SALUT RUSSIA, BONJOUR, MONSIEUR VLADIMIR, BOUNJOUR MONSIEUR DEPARDIEU..

PUBLICIS PIGS, UASS ET PINGUIN

ERIC ROHMER

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bg59q4puhmg

G1

Russia rejoins Space Race with launching of new Moon program.

Russia’s next unmanned mission to the Moon will be launched in 2015 – the Russian space agency has said that three lunar exploration missions will be launched in the next five years from a cosmodrome under construction in country’s Far East region.

­The first space launch to be made from Cosmodrome Vostochny in 2015 will be the lunar mission ‘Luna-Glob-1’ (Lunar sphere), Roscosmos head Vladimir Popovkin announced. “There is every reason to believe that Cosmodrome Vostochny will be operational as scheduled in 2015,” Popovkin said, adding that the moon missions from Vostochny will be launched using Soyuz-2 rocket boosters

The ‘Luna-Glob-1’ module will be loaded with only 20 kilograms of scientific equipment instead of the previously planned 34 kilograms. The 1.2-ton module has been stripped of its drilling device, and its main task will now be testing a new surface landing platform.

Luna orbital scientific module ‘Luna-Glob-2’ is planned for launch in 2016. And in 2017, the three-ton Russian-Indian module ‘Luna-Resurs’ (Lunar resource), carrying advanced scientific equipment, will launch for the Moon.

The new missions will mark Russia’s return to the Moon after a 40-year hiatus – Russia’s last lunar mission was completed in 1973, during the Soviet era.

Russian scientists have already chosen six landing points on the Moon for future missions. They are equally distributed between the Moon’s north and south poles. Scientific interest in the Moon’s polar areas was sparked by the discovery of water ice in those regions, which could theoretically be used to produce fuel for future spaceflights and the exploration of the Solar System. 

Cosmodrome Vostochny: Russia’s gateway to the Moon

­In mid-2012, Roscosmos began construction of the Vostochny Cosmodrome near the town of Uglegorsk in the Amur territory of Russia’s Far East. Russian President Vladimir Putin announced plans to invest $1 billion into the construction of Vostochny, which is situated near the Chinese border.

The project is a top priority for Russia’s space exploration program, as it will lessen Moscow’s dependence on the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, which is currently Roscosmos’ primary launch facility.