The scientific term for the phenomenon is "perigee moon." Full Moons vary in size because of the oval shape of the Moon's orbit. The Moon follows an elliptical path around Earth with one side ("perigee") about 50,000 km closer than the other ("apogee"). Full Moons that occur on the perigee side of the Moon's orbit seem extra big and bright.

Such is the case on May 5th at 11:34 pm Eastern Daylight Time1 when the Moon reaches perigee. Only one minute later, the Moon will line up with Earth and the sun to become brilliantly full. The timing is almost perfect.

Okay, the Moon is 14% bigger than usual, but can you really tell the difference? It's tricky. There are no rulers floating in the sky to measure lunar diameters. Hanging high overhead with no reference points to provide a sense of scale, one full Moon can seem much like any other.

The best time to look is when the Moon is near the horizon. For reasons not fully understood by astronomers or psychologists, low-hanging Moons look unnaturally large when they beam through trees, buildings and other foreground objects.

On May 5th, this Moon illusion will amplify a full Moon that's extra-big to begin with. The swollen orb rising in the east at sunset should seem super indeed.

Folklore holds that all kinds of wacky things happen under the light of a full Moon. Supposedly, hospital admissions increase, the crime rate ticks upward, and people behave strangely. The idea that the full Moon causes mental disorders was widespread in the Middle Ages. Even the word "lunacy," meaning "insanity," comes from the Latin word for "Moon."

The majority of modern studies, however, show no correlation between the phase of the Moon and the incidence of crime, sickness, or human behavior. The truth is, the Moon is less influential than folklore would have us believe.

It's true that a perigee full Moon brings with it extra-high "perigean tides," but according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration this is nothing to worry about.

In most places, lunar gravity at perigee pulls tide waters only a few centimeters (an inch or so) higher than usual. Local geography can amplify the effect to about 15 centimeters (six inches)--not exactly a great flood.

Super perigee Moons are actually fairly common. The Moon becomes full within a few hours of its closest approach to Earth about once a year on average. The last such coincidence occurred on March 19th, 2011, producing a full Moon that was almost 400 km closer than this one. As usual, no trouble was reported--unless you count a midnight awakening as trouble.

If so, close the drapes on May 5th. Otherwise, enjoy the super-moonlight.

]]> Tue, 15 MAY 2012 18:31:33 AEST Paris (SPX) Apr 30, 2012 - The race for the $30 million Google Lunar X PRIZE is creating science opportunities for European lunar researchers. Four teams competing for the competition presented their plans at the European Lunar Symposium in Berlin last week. Representatives from Hungary's Team Puli, Italy's AMALIA mission, and European members of Team FREDNET and Synergy Moon have invited the 170 lunar scientists attending the meeting to come up with science payloads that could be carried by their rovers and landers.

The Google Lunar X PRIZE challenges a privately-funded team to successfully place a robot on the Moon's surface, explore at least 500 meters and transmit high definition video and images back to Earth. The first team to do so can claim a $20 million Grand Prize, while the second team will earn a $5 million Prize. The Google Lunar X PRIZE is one of three active competitions from the X PRIZE Foundation, a non-profit organization that creates and manages global, incentivized competitions.

"The Google Lunar X PRIZE offers real opportunities for science on the Moon," said Alex Hall, Senior Director of the Google Lunar X PRIZE. "High-resolution imaging is a core part of the prize and there's much we can find out from images alone, but there are many possible small experiments that our teams could also potentially carry that would allow lunar scientists to get data that they might otherwise have to wait years to get on a government-funded mission.

"Scientists here at the European Lunar Symposium raised a variety of exciting ideas, from radio antennae to X-ray spectroscopes! We've also had one institute offer to open up its hardware testing facilities to teams in exchange for carrying instrumentation. The level of interest has been very exciting."

The first European Lunar Symposium has been organized under the umbrella of the NASA Lunar Science Institute's European node network in response to a global surge of interest in lunar exploration. The meeting brings together the European scientific community interested in various aspects of exploration of the Moon and lunar resources, as well as lunar experts from around the world.

Dr. Mahesh Anand of The Open University, who leads the UK node of the NASA Lunar Science Institute and is co-organizer of the meeting, said, "When organizing the program for the European Lunar Symposium, I thought that giving a platform for the Google Lunar X PRIZE European teams would be a great way of bringing opportunities outside the state-funded programs to the attention of the European lunar science community.

