Roscosmos allocates 318 million rubles for the study of Venus

May 17, 2021 it became known about the allocation by Roscosmos of more than 318 million rubles for the study of Venus. These funds will be used to implement the first stage of the project, within the framework of which it is planned to create a Russian automatic station for studying this planet.

According to RIA Novosti, citing materials posted on the public procurement website, Roscosmos signed a contract with Lavochkin's NGO to develop a corresponding technical proposal. The project executor will have to "justify the feasibility of the mission and possible design solutions that ensure the study of the atmosphere, surface, internal structure and surrounding plasma of Venus at the modern scientific and technical level," as well as "investigate the possibility of returning samples of soil, atmosphere and aerosols of Venus to Earth."

Roscosmos allocates 318 million rubles for the study of Venus

The composition of the Venus-D space complex should be determined at the technical proposal stage, based on the use of existing and created Angara-A5 rockets in Russia with the DM-03 booster unit, the terms of reference say.

Earlier, the head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, called Venus a "Russian planet" and said that Russia was considering plans to launch a separate mission on Venus.

Russia and the United States planned to study Venus as part of a joint mission. However, these plans have been adjusted.

In early March 2021, the supervisor Institute of Space Research (IKI) RAS , academician RAS Lev Zeleny, announced TASS that the design of the interplanetary automatic station Venus-D was beginning in the Russian Federation, and contracts were being concluded with the performers. According to the academician, the main contours of the Russian Venerian program will be clarified during the design. It, Green suggested, would take two years.^[1]

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