MOSCOW, April 11. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia has determined the general conceptual basis of outer space exploration and development. Top tasks of the country are to expand its presence on low earth orbits, exploration and colonization of the Moon, start of exploration of Mars and other Solar System objects. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said this in his article published by Rossiiskaya Gazeta daily on Friday.

In his words, the near future goals of Russian space industry should become the formation of a market of space services and advanced achievements in exploration and development of remote space resources.

The domestic project on far space exploration would play a special role in this, Rogozin noted. Now the Russian space agency Roscosmos jointly with several ministries and in cooperation with the Russian Academy of Sciences and Russian state-run nuclear corporation Rosatom are instructed to draft and formulate proposals on expediency of project’s implementation, he added.

“The key trends of developments within this national project will be creation of nuclear power plants and energy conversion plasma technologies, development of biotechnologies, robotic machinery and new materials,” the deputy prime minister added.

“At the same time, works are being launched to make a technical shape of a piloted spaceship on a basis of a super-heavy rocket for lunar missions and to the Mars in the future,” Rogozin added. Feasibility studies are also being done “to create powerful orbital transfer vehicles without which exploration of the Moon and Solar System planets is impossible.”

Meanwhile, a weak spot of Russian cosmonautics remains production of high-quality domestic electronics, exactly speaking, electronic component base, deputy prime minister noted. “Space-borne transponders on telecommunications satellites being created in the last few years are produced fully by foreign companies or by Russian space enterprises on a basis of foreign components,” the deputy prime minister stated. “Therefore, the military-industrial committee empowered the Federal Space Agency to assume the role of systemic integrator and actual contractor of radiation-resistance electronic component base for domestic productions,” the deputy premier added.

Rogozin also commented on the halt of NASA’s cooperation with Russia. He said that today, amid sanctions, there is an opportunity to draft a development strategy of domestic piloted space missions independently from unreliable international partners.