According to the Russian online news site, Kommersant, the Russian Space Agency (Roscosmos) is setting out its aims for the next 18 years, and these will include the deployment of research stations on Mars, as well as a first Russian manned mission to the Moon.
The space agency has seen some hard times recently with satellites failing to reach orbit and a high-profile Mars mission, the Fobos Grunt, suffering a rocket failure and crashing back down to Earth in 2011.
However, undeterred, Russia’s new plans are focusing the highest priority on technological development and modernization, and will probably see new purchases of rocket technology from abroad in order to achieve its goal.
By 2030, Russia should be able "to conduct a manned circum-lunar test flight with the subsequent landing of cosmonauts on its surface and their return to Earth," the Roscosmos plan is quoted as saying.
The agency also hopes to join other nations in deploying a network of long-term research stations on Mars that could be used a stepping stone for an eventual colonization of the Red Planet.
The space agency has seen some hard times recently with satellites failing to reach orbit and a high-profile Mars mission, the Fobos Grunt, suffering a rocket failure and crashing back down to Earth in 2011.
However, undeterred, Russia’s new plans are focusing the highest priority on technological development and modernization, and will probably see new purchases of rocket technology from abroad in order to achieve its goal.
By 2030, Russia should be able "to conduct a manned circum-lunar test flight with the subsequent landing of cosmonauts on its surface and their return to Earth," the Roscosmos plan is quoted as saying.
The agency also hopes to join other nations in deploying a network of long-term research stations on Mars that could be used a stepping stone for an eventual colonization of the Red Planet.
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