Interview
22.12.2016 16:05
DMITRY ROGOZIN: WE ARE PLANTING TO BUILD A BASE ON THE MOON BY 2030
KP journalists met at the White House with the Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Government in charge of the military-industrial complex, Dmitry ROGOZIN.
About vocational schools and Syria
When you say “OPK”, you imagine something powerful, gigantic. In the USSR, the defense industry was almost a third part of the entire industry...
The military-industrial complex today consists of 1,350 enterprises and 2 million people, and each of them is a professional in their field. From a worker to a scientist or designer. Our industry produces 35% of domestic innovative products, and if we take all Russian exports, then the share of the defense industry in it is 25%. Russian President Vladimir PUTIN in his Address assessed the growth rate of the industry: in terms of labor productivity - about 10%, in terms of production volume - 10%. During the period of difficulties facing the Russian economy, the defense industry is compensating for the decline that has affected some civilian sectors. And a number of defense industry enterprises are already establishing the production of civilian products - aircraft, pleasure boats, offshore platforms. A year ago I was in the hospital, I saw how they were treating me and operating on me. Everything is American or European. We spend about 350 billion rubles annually on the import of foreign medical equipment. Although this money could be invested in the development of the domestic industry.
- Will defense industry workers be able to do it too?
They're already doing it! And on his own initiative. MRI and CT technical characteristics correspond to the best foreign models. X-ray equipment has been made normally for a long time. Baby incubators for carrying babies are assembled in Yekaterinburg - we even export them abroad. This does not mean that military factories should be completely retrained as civilian enterprises. It is necessary for civilian production to become a mobilization reserve and, if necessary, be able to produce military products. As they joked in the USSR, our pasta and cigarettes were 7.62 mm caliber, and our cigars were 20 mm caliber.
- Previously, in every city there were vocational schools and technical schools. Where can we get personnel now?
We are actively developing training centers that work closely with specific enterprises. For example, Novosibirsk Aviation Plant named after. Chkalov, where we assemble the Sukhoi Superjet civil aircraft and the Su-34 multirole fighter-bomber in neighboring workshops. Part of the enterprise in Novosibirsk was allocated to a training center. We recruit guys, train them, pay good scholarships so that they are motivated to continue working at the enterprise. Within a year, 1,200 people were recruited. There is a similar school in Komsomolsk-on-Amur. Many private factories are also adopting this experience.
- Production companies have appeared in the army again.
This is also an initiative of the board of the Military-Industrial Commission of the Russian Federation. They proposed to make sure that all young workers of defense industry enterprises serve in those units whose profile is related to the work of this enterprise. If you work at Kurganmashzavod, then why don’t you go serve in the Airborne Forces as a BMD-4M mechanic. You will see how it works, and you will undergo “on-the-job training.”
- In Syria, too, many new products of the domestic defense industry are being tested. Does anyone do “practice” there?
We sent all the most modern equipment to our military personnel in Syria. And communications, and optics, and small arms, and precision-guided ammunition. In Syria, we have representatives of enterprises who are constantly present at the base and watch how the equipment is used. If necessary, everything is immediately repaired and restored.
About Ukraine and Crimea
Historically, the military-industrial complex of Ukraine was closely connected with ours. Do you still have any relationship with him?
Everything was destroyed due to the fault of Kyiv. At the end of 2013, President Putin instructed me to go to Ukraine. First days of December. The Maidan had already begun to make noise, but the riot police had not yet burned them. I flew with the directors of our defense industry enterprises to Nikolaev, from there to Zaporozhye, Dnepropetrovsk, and in the evening we ended up in Kyiv - to the design bureau and the Antonov plant. Do you know how we were received there? “Finally, dear ones, we’ve arrived.” These grandfathers at Yuzhmash literally cried. They really dreamed of joining the unified cooperation in which they had previously been. After the coup, everything was completely damaged and destroyed. Now the Nikolaev plant “Zarya-Mashproekt” owes us money. We paid for gas turbine units for frigates. They produced them... At Ukrainian customs, the paid equipment was not allowed into Russia. As a result, the money was not returned to us, the units were not delivered, but they had nowhere to put it. And who will Yuzhmash work for? We cooperated with them on the Zenit missile. It was the first stage for the super-heavy Energia rocket. We have now stopped launching missiles of this type. We will make our own rocket in the same class, but without the Ukrainians. Where will their workshops go?
