A photo from open sources
Despite the fact that Russia almost officially left the new “moon race”, it cannot be said that in “Roskosmos” is completely abandoned flights to the natural satellite of the Earth. First however the flight of astronauts to the moon, presumably, is delayed by indefinite term.
But on the new partially reusable ship “Federation”, which replaces the obsolete, still Soviet, “Soyuz”, to the moon laboratory can really go the mouse. Scientists have proposed such a unique option to Roskosmos Institute of Biomedical Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences. For example, manager his Oleg Orlov believes that mice represent experimental rodents, whose behavior in space conditions has been studied most fully and thoroughly, at least in Russia. This was facilitated by the Bion space mission and, in particular, the launch of the spacecraft in 2013 “Bion-M1”, on board of which there were 45 mice.
The first launch of the “Federation” is scheduled for the beginning of the next years, however, the timing can be adjusted. Reason for that is the choice of media, which is still not defined: then whether it will be Irtysh (Soyuz-5), or Angara, or some kind of secret superheavy rocket, the characteristics of which are not yet available no information in the press.
In any case, experts say, choosing mice as the first “biological load” for a flight to the moon will not affect the timing of the launch of the new Russian lunar mission. True, you can with confidently say that monkeys are excluded from such plans: in primarily due to ethical considerations.
Moon Russia
