Federal money behind the project. Note the convergence with the 2009 Phobos-Grunt systems, which are designed to fly on Soyuz instead of Proton.
Until it launches I won't hold my breath. There has been lots of talk out of Russia about grand plans but little has materialized.
Would be very exciting to Russia getting into the lunar game.
FWIW, both Photos-Grunt and Luna-Glob are in the Federal budget. Typically, Russian programs that are authorized in the budget do get to fly, sooner or later. More recently, money has been flowing into the FSA budget, so the prospects are better now that these will fly on time.
Fingers crossed.
It seems that the whole mission is yet undefined. Russia and India signed an agreement on Lunar exploration,
link.
According to this article the whole Russian moon exploration program will consist of 4 probes, The first launched in 2010, to be entirely Russian. A second probe to be launched in 2011 will be done in cooperation with India and to be launched from India. A 3rd and 4th probe to launched even later will study mineral resources and other scientific and research experiments.
There is still the idea of penetrators floating around for the first mission.