- Is there something “inherited” to us in Crimea?
It seems that the Messerschmitts and Junkers bombed everything there. There are only 28 military enterprises, a decent industry in the past. There is a helicopter repair plant, and there is the Fiolent instrument-making plant in Simferopol. We immediately began to revive the defense enterprises of Crimea. Now, for example, the Zelenodolsk shipbuilding plant, which is located in Tatarstan, helps the Zaliv plant in Kerch. And shares orders with him. It provides not only wages, but also specialists and helps bring back workers. And the Kerch plant is now alive and developing. The same situation is at the More plant, at the Sevastopol Marine Plant... We are also considering the issue of restoring civilian passenger traffic Sochi - Novorossiysk - Crimea and so on. We need a carrier operator who will calculate the routes, calculate the economics and organize all this.
About sanctions and import substitution
- As you know, we received economic sanctions for Crimea. Did they hit the defense industry hard?
Any supply of a foreign machine with modern digital programming can be used by foreign intelligence services to obtain information about what is being done on these machines. And there were such cases, and not only in Russia. Therefore, even before the sanctions, it became clear that brains should be on the machines. Today, excellent machines are made in Kovrov, at the electromechanical plant. A number of domestic companies produce high-quality equipment. The level of Russian machine tool industry began to rise sharply due to large orders from the defense industry.
- What do we have in general with import substitution?
First, we made a program for all products that came from Ukraine. These were mostly old Soviet technologies. We are replacing them with high modernization. The second program was for NATO countries and the European Union when they imposed sanctions. We assumed that they would hit the machine tool industry. It’s good that we launched our own production in time, starting in 2012. We made it in time. As with high-tech components - optics, radio electronics, microelectronics for space purposes... We launched production at our enterprises, and the sanctions did not work.
About space and the lunar station
At the same time, we still have a large amount of cooperation in space. Why weren’t counter-sanctions introduced in this segment?
We all carefully considered, analyzed, there were different voices: let's not supply RD-180 engines. Before this, we supplied NK-33 to the Americans. It began to be developed in the USSR back in the 70s. The reserves for the lunar program of the Soviet Union have accumulated - more than a hundred engines! Extremely effective, super reliable... All this stock was stored for years at the Samara plant, somewhere behind a wall. And in the difficult 90s they remembered about them - the Americans became interested. The money raised from the sale of engines went to pay workers and modernize production. They continue to purchase these engines now. This is beneficial for us too. We proceeded from pragmatism. Americans too. Roscosmos is in constant contact with NASA and ESA. We continued cooperation not only on the ISS, but also on the Mars program. Our equipment generally works normally.
- How do you see the development of manned space exploration?
The country must save money and set priorities strictly. We have several of them in space. The first is military tasks. Ensuring the country's security in space and from space. The second task is fundamental and research science. The third is an economic task. Creation of stable communications for a large country, introduction of a remote sensing system and satellite navigation. What really either brings money or holds the country together. As for science, you need to clearly verify what you need to know. I also met with Academician ZELENY, and we argued in the presence of the leadership of ROSCOSMOS. He says: “We must fly to the moon.” And I demonstratively took the position of a skeptic: “Why?” He says: “We need to get regolith. It will provide insight into the origin of the Universe." But regolith also falls onto the Earth. Cosmic dust settles. Meteorites are the same. It is clear that I asked him naive questions. I wanted him to convince me. But I haven't convinced him yet. A permanent scientific station on the Moon is an interesting task. A technological breakthrough is needed, it is necessary to create a super-heavy rocket, an orbital module in lunar orbit, and a reusable descent vehicle. This is a serious task that we will solve not so much because we need a lunar station, but because we need greater technological capabilities in space.
- But there are no specific deadlines?
We plan to solve this problem by 2030.
Arctic GOST and “nuclear battery”
From heaven to earth. The President appointed you to oversee the state commission for the development of the Arctic... What are the priorities here?
We talk a lot about how our country is huge and we need to use its transit capabilities. First of all, this is the Northern Sea Route. It consists of two arms. The first is western, from Sabetta and further towards Europe. And the second is eastern, towards the Far East. If we talk about year-round use, then opening the western shoulder is not a problem. In the east, sometimes the ice is more than three meters thick. A super-icebreaker is being designed at the Krylov Research Center, which will lay a route with a width necessary for guiding gas carriers - 300 thousand tons of displacement. And it will break through up to 5 meters of ice.
