Despite Lean Space Budgets Russia Is Headed For the Moon (blastingnews.com)

MarkWhittington writes: Thanks to the collapse of oil prices that has ravaged the Russian economy, dependent as it is on fossil fuel exports, Russia's space program is facing draconian budget cuts... Still, the country that lost the race to the moon still has ambitious plans for Earth's closest neighbor... The Russians even have hopes of landing cosmonauts on the lunar surface by the end of the 2020s.
New evidence of subsurface ice helped fuel their interest in human moon landings, according to Science magazine, which reports that Russia is first planning five robotic missions to the moon over the next nine years. Three of these will be conducted with the European Space Agency, including one which will drill for underground samples in the new areas of the lunar surface, and the director of Russia's space agency says "the next decade will be quite busy for us."

Comments

Room?

[Schmorgluck]

I'm feeling too lazy to look it up, but is there enough room on the moon to fit the whole of Russia?

A statement of intent is not an actual plan

[Anonymous Coward]

Russia has big problems right now and the expense of going to the moon has nothing to do with it. Their military is getting old, their Navy needs an upgrade, and there is a battle between Russia and the West over Ukraine. Considering the Russians just announced a budget cut to their military for the first time in decades, and with no end in sight to low oil prices, this will all just remain a statement of intent but will not likely come to anything concrete.

Re:A statement of intent is not an actual plan

[guacamole]

Sounds like you have been out of touch with the Russian military, as the description you give corresponds to the 1990s or early 00s. Russian military has been undergoing a massive structural reform during the past 10 years, and it has been acquiring and renewing its weapons systems at a very fast pace. Just to give you an idea of the scale of the upgrades, like last year Russian air force received about 200 new 4+ or 4++ generation fighter jets. Currently they're testing, a 5th generation fighter jet and a next generation tank and IFV platform. Yes, Russian navy is the most neglected of all Russian military branches. Russia being more of a land power, has historically spent less money on its ships. But even in the Navy, there is quite a bit of new things happening. For example, the Black Sea Fleet is in the middle of receiving six new diesel submarines, three frigates, a number of corvettes and other ships. It's not a lot, but once you compare this progress to the fact that Black Sea fleet has not received any ships in the previous 20 years, this progress is obvious.

Also observe Syria. Before Russian military got involved there, Assad's government was basically on its last ropes. After Russians came, Assad's forces with Russian help reconquered much of Aleppo, Hops, and Palmyra. The "moderate" rebels begged for cease fire, and Assad is now advancing west onto ISIS held territory.

A large grain of SALT

[Dorianny]

Oh sure and they are also building the Russia Alaska Superhighway, A fleet of Supercarriers. In the Real World Russia shrank the defense budget by %10 in 2015 and still Russian Reserve Fund running empty