KHIMKI, Moscow Region, October 12 (Itar-Tass) —— The moon exploration programs are financed in full, director-general and designer-general of the Lavochkin scientific and production centre Viktor Khartov told reporters on Friday.
The financing is proceeding as normal and in the normal volume, he said.
"We must touch down on the moon in 2015. We must show that we can do it," Khartov noted.
The project is revised and corrected in connection with the Phobos probe mission failure. "The essence of the program is corrected," he said.
At the same time, Khartov believes the lunar programs will help to carry out the second mission to Mars successfully. "The Phobos probe failure is a scar on all of us," he said. But it must be taken as a lesson, he added.
According to Khartov, the main conclusion from the mission failure is the conviction that space projects must be carried out step-by-step, going from simple to complex.
"I think it is a right trend, that at first we must touch down on the moon to show to ourselves that we can do it," he said.
During the moon missions, Russian spacecraft will take ice on the moon and return the ice to Earth for research.
Skills must be acquired in the process that will allow returning to the Phobos project, the director-general believes.
Aside from the moon mission, the scientific centre works on other projects. The Electro-2 spacecraft is planned to be launched in 2013, the Spektr-RG in 2014, and the Spektr-UF in 2015.