- At the same time, our nuclear fleet is far from new.
Yes, its resource is running out. We need to devote ourselves to creating something new. We are now receiving three ships. The first one has already been launched at the Baltic Shipyard in St. Petersburg. The construction of a “nuclear battery” - a floating power unit - is also being completed there. It approaches the coastal infrastructure from the sea and throws two cables. One is power supply, the second is hot water. And we revive any northern city. In 2019, I hope, serial production of the Il-114 aircraft will begin instead of the An-24 and An-74. He will go on a ski chassis. These are all the tools for entering the Arctic. I also propose introducing Arctic GOST quality standards for enterprises working in the interests of the North - be it clothing or a snowmobile. What has been tested in the Arctic zone will work everywhere. But the main issue now is different - the delivery of cargo and goods. To do this, it is necessary to implement the Belkomur project, which is the transportation of goods from the Urals to Arkhangelsk. And then the ports are saturated with a large number of goods that can easily be transported to Europe. Then it becomes profitable. And the second project is the Northern Latitudinal Railway, which brings a large cargo flow to the Arctic ports. Now these projects need to be implemented. There are not enough budgetary funds. We need to find a partner within the concession.
-Can China join in?
Maybe. Because Chinese cargo can go through Russia, it is much cheaper than through Africa and Somali pirates. I have already presented this project to my colleague on the intergovernmental Russian-Chinese commission, Deputy Prime Minister of the People's Republic of China, Comrade Wang Yang.
“I hope relations with Moldova will warm up”
There were times when they didn’t even want to let your plane into Moldovan airspace. But you are the President’s special envoy for Transnistria. After the recent elections in Chisinau and Tiraspol, is there hope for some progress in resolving the Transnistrian problem?
Transnistria is in severe isolation. They are under all possible sanctions. Ukraine has blocked the entire border. Constant provocations at the border. Moldova also intercepted Russian representatives in Chisinau, deployed journalists, our peacekeepers. It was decided to recruit employees for our institutions and structures from citizens of the Russian Federation who live in the territory of Transnistria. Now the situation has unblocked a little with the new government of Philip and after the election of the new President of Moldova DODONA. We are waiting for him in Moscow. I hope that relations with Moldova will warm up. Although they cannot warm up completely, for now Moldova remains within the framework of association with the European Union. There are political figures in Moldova, such as the Russophobic minister SHALARU, who continue to escalate the situation around Transnistria. I want to tell them: the path that runs through a civil war in order to “hang out beautifully without visas” in Europe is not idiotic, but criminal. It would be more correct and more patriotic for the Moldovan government to return to an economic union with Russia and other countries where there are traditional markets for the Moldovan product. Now there are no negotiations at all on the status of Transnistria.
Victor BARANETS, Alexander MIKUS, Vladimir SUNGORKIN, Alexander KOTS
KP journalists met at the White House with the Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Government in charge of the military-industrial complex
About vocational schools and Syria
When you say “OPK”, you imagine something powerful, gigantic. In the USSR, the defense industry was almost a third part of the entire industry...
The military-industrial complex today consists of 1,350 enterprises and 2 million people, and each of them is a professional in their field. From a worker to a scientist or designer. Our industry produces 35% of domestic innovative products, and if we take all Russian exports, then the share of the defense industry in it is 25%. Russian President Vladimir Putin in his Address assessed the growth rate of the industry: in terms of labor productivity - about 10%, in terms of production volume - 10%. During the period of difficulties facing the Russian economy, the defense industry is compensating for the decline that has affected some civilian sectors. And a number of defense industry enterprises are already establishing the production of civilian products - aircraft, pleasure boats, offshore platforms. A year ago I was in the hospital, I saw how they were treating me and operating on me. Everything is American or European. We spend about 350 billion rubles annually on the import of foreign medical equipment. Although this money could be invested in the development of the domestic industry.
About Ukraine and Crimea
Historically, the military-industrial complex of Ukraine was closely connected with ours. Do you still have any relationship with him?
