Russia to launch new wave of Moon missions in 2015

Russia's rekindling of an aggressive five-mission Moon exploration plan was unveiled by Igor Mitrofanov of the Institute for Space Research in Moscow

Russia - once a robotic Moon exploration champion - is planning a wave of new lunar explorations in 2015, four decades after the country's last mission to the Earth's natural satellite.

Russia's rekindling of an aggressive five-mission Moon exploration plan was unveiled by Igor Mitrofanov of the Institute for Space Research (IKI) in Moscow.

The country launched its last Moon mission called Luna 24 in August 1976, when it was still the Soviet Union. The mission was the last in the Luna series and featured a spacecraft that landed on the Moon and returned samples, SPACE.Com reported.

The former Soviet Union's robotic lunar programme achieved a number of notable "firsts" on Earth's satellite, including the first spacecraft to impact the Moon, first flyby and photograph of the lunar farside, first soft landing on the lunar surface, first lunar orbiter, first circumlunar probe to return to Earth, first automatic return of lunar samples and the first Moon rover Lunokhod.

Now, Russian space scientists are scripting a new plan to reconnect with the Moon.

"Exploration of the Moon is an important part of the programme," Mitrofanov said.

The lunar pole is a most favourable place for future outposts for humans in deep space and emphasised that Moon exploration was a step toward future Mars journeys, Mitrofanov said.

He discussed Russia's Moon mission schedule over the next several years at the microsymposium 54 on "Lunar Farside and Poles - New Destinations for Exploration," held in Texas.

"Depending on the success of these (first) three missions, another two will be implemented," Mitrofanov said.