"The session was really successful and, from the level of interest that I've seen here in Berlin in the Google Lunar X PRIZE activities, I would definitely look to include these sessions in future events. I look forward to seeing what transpires from collaborations initiated at the meeting."

Plans presented at the meeting by the teams highlighted the range and innovation of the teams' approaches to the lunar challenge. Designs for rovers included a mast carrying stereo cameras from Team Italia, a spike-wheeled locomotion system by Team Puli and a spherical rover by FREDNET that propels itself along through displacement of ballast.

"Our proposed design offers significant room - both on the lander and on the surface vehicle - to carry either scientific or technological payloads with a Moon focus. Thanks to a very highly space engineering skilled team, the AMALIA mission has a great chance of succeeding," said Michele Lavagna, who talked on behalf of Team Italia.

Jordi Gutierrez, who presented the spherical rover designs, said, "This kind of rover is simple, robust, cheap, but capable of moving on rather rough terrain. It can become a reliable means of giving mobility to scientific payloads. Several scientists here have shown an interest in the concept."

Marton Deak, whose presentation focused on Team Puli's analysis of potential landing sites said, "It would be truly fascinating to discover deposits of water ice or explore a lava tube on the Moon. I think Google Lunar X PRIZE Teams, like Team Puli, can come up with surprisingly good solutions for these kinds of challenges!"

"This was a truly outstanding symposium," said Greg Schmidt, Deputy Director and Director of International Partnerships for the NASA Lunar Science Institute. "We are proud to be allied with our European partners in furthering the many facets of lunar science. The Google Lunar X PRIZE offers a unique way to return to the lunar surface and in so doing, brings new and exciting opportunities to the science community in the near future."

Eight teams headquartered in Europe have registered for the Google Lunar X PRIZE. Three further teams have significant European involvement.

]]> Tue, 15 MAY 2012 18:31:33 AEST Sriharikota, India (IANS) Apr 30, 2012 - India's second Moon mission Chandrayaan-2, slated for 2014, will have to wait till the country's space agency flies two of its heavy rocket - Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) - successfully, a top official said Thursday.

Speaking to reporters after the successful launch of indigenously built Radar Imaging Satellite I (Risat-1) from here, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman K. Radhakrishnan said: "We plan to fly two GSLV rockets at an interval of six months before the Chandrayaan-2 mission."

India's first unmanned moon mission, Chandrayaan-1, was launched in 2008. The country has planned its second moon mission along with Russia.

The one major concern for ISRO now is getting ready the GSLV rocket which failed successively in 2010, thereby setting back many of the space agency's plans.

According to Radhakrishnan, the space agency is in the process of getting its cryogenic engine ready to power the GSLV.

The one GSLV rocket fitted with an ISRO made cryogenic engine failed in 2010 due to the failure of an engine component. He said two major ground tests of the cryogenic engine are being done.

"We are planning a GSLV launch with Indian cryogenic engine during September/October 2012," Radhakrishnan remarked.

He said the space agency will revert to a smaller heat shield (3.4 metre) for the rocket as against the four-metre heat shield fitted in the GSLV rocket that failed in 2010.

The Russians had earlier pointed out that the bigger heat shield was the probable reason for the GSLV's instability during its flight in December 2010.

Speaking about the status of GSLV Mark III, the upgraded variant of GSLV, Radhakrishnan said the rocket would have high power cryogenic engine. The engine's various subsystems also have to be tested, which would take a couple of years.

He said an experimental flight of GSLV Mark III without the cryogenic engine is planned during 2012-13 to test the rocket's other parameters.

Refuting the charge that ISRO was not fully utilizing the funds allocated to it, Radhakrishnan said the agency had spent Rs.20,000 crore during the Eleventh Plan period as against Rs.13,000 crore spent during the previous plan period.

But he agreed that ISRO had not utilized the amount it got last fiscal in full.

"A large portion the money remaining unspent was drawn for the purchase of around six to eight cryogenic engines from Russia after failure of the indigenously built cryogenic engine during a flight," Radhakrishnan said.

On cost of Risat-1 mission, he said the rocket (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle) and the satellite cost Rs.110 crore and Rs.378 crore respectively.

He said Indian users can now use Risat-1's images instead of sourcing these from Canada.