Everything was destroyed due to the fault of Kyiv. At the end of 2013, President Putin instructed me to go to Ukraine. First days of December. The Maidan had already begun to make noise, but the riot police had not yet burned them. I flew with the directors of our defense industry enterprises to Nikolaev, from there to Zaporozhye, Dnepropetrovsk, and in the evening we ended up in Kyiv - to the design bureau and the Antonov plant. Do you know how we were received there? “Finally, dear ones, we’ve arrived.” These grandfathers at Yuzhmash literally cried. They really dreamed of joining the unified cooperation in which they had previously been. After the coup, everything was completely damaged and destroyed. Now the Nikolaev plant “Zarya-Mashproekt” owes us money. We paid for gas turbine units for frigates. They produced them... At Ukrainian customs, the paid equipment was not allowed into Russia. As a result, the money was not returned to us, the units were not delivered, but they had nowhere to put it. And who will Yuzhmash work for? We cooperated with them on the Zenit missile. It was the first stage for the super-heavy Energia rocket. We have now stopped launching missiles of this type. We will make our own rocket in the same class, but without the Ukrainians. Where will their workshops go?
- Is there something “inherited” to us in Crimea?
It seems that the Messerschmitts and Junkers bombed everything there. There are only 28 military enterprises, a decent industry in the past. There is a helicopter repair plant, and there is the Fiolent instrument-making plant in Simferopol. We immediately began to revive the defense enterprises of Crimea. Now, for example, the Zelenodolsk shipbuilding plant, which is located in Tatarstan, helps the Zaliv plant in Kerch. And shares orders with him. It provides not only wages, but also specialists and helps bring back workers. And the Kerch plant is now alive and developing. The same situation is at the More plant, at the Sevastopol Marine Plant... We are also considering the issue of restoring civilian passenger traffic Sochi - Novorossiysk - Crimea and so on. We need a carrier operator who will calculate the routes, calculate the economics and organize all this.
About sanctions and import substitution
- For Crimea, as you know, we received economic sanctions . Did they hit the defense industry hard?
Any supply of a foreign machine with modern digital programming can be used by foreign intelligence services to obtain information about what is being done on these machines. And there were such cases, and not only in Russia. Therefore, even before the sanctions, it became clear that brains should be on the machines. Today, excellent machines are made in Kovrov, at the electromechanical plant. A number of domestic companies produce high-quality equipment. The level of Russian machine tool industry began to rise sharply due to large orders from the defense industry.
- What do we have in general with import substitution?
First, we made a program for all products that came from Ukraine. These were mostly old Soviet technologies. We are replacing them with high modernization. The second program was for NATO countries and the European Union when they imposed sanctions. We assumed that they would hit the machine tool industry. It’s good that we launched our own production in time, starting in 2012. We made it in time. As with high-tech components - optics, radio electronics, microelectronics for space purposes... We launched production at our enterprises, and the sanctions did not work.
About space and the lunar station
At the same time, we still have a large amount of cooperation in space. Why weren’t counter-sanctions introduced in this segment?
We all carefully considered, analyzed, there were different voices: let's not supply RD-180 engines. Before this, we supplied NK-33 to the Americans. It began to be developed in the USSR back in the 70s. The reserves for the lunar program of the Soviet Union have accumulated - more than a hundred engines! Extremely effective, super reliable... All this stock was stored for years at the Samara plant, somewhere behind a wall. And in the difficult 90s they remembered about them - the Americans became interested. The money raised from the sale of engines went to pay workers and modernize production. They continue to purchase these engines now. This is beneficial for us too. We proceeded from pragmatism. Americans too. Roscosmos is in constant contact with NASA and ESA. We continued cooperation not only on the ISS, but also on the Mars program. Our equipment generally works normally.
- How do you see the development of manned space exploration?
The country must save money and set priorities strictly. We have several of them in space. The first is military tasks. Ensuring the country's security in space and from space. The second task is fundamental and research science. The third is an economic task. Creation of stable communications for a large country, introduction of a remote sensing system and satellite navigation. What really either brings money or holds the country together. As for science, you need to clearly verify what you need to know. I also met with Academician Zeleny, and we argued in the presence of the management of Roscosmos. He says: “We must fly to the moon.” And I demonstratively took the position of a skeptic: “Why?” He says: “We need to get regolith. It will provide insight into the origin of the Universe." But regolith also falls onto the Earth. Cosmic dust settles. Meteorites are the same. It is clear that I asked him naive questions. I wanted him to convince me. But I haven't convinced him yet. A permanent scientific station on the Moon is an interesting task. A technological breakthrough is needed, it is necessary to create a super-heavy rocket, an orbital module in lunar orbit, and a reusable descent vehicle. This is a serious task that we will solve not so much because we need a lunar station, but because we need greater technological capabilities in space.
