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popsci_2013 03178.txt

#Russia Will Launch Its First Moon Mission Since The 1970sroscosmos the Russian Federal Space agency will launch an unmanned mission to the moon in 2015 according to agency head Vladimir Popovkin. The rocket carrying the robotic probe called Luna-Glob will be the first set off from Russia's new Far east launchpad the Vostochny cosmodrome. Last year President Vladimir Putin pledged to pour $1 billion into the new launch site located near China. The new launch site will wean Russia off its dependence on Kazakhstan's Baikonur launch facility. Luna-Glob the first of four planned Russian moon missions will carry scientific equipment to take soil samples and look for water according to AP reports. State-run news agency Ria Novosti has said that it will carry dust monitors and plasma sensors to sense high-energy cosmic rays as well. It will be the first Russian trip to the moon since the 1970s. Roscosmos'latest moon exploration project has been postponed several times since 2010 and will be its first mission after 2011's Phobos-Grunt failure. The probe set to collect samples from the Martian moon Phobos unsuccessfully aimed its course for Mars and crashed into the Pacific ocean after two months in Earth's orbit. Luna-Glob and its successors are part of a larger plan to revamp development of Russia's space industry. Plans are also in development to send a manned spacecraft to the moon in 2018. Washington post I like the moon. I hope we humans and robots settle there. Besides it will give the humans a place to stay after the robots take over the Earth. When I read the title I thought they were doing a manned mission. It would be good to see people leave the confines of low orbit for the first time in 50 years. Plus they could use it as practice/tests for going to mars. It's about time the space faring governments of the world start building an infrastructure on the lunar surface that will support long term duration stays ship yards fuel generation and processing navigation stations for terrestrial navigation and launch facilities on the moon. This is what robots should be doing there about now. Otherwise we'll never get there in a reasonable amount of time. Can't believe the Russian government will spend billions launching more lunar probes or even spend billions more on a manned lunar mission in the next 5 years. It has no value to them especially since the feat has already been accomplished. The only possible reason I can imagine for Putin to make this announcement of a manned lunar program is to create interest within the Chinese government. The Chinese have aspirations for putting a man on the moon and maybe Putin feels the Russians could make a profit selling a lunar space system to the Chinese. Well think if we improve our ability to send larger and larger payloads to the moon then we could use it for useful things. Like building giant greenhouses to grow food on to help take some strain off earth's resources. It might not be a huge amount at first but theres thousands of square kilometers up there and we could build it up over time. Just imagine thousands of kilometers of farm without having to clear cut thousands of kilometers of forest or other habitat on earth...Like building giant greenhouses to grow food on to help take some strain off earth's resources...Since the lunar environment has none of the resources needed for agriculture (except for sunlight) just how would this take some of the strain off earth's resources? We would have to launch water CO2 soil chemical fertilizers the materials to construct the greenhouses and whatever resources are needed to maintain/operate them. Then we would need the massive spacecraft able to transport these agricultural products back to earth. Hopefully before they spoiled. The current cost of a round-trip to the lunar surface and back is over $300000/lb. Are you willing to pay $250000 for a lunar tomato? But don't forget as far as sunlight is concerned. On the moon you have 14 of our days of sunlight and then 14 of our days of dark. But don't forget as far as sunlight is concerned. On the moon the sunlight is moderated not by an atmosphere. Agreed d

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