Source: Indo-Asia News Service

]]> Tue, 15 MAY 2012 18:31:33 AEST Pittsburgh, PA (SPX) Apr 30, 2012 - Astrobotic Technology Inc. has announced a NASA contract to determine whether its polar rover can deploy an ice-prospecting payload to the Moon. The ice could yield water, oxygen, methane and rocket propellant to dramatically reduce the cost of space exploration.

"Astrobotic seeks the immense resources available on the Moon to both accelerate space exploration and improve life on Earth," said David Gump, president. "The lunar path is near term. We intend a prospecting mission in 2015."

Astrobotic began development of its lunar excavation robot in 2009 under a series of NASA Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contracts that now total $795,000. The new NASA SBIR Phase 3 follow-on contract is to consider robot refinements for carrying NASA-supplied instruments and a drill.

Recent lunar-orbiting satellites from several nations, and a NASA probe that impacted near the Moon's south pole, have sensed polar ice composed of water, methane, ammonia, carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulfide and other substances.

These polar resources went undiscovered during the Apollo expeditions which landed near the equator. The next step is to drill and measure the polar ices directly to see if they are sufficiently concentrated to be useful.

Lunar propellant derived from the ice could fuel spacecraft for long voyages, Earth-return, or maneuvering satellites. Water and oxygen would be invaluable for life support. Other elements have immense value for energy, processes, fabrication and habitation.

When seeking resources from planetary destinations, the four-day travel time to reach the Moon enables early return on investment compared to more distant targets.

Astrobotic has reserved a Falcon 9 launch vehicle made by SpaceX to send its spacecraft and robot explorer on a trajectory toward the Moon.

The Astrobotic spacecraft will deliver the prospector to the lunar surface with technology that autonomously avoids landing hazards such as large rocks and craters.

The navigation system is derived from technology developed at Carnegie Mellon University under Dr. William "Red" Whittaker, Astrobotic's founder.

Dr. Whittaker won the DARPA Urban Challenge with a driverless car able to autonomously navigate through city streets, avoiding other cars and obeying the California traffic code.

The ability to detect hazards and automatically select alternative pathways is the core of Astrobotic's automatic lunar landing system.

Astrobotic has won $12 million in nine NASA lunar contracts, covering topics from simulating lunar gravity on Earth to discovering ways to robotically explore the Moon's volcanic caves.

Lunar satellites recently spotted potential entrances to these caves, which can provide shelter to robot and human explorers from the radiation, micrometeorites and extreme temperature swings of the lunar surface.

Astrobotic's commercial expeditions carry payloads for space agencies and generate exclusive media content for television and Web portals.

Corporate sponsors will give their customers direct access to the robot's frontier-building activities through competitions and custom internet feeds.

Astrobotic is a spinout from the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, which carries out lunar research funded by Astrobotic.

]]> Tue, 15 MAY 2012 18:31:33 AEST Moscow (RIA Novosti) Apr 30, 2012 - Russia is planning to send a manned mission to the moon by 2030, Russian space agency Roscosmos said on its website on Friday.

According to the Russian space strategy published on the Roscosmos website, Moscow has set several waypoints for its space exploration activities: 2015, 2020, 2030 and the period after 2030.

Roscosmos will resume lunar exploration by 2015 using an unmanned space ship. Russia is also planning to send a manned mission to the moon by 2030, the space agency said.

In late January, Roscosmos's head, Vladimir Popovkin voiced plans to set up manned moon research bases with European and U.S. partners, saying that there were plans to either set up a moon base or to launch an orbital station.

To that end, Russia is currently developing a "prospective manned transportation system" to be sent to the moon, he added.

Russia is also planning to send two unmanned moon missions by 2020, Luna-Glob (Lunar Sphere) and Luna-Resurs in 2015.

The launch timeframe, however, may be reviewed because the two spacecraft are being built with the same technologies as Russia's failed mission to Phobos, which proved vulnerable to cosmic radiation.

The moon base project has similarities to Cold War-era plans to create a permanent outpost on the moon, which has been envisioned by some Soviet and U.S. scientists since the late 1950s.

Source: RIA Novosti

]]> Tue, 15 MAY 2012 18:31:33 AEST Mountain View CA (SPX) Apr 27, 2012 - Moon Express has announced that it has successfully delivered a mission design package to NASA under its Innovative Lunar Demonstration Data (ILDD) Program, providing NASA continuing data on the development of the company's commercial lunar missions and plans to mine the Moon for precious planetary resources.