- But there are no specific deadlines?
We plan to solve this problem by 2030.
VERBATIM
“No one has the right to spit on our memory”
More than a year ago, at a meeting of the board of trustees of the Russian Military Historical Society, the question was raised about the deplorable state of the museum at the site of the execution of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya in the village of Petrishchevo, Ruza district, Moscow region. Of course, we decided to raise funds for the restoration of the museum dedicated to the memory of this heroic girl. Most recently, commemorative events were held in Petrishchev dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the death of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya. War veterans and future defenders of the Motherland - Suvorov students and cadets - honored the memory of the first woman - Hero of the Soviet Union, who died while performing a combat mission. Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, under torture before execution, did not betray her duty for a second and called on the German soldiers to surrender. It is not for nothing that the Minister of Culture, who was present at this event, called Petrishchevo the Russian Golgotha. I believe that no one has the right to spit in our memory, in memory of the feat of our veterans - the heroes of the Great Patriotic War.
PROJECTS
Arctic GOST and “nuclear battery”
From heaven to earth. The President appointed you to oversee the state commission for the development of the Arctic... What are the priorities here?
We talk a lot about how our country is huge and we need to use its transit capabilities. First of all, this is the Northern Sea Route. It consists of two arms. The first is western, from Sabetta and further towards Europe. And the second is eastern, towards the Far East. If we talk about year-round use, then opening the western shoulder is not a problem. In the east, sometimes the ice is more than three meters thick. A super-icebreaker is being designed at the Krylov Research Center, which will lay a route with a width necessary for guiding gas carriers - 300 thousand tons of displacement. And it will break through up to 5 meters of ice.
- At the same time, our nuclear fleet is far from new.
Yes, its resource is running out. We need to devote ourselves to creating something new. We are now receiving three ships. The first one has already been launched at the Baltic Shipyard in St. Petersburg. The construction of a “nuclear battery” - a floating power unit - is also being completed there. It approaches the coastal infrastructure from the sea and throws two cables. One is power supply, the second is hot water. And we revive any northern city. In 2019, I hope, serial production of the Il-114 aircraft will begin instead of the An-24 and An-74. He will go on a ski chassis. These are all the tools for entering the Arctic. I also propose introducing Arctic GOST quality standards for enterprises working in the interests of the North - be it clothing or a snowmobile. What has been tested in the Arctic zone will work everywhere. But the main issue now is different - the delivery of cargo and goods. To do this, it is necessary to implement the Belkomur project, which is the transportation of goods from the Urals to Arkhangelsk. And then the ports are saturated with a large number of goods that can easily be transported to Europe. Then it becomes profitable. And the second project is the Northern Latitudinal Railway, which brings a large cargo flow to the Arctic ports. Now these projects need to be implemented. There are not enough budgetary funds. We need to find a partner within the concession.
-Can China join in?
Maybe. Because Chinese cargo can go through Russia, it is much cheaper than through Africa and Somali pirates. I have already presented this project to my colleague on the intergovernmental Russian-Chinese commission, Deputy Prime Minister of the People's Republic of China, Comrade Wang Yang.
MEANWHILE
“I hope relations with Moldova will warm up”
There were times when they didn’t even want to let your plane into Moldovan airspace. But you are the President’s special envoy for Transnistria. After the recent elections in Chisinau and Tiraspol, is there hope for some progress in resolving the Transnistrian problem?
