Roscosmos to Spend $7.5Mln on Studying Issues of Manned Lunar Missions

The Russian state space corporation Roscosmos will spend 478