Russia plans to create a long-term base on the surface of the moon as part of its lunar programme and study the satellite with the help of robot avatars, Roscosmos Chief, Dmitry Rogozin said on Tuesday.
“This is about creating a long-term base, naturally, not habitable, but visited.
“But basically, it is the transition to robotic systems, to avatars that will solve tasks on the moon surface,’’ local media reported.
Rogozin said the first landing of Russian cosmonaut on the moon is scheduled for 2030, though he did not specify how much time it might take to progress from the start of manned flights to the moon to the creation of full-fledged base.
“The Russian programme is more ambitious than what the US did for its lunar programme in the 1960s and 1970s,’’ he said.
The Moon is an astronomical body that orbits planet Earth and is Earth’s only permanent natural satellite.
It is the fifth-largest natural satellite in the solar system, and the largest among planetary satellites relative to the size of the planet that it orbits.
