MOSCOW, December 16. /TASS/. The most advantageous location for a lunar base has already been determined, and a lunar rover will explore it, Deputy Director of the Space Systems Department of Russia’s state-run corporation Roscosmos Denis Kutovoy reported.
"A lunar rover will travel through a designated area on the Moon — the most advantageous from the perspective of creating a lunar base. It will travel there and study the soil," he noted, speaking within the framework of the "100 Projects of Russia’s Future" program.
The Russian state space corporation is currently laying an "experimental foundation" for formulating further goals for human exploration of space, he emphasized.
President of the Russian Academy of Sciences Gennady Krasnikov said earlier that financing of Russia’s new lunar program, which is aimed at building a station on the Moon, would start in 2025.
"As for the lunar program, it includes seven lunar missions with various scientific tasks. <...> This is a large and very responsible program and, of course, a serious challenge for our academic institutions. Financing of this program will start already this year," he said.
At the first stage, research is suggested to be carried out with the help of automatic flights, Krasnikov said, adding that exploration of the Moon's poles where the largest ice clusters have been found, and collection of soil for analysis lie ahead. Later moon research vehicles will be sent there for terrain analysis and preparation for placement of the future lunar station.