In the middle of the 20th century, at the dawn of the cosmic era, the Moon was the most attractive planet for humanity. Satellites and manned spacecrafts were sent to the Moon. Most scientific programs were associated with it. Over the past 40 years, interest in the moon has waned, it has even been called a forgotten planet. But lately the moon has again attracted the attention of mankind.
"Only the Moon and Mars are somehow suitable for a long stay of man. But Mars, figuratively speaking, is too far at this stage. Only a one-time flight is possible on the edge of technical capabilities."
There is no atmosphere on the Moon, but the most important thing is that there are useful resources that will allow not only to live on this planet, but also to build cosmodromes for sending rockets and spacecrafts even further.
"On the Moon there are very useful resources. First of all, it is water, solar energy, sunlight, which allows water to be decomposed into hydrogen and oxygen, which can serve as fuel for rocket engines, which can fly farther, to the Mars, to some other objects of the solar systems. Because the Moon is small, it's easy to start with."
According to the Roscosmos plans, the first inhabited bases may appear on the Moon in the next 20 years. The bases will be sealed, like bathyscaphes for sub-studies. All that is necessary for life, up to the air will be delivered by cargo ships from the Earth. But over time, the lunar bases are planned to be autonomous.
"Preparation for the flight to the Moon, at least its flyby, will differ from the training that cosmonauts now receive for flying to the ISS. Firstly, it will be a long flight in the ship itself. This is not a maximum of two days, but ten or fourteen days , for example. The ship itself, of course, will also be new. New experiments."
And to deliver vehicles and people to the Moon will help the new spacecrafts and launch vehicles, which would be able to cover almost 400,000 kilometers. These will be new super-heavy rockets, which will take on board up to 100 tons of payload. For example, modules of future space stations.
"The process of mastering the Moon will be naturally phased. At first it will be a ship that just flies around the Moon, the next stage will be landing on the Moon, building a base and I think that the most basic thing will be the construction of a space station in circumlunar orbit, which allow us to fly further, already to Mars or beyond the limits of our solar system."
Now in the development of the Angara and Soyuz-5 family of rockets, which was proposed to be named after the Irtysh River.
"Why is this rocket important? Not only because it largely replaces the very successful Russian-Ukrainian Zenit rocket, but also because it is on this rocket that we will begin the first flight tests, starting from the 23rd year (22-23 years old) of a ship, a new manned spacecraft, which will be designed to work with the crew already in deep space, including the Moon."
Irtysh will launch the newest manned spacecraft “Federation” into lunar orbit. Unlike the Soyuz series, the Federation will be able to take on up to six cosmonauts, half a ton of cargo, fly for a month in an autonomous mode and stay in the orbital station for up to a year.
"A promising transport ship since it is designed for the lunar program, it means its main task is to fly with the second space velocity. And this is its fundamental difference from existing space systems. Plus, it incorporates the latest technologies that are not present in existing transport systems such as Soyuz, Progress, for objective reasons. Here we have introduced a lot of innovations that allow us to effectively, safely, reliably carry out the tasks of the flight program even to one pilot. "
The Federation have to make the first unmanned flyby of the Moon in 2026. And after 5 years, at the beginning of the 30s, the ship will deliver the first Russian cosmonauts to the surface of the Earth satellite.
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