Transnistria is in severe isolation. They are under all possible sanctions. Ukraine has blocked the entire border. Constant provocations at the border. Moldova also intercepted Russian representatives in Chisinau, deployed journalists, our peacekeepers. It was decided to recruit employees for our institutions and structures from citizens of the Russian Federation who live in the territory of Transnistria. Now the situation has unblocked a little with the new government of Filip and after the election of the new President of Moldova, Dodon. We are waiting for him in Moscow. I hope that relations with Moldova will warm up. Although they cannot warm up completely, for now Moldova remains within the framework of association with the European Union. There are political figures in Moldova, such as the Russophobic Minister Salaru, who continue to escalate the situation around Transnistria. I want to tell them: the path that runs through a civil war in order to “hang out beautifully without visas” in Europe is not idiotic, but criminal. It would be more correct and more patriotic for the Moldovan government to return to an economic union with Russia and other countries where there are traditional markets for the Moldovan product. Now there are no negotiations at all on the status of Transnistria.
The list of tasks included expanding Russia's presence in low Earth orbits and transitioning from their development to use, colonization of the Moon and cislunar space, as well as preparation and beginning of the development of Mars and other objects of the Solar system.
An analysis of the prospects for the space industry, carried out by industry organizations and specialists from the Russian Academy of Sciences, showed that the main vector should be the exploration of the Moon, Rogozin wrote. It was the lunar issue that he paid special attention to.
According to the Deputy Prime Minister, Russian cosmonauts will be able to land on the Moon in 2030, after which a visitable lunar base will be created on it. It is planned to build a laboratory on the Earth’s satellite to study lunar minerals and meteorites, as well as create a pilot production of useful substances, gases, and water from regolith.
Gradually, test sites for storing and transmitting energy at a distance will be placed on the Moon. “This should resemble the development of a new continent,” writes Rogozin. He noted that Russian specialists know how “grandiose, extremely complex, ambitious a task” this is, but they understand how to implement it.
“In the next 50 years, humanity is unlikely to be technologically ready to implement manned flights to areas more distant than the space between Venus and Mars. But it is quite realistic to talk about the exploration of the Moon, about flights to asteroids and about flights to Mars,” Rogozin wrote.
The moon is an object of fundamental scientific research, the official believes. In addition, the Earth's satellite is "the closest source of extraterrestrial matter, minerals, minerals, volatile compounds." In his opinion, the Moon can become a platform for technological research and testing of new space technology.
Dmitry Rogozin added that Russia is not going to limit the lunar program in time. “It is hardly advisable to make 10-20 flights to the Moon, and then, abandoning everything, fly to Mars or asteroids. This process has a beginning, but no end: we are going to go to the Moon forever,” he wrote in the article. Rogozin added that flights to Mars and asteroids will largely become possible thanks to the exploration of the Moon.
Yuri Zaitsev, head of the information and analytical work department of the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences:
Dmitry Rogozin's proposals, set out in his article, deserve attention. But he decided to ban the launch of nuclear power plants into space, although work is underway on the creation of these plants. Even after the emergency descent of our satellite with a nuclear power plant, which fell onto Canadian territory, there was a big international scandal. Since then, their use has been limited, but such power plants cannot be avoided in the future - this issue will still have to be resolved sooner or later.
Rogozin also focused on the colonization of the Moon and Mars. We do have plans to develop the resources of the Moon. And Mars is too expensive to talk about the seriousness of such statements now. As they say, across the sea a heifer is half a piece, but the transportation is a ruble. It is also necessary to develop asteroid materials; this is also a reasonable proposal. But such large-scale projects are only possible in the very long term; now there are too many more pressing problems.
MOSCOW, April 10 – RIA Novosti. Russia plans to permanently gain a foothold on the Moon, said Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who oversees the defense and rocket and space industries.
It was previously reported that one of the priority tasks for the development of astronautics in Russia is the exploration of the Moon. Landing on it is planned in 2030, followed by the organization of a habitable base on the surface of the Earth’s satellite, where test sites for the accumulation and transmission of energy over a distance will be gradually located for testing new engines. At the moment, to implement plans to fly to the Moon and develop it, a project of a super-heavy launch vehicle with a lifting capacity of up to 80 tons is being developed.
Who owns the Moon? We'll fly out soon and find outGaps in the legislation make it impossible to say who owns the Moon. But it has huge reserves of minerals and rare earth elements, as well as enormous potential for space research. Therefore, we need to fly there and fight for it.“The Moon is not an intermediate point on a distance, it is an independent and even self-sufficient goal. It is hardly advisable to make 10-20 flights to the Moon, and then, abandoning everything, fly to Mars or asteroids. This process has a beginning, but no end: we we are going to come to the Moon forever,” writes Rogozin in an article that will be published in Rossiyskaya Gazeta on Friday.
