Russia plans to colonise the MOON by 2030 according to leaked government document that says robot ‘rovers’ will be sent in 2016

MEANWHILE NASA LOSES FUNDING

The Kremlin has fired the starting pistol on its new space race less than three years after the U.S. was forced to start hitching flights on Russian rockets.

Nasa ended its space shuttle programme in 2011 and has faced years of funding cuts.

Just last month a Soyuz rocket carried two Russian cosmonauts and a U.S. astronaut to the International Space Station (above), despite the crisis in Ukraine and tough talking on sanctions.

China, Japan and India have all announced their intention to launch fresh missions to the Moon, which was last visited by humans in 1976.

But Russia's space programme, which achieved the first manned space flight in 1961, is far ahead and is the only one to explicitly call for manned lunar missions.

Just a fortnight ago, the Roscosmos announced plans for the massive new 'super-rockets' capable of lifting payloads of up to 120 tonnes into space.
The latest report was prepared by by the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Roscosmos federal space agency, Moscow State University and several space research institutes.

It envisages international cooperation but stresses the 'independence of the national lunar programme must be ensured regardless of the conditions and extend of participation by foreign partners.'

The document appears to be an expansion on plans to first set out by Moscow last month, when deputy PM Dmitry Rogozin dramatically announced: 'We are coming to the Moon forever.'

In an article in the government's own newspaper headlined 'Russian Space', he spoke of targeting Mars and other 'space objects' as future priorities.
'Flights to Mars and asteroids in our view do not contradict exploration of the moon, but in many senses imply this process.'

He wrote of 'colonisation of the moon and near-moon space'.
In the next 50 years, manned flights are unlikely beyond 'the space between Venus and Mars'. But 'it is quite possible to speak about exploration of Mars, flights to asteroids and flights to Mars'.
The essential first step as a base for research and experiments was the moon, said Mr Rogozin, who is in overall charge of Russia's space and defence industries, and was recently targeted for sanctions over the Ukraine crisis.



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