Roscosmos to test its Moon base on Earth

Russian space agency Roscosmos will build a prototype of the base it plans to build on the Moon beyond 2030 on Earth, TASS news agency reports citing a source in the space industry.

The base will consist of four parts – habitable module, energy module, laboratory module and junctional module. The prototype will allow the developers test all architectural and technical solutions for the actual Moon base.

The Roscosmos source added that the agency plans to supply the base with various robots – some of which will be constructing it. They will also be tested on Earth at the prototype base.

The agency estimates the costs of its most ambitious space projects in the federal space program for 2016-2025 at about $7.5 billion, the source said.

The most perspective spacecraft for deep space exploration that are to be developed during this period will be supplied with artificial intelligence so that they can carry on with their mission even with no commands from Earth.

Among the most ambitious projects the Russian space agency is working on are spacecraft that will fly not only to the Moon and Mars, but also Jupiter and the Sun.