The deputy chairman of the government notes that the Moon is the closest and so far the only source of extraterrestrial matter, minerals, minerals, volatile compounds, and water available to humans. It is a natural platform for technological research and testing of new space technology.
Earlier, the Deputy Prime Minister stated that the most important tasks of Russia's civil space policy are the formation of a market for space services and its saturation with the results of the activities of a group of space assets operating in near space, as well as the creation of an advanced foundation for the study, development and involvement in the use of possible deep space resources.
How Russia is exploring the Moon
In the draft program for research of the Solar system until 2025, prepared by scientists of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the study of the Moon is named a priority task. At the first stage, which is due to begin in 2015, the Earth’s satellite will be explored by the Luna-Resurs and Luna-Glob probes. One of them will study the south pole, where it is planned to land a Russian landing probe with an Indian mini-rover. At the second stage - after 2020 - new lunar rovers - Lunokhod-3 and Lunokhod-4 - will operate on the surface of the Moon. They will differ from Soviet lunar rovers in that they are much smaller in size and at the same time have a greater service life. It is planned that the new lunar rovers will be able to operate in the polar regions of the Moon for up to five years and move away from the landing site at a distance of up to 30 kilometers. About national lunar exploration programs
Photo: © flickr.com/Shurik_13
Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Dmitry Rogozin, who oversees the Defense-Industrial Complex and space developments, called the"business organization"main problem state corporation "Roscosmos". Nevertheless, the government’s “space” plans include the station’s imminent landing on the Moon. Luna-25". Speaking about the prospects for the development of the Earth’s natural satellite, the Deputy Prime Minister noted that the situation as a whole“not so catastrophic and dramatic.”
“We also criticize Roscosmos. I think the most important problem is the organization of the business, management. But what to do is clear, and how to do it is also clear,” Rogozin said on the RBC TV channel. The Deputy Prime Minister believes that emergency rocket launches from Russian cosmodromes are a consequence of systemic errors in the management of Roscosmos.
However, Rogozin has a positive assessment of the overall situation in this area. Russia will explore the Moon, according to the Deputy Prime Minister, without imposing itself on the United States as a partner. « We will definitely not conduct any negotiations in order to impose ourselves on the Americans as partners. The situation is far from being so catastrophic and dramatic,” he noted. “As for the Moon, we are going to send the Luna-25 station in 2019: this is a small landing module that should land on the Moon.”
The launch of the Soyuz-2.1a rocket was canceled by automation
Roscosmos specialists are finding out the reason for the automatic shutdown of engines February 11, 2018
Until 2030, the lunar program involves the construction of stations both on the surface of the Moon and in orbit. « More stations will be built in 2022, 2023 and after 2025, including those that will operate in lunar orbit. The landing module will descend to the surface and enter the layer of lunar soil." , - said Rogozin. And at this stage, according to him,"cooperation would be very good, but not at any cost: we definitely won’t become apprentices.”
At the same time, cooperation with US space enterprises continues in the rocket and propulsion sector. Money from the sale of Russian MK-33 engines for American missiles goes towards the development of new Russian engines. The units supplied overseas, according to Rogozin, “are not something entirely modern... In fact, it is more profitable for us than for the United States.” Rogozin revealed the approximate cost of MK-33 engines for the United States - about $10 million.
The bill on retaliatory sanctions against Russia against the United States will be considered on May 15
The document will undergo the widest public discussion April 16, 2018
Rocket and engine cooperation between the United States and Russia may end due to Moscow’s retaliatory sanctions against Washington, which will be considered by the State Duma in May. The Deputy Prime Minister admitted that the supply of engines may stop, but for now it continues. “Space should remain outside of politics,” Rogozin is sure.
The Deputy Prime Minister also said that although he "ashamed", Russian specialists may adopt the innovations of the Canadian-American inventor Elon Musk. “For example, I carefully analyzed some of his technical solutions with our specialists and I can say that we are ashamed, but we will use something,” Rogozin said. He considers Musk not only an outstanding engineer, but also a brilliant PR man. True, PR, according to Rogozin, undermines Musk’s authority when he “Sometimes he starts to lie.”
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