The newest task order in the $10M ILDD contract called for Moon Express to provide NASA with data about the company's progress through a Preliminary Design Checkpoint Technical Package that documents details of mission operations, spacecraft development, payload accommodations and Planetary Protection Plans.

Technology luminaries Naveen Jain and Barney Pell teamed with space visionary Bob Richards in the founding of Moon Express in 2010, announcing a partnership with NASA to develop a new robotic spacecraft capable of going to the Moon and asteroids. Silicon Valley-based Moon Express was one of only three U.S. companies awarded funding under NASA's ILDD program in that year.

Although the ILDD contract is an important substantiation of NASA's interest in commercial lunar providers, the majority of Moon Express funding is coming from private investment and is supplemented by revenues from payload customers.

"The Moon has never been explored from an entrepreneurial perspective," said Moon Express co-founder and chairman, Naveen Jain. "Think of the Moon as the Earth's eighth continent, potentially the largest repository of asteroid resources in the solar system, and we have barely begun to explore it."

Moon Express has revealed plans to prospect and mine the Moon for precious planetary resources such as metals and water which are believed to be abundant on the Moon from millions of years of asteroid bombardment. "The Moon is an asteroid magnet," said company co-founder and CEO Bob Richards, a longtime advocate of space resources.

"In addition to resource abundance, the Moon is right next door and does us the favor of pre-processing and storing the asteroid material so we can access it cost-effectively and safely with known technologies."

Moon Express co-founder, vice-chairman and CTO Dr. Barney Pell, a former NASA technology manager, is confident of the value proposition of lunar water combined with precious metals. "There could be more platinum group metals on the surface of the Moon than in all the reserves of Earth," he said. "And the lunar water we now know to be present is the key to liberating lunar resources economically."

In an in-depth article about Moon Express in April 2011, Resource Word magazine has called Moon Express plans "the biggest mining story in history. It could benefit the lives of millions of Earthlings." The mining industry journal stated, "The Moon may also have large quantities of platinum group metals (platinum, rhodium, iridium, osmium, and ruthenium) that have potential economic value on Earth.

Platinum, for example, is the primary metal needed to make fuel cells. Evidence suggests there could be a trillion dollars' worth of platinum group metals in an average asteroid. We know asteroids contain platinum, and we know the level of asteroid bombardment experienced by the Moon. By deductive reasoning, we can conclude that the levels of platinum on the Moon are high."

Dr. Alan Stern, Moon Express Chief Scientist and former NASA Associate Administrator in charge of all the Agency's science, agrees that mounting new data about the Moon and its resources make it the natural next step for scientific research and commercial space development.

"Thanks to Apollo and robotic explorations, as well as lunar meteorites, we have widely sampled the Moon and have a good understanding of what's accumulated there from eons of asteroid and cometary bombardment," said Dr. Stern. "And recent new data from lunar probes has discovered water at the lunar poles and bound within the lunar soil that could potentially change the economics of lunar exploration."

While pursuing the $30M Google Lunar X PRIZE announced by Larry Page and Peter Diamandis in 2007, Moon Express plans to send a series of robotic spacecraft to the Moon for ongoing exploration and commercial development. Moon Express will also focus on bringing lunar resources into Earth's economic sphere to catalyze humanity's future in space.

]]> Tue, 15 MAY 2012 18:31:33 AEST Greenbelt, MD (SPX) Apr 25, 2012 - Imagine yourself in orbit, your spacecraft flying backward with its small window facing down toward the surface of the moon. You peer out, scouring the ash-colored contours of the cratered landscape for traces of ancient volcanic activity. Around you, the silent, velvety blackness of space stretches out in every direction.

The spacecraft rolls over, and you glimpse a sliver of intense light starting to climb over the rough horizon. It might be dawn, except that the bright sliver quickly morphs into an arc of dazzling white swirled with vivid blue and then rises far enough to be recognized as the brilliant, marbled Earth. Captured on film, this breathtaking view becomes the iconic photograph "Earthrise."

On December 24, 1968, three people saw this happen firsthand: Apollo 8 Commander Frank Borman and crew members William A. Anders and James A. Lovell, Jr. Now, in honor of Earth Day 2012, the rest of us can see what that was like in a new NASA visualization, which draws on richly detailed maps of the moon's surface made from data gathered by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO).

"This visualization recreates for everyone the wondrous experience of seeing Earth from that privileged viewpoint," says LRO Project Scientist Rich Vondrak of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

At the time of the famous photo, Apollo 8 was rounding the moon for the fourth time, traveling in a nearly circular orbit about 110 kilometers (68 miles) above the moon's surface at about a mile per second.

"The spacecraft was pointed down to look at the moon's surface, because Anders was conducting an extensive photographic survey," explains James Rice, an astrogeologist at Goddard. "But Lovell needed to perform a navigation sighting, so Borman rolled the spacecraft." That's when Earth abruptly appeared.

To recreate this scene, NASA animator Ernie Wright reconstructed the orbit in software, using coordinates from an Apollo 8 mission report and photographs taken by the crew. "Apollo 8 was at 11 degrees south latitude and between 118 and 114 east longitude, with a westward view," says Wright. "The floor of Pasteur crater is visible in the foreground of the photograph."

Wright rendered the crisp contours of the moonscape using high-resolution topography data from LRO's Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter, which has provided the most precise and complete maps to date of the moon's complex, heavily cratered terrain.

The Earth shown in the visualization is not an exact duplication of what the astronauts saw but a mosaic of more recent images taken by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (known as MODIS) instrument on the Terra satellite and assembled by NASA's Visible Earth team.

The narration in the visualization comes from the original audio recording of the Apollo 8 astronauts, their commentary on the task at hand interrupted as they react to the sudden sighting of Earth. "Oh my God!" an astronaut calls out. "Look at that picture over there!"

A black-and-white image is snapped with one of the Hasselblad cameras on board, capturing the very first picture of Earth taken by a human in orbit around the moon. The crew then scrambles to get a color picture, which is taken 58 seconds after the black-and-white photo.

The color image, which simultaneously captures Earth's bold vitality and its fragility, is later named "Earthrise" and has been reproduced countless times, including a U.S. postage stamp issued on May 5, 1969. This popularity earned the photo the featured spot on the cover of Life's book "100 Photographs that Changed the World," in which wilderness photographer Galen Rowell deemed it "the most influential environmental photograph ever taken."

LRO and LOLA were built and are managed by NASA Goddard. The research was funded by NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C. The visualizations were created at Goddard's Scientific Visualization Studio.

]]> Tue, 15 MAY 2012 18:31:33 AEST Huntsville AL (SPX) Apr 20, 2012 - America's space agency has crowned its vehicular engineering victors at the close of the 19th annual NASA Great Moonbuggy Race at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Ala. The team from Petra Mercado High School in Humacao, Puerto Rico won first place in the high school division; racers from the University of Alabama in Huntsville Team 1, claimed the college-division trophy.

The winning teams outraced more than 80 teams from 20 states, Puerto Rico, Canada, Germany, India, Italy, Russia and the United Arab Emirates. Approximately 600 student drivers, engineers and mechanics - plus their team advisors and cheering sections - gathered April 13-14 for the harrowing "space race."

Organized by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, the race challenges students to design, build and race lightweight, human-powered buggies.

Traversing the grueling half-mile course, which simulates the cratered lunar surface, race teams face many of the same engineering challenges dealt with by Apollo-era lunar rover developers at the Marshall Center in the late 1960s. The winning teams post the fastest vehicle assembly and race times in their divisions, with the fewest on-course penalties.

The team from Petra Mercado, in its second year in the competition, finished the half-mile course in 3 minutes and 20 seconds. UA Huntsville brought home another win, finishing in 4 minutes and 3 seconds.

Finishing in second place this year in the high school division was Colegio Nuestra Senora del Perpetuo Socorro in Humacao, Puerto Rico. In third place was Arab High School Team 1 from Arab, Ala.

University of Puerto Rico at Humacao won second place in the college division; and Purdue University Calumet Team 1 from Hammond, Ind., took home third place.

Race organizers presented both first-place winners with trophies depicting NASA's original lunar rover. NASA also gave plaques and certificates to every competing team. Sponsor Lockheed Martin Corp. of Huntsville presented the first-place high school and college teams with cash awards of $2,850 each.

Individuals on the winning teams also received commemorative medals and other prizes. (For a complete list of additional awards for design, most improved and spirit, see below.)

"NASA's Great Moonbuggy Race gets bigger and more exciting every year - just like the career horizons NASA strives to open up to new generations of young engineers, scientists and explorers," said Tammy Rowan, manager of the Marshall Center's Academic Affairs Office, which organizes the race. "We seek to connect the classroom experience to a real, tangible future for every graduate - one in which some of them, we hope, will be inspired to carry on NASA's mission of discovery and help us reap the benefits back home on Earth."

The race is inspired by the original lunar rover, first piloted across the moon's surface in the early 1970s during the Apollo 15, 16 and 17 missions. Eight college teams participated in the first NASA Great Moonbuggy Race in 1994. The race was expanded in 1996 to include high school teams, and student participation has swelled each year since.

NASA's Great Moonbuggy Race has been hosted by the U.S. Space and Rocket Center since 1996. The race is sponsored by NASA's Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate in Washington. Major corporate sponsors are Lockheed Martin Corp., The Boeing Company, Northrop Grumman Corp. and Jacobs Engineering ESTS Group, all with operations in Huntsville.

]]> Tue, 15 MAY 2012 18:31:33 AEST Moscow (Voice of Russia) Apr 18, 2012 - Luna-Glob, a Moon-exploration program, will be a priority for the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) for the next 10 years, academician Lev Zeleny, director of the Space Research Institute of the Russian academy of sciences said. On the surface of the Moon the Russian scientists plan to master the technologies and operations for the future mission to Mars and Fobos.

The Russian Space Agency decided to focus of moon explorations after the failure of its Fobos-Grunt mission. The mission was launched on 9 November 2011 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, but subsequent rocket burns intended to set the craft on a course for Mars failed, leaving it stranded in low Earth Orbit.

Russia decided to postpone but not to give up the Fobos mission. In the coming years it will master all the details of the mission on the Moon. If two previous expeditions were linked with the exploration of mid latitudes of the Moon the goal of the coming expedition is to make a soft landing in one of its polar areas, Lev Zeleny says.

"The Russian equipment installed at NASA's orbiter has discovered big reserves of water ice in the polar areas of the Moon. The Moon is no longer a dry and lifeless celestial body for us but an object with a lot of interesting phenomena to study. Mars also has water ice reserves, not only in polar areas but also near the equator."

Scientists assume that ice was brought to the Moon by comets, which are often called "life-carriers". The Moon is considered to be an ideal place to study comets, the academician says.

"Fallen comets rest there like in a refrigerator for billion years. It is impossible to study these objects from a distance while a contact study would help us to learn a lot about them. It would be better of course, if samples are delivered to Earth. Our lunar program is built around these ideas."

For the implementation of this program Russia plans to launch three missions. The first landing is to take place on the South Pole approximately in 2015. The next two missions will feature the collection of scientific data.

In 2016, the second orbiter Luna Glob with a rover on board will fly to the Moon. In 2017, it is planned to drill ground in the polar areas of the Moon using a special drilling vehicle which will be delivered to the Moon by Luna-Resurs mission.

Source: Voice of Russia

]]> Tue, 15 MAY 2012 18:31:33 AEST Moscow (RIA Novosti) Apr 12, 2012 - Russia's Luna-Glob moon mission will see its first moon landing in 2015, a year later than originally planned, the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences said Tuesday.

"We are planning to make the first moon landing on its South Pole in 2015 with a Luna-Glob landing module," Lev Zelyony, director of the institute, told reporters, adding that the next space vehicle, an orbital Luna-Glob vehicle, would fly in 2016.

According to Zelyony, the Luna-Glob mission was initially planned for 2014. However, the reason of postponement was not given.

After two expeditions, Russia plans to launch a heavy unmanned spaceship carrying two landing modules to the moon in 2017.

"Moon will be in the focus of our activity this decade. We are going to work out the important technologies there," Zelyony said.

Russia is also trying to undertake a joint lunar project with India and cooperate with China in the Earth magnetosphere research, he said.

Source: RIA Novosti

]]> Tue, 15 MAY 2012 18:31:33 AEST Subscribe to our daily selection of space, military, environment and energy newsletters responseText http://visitor.constantcontact.com/manage/optin/ea?v=0016gbbKsaiGSpQFojVO8ZoHw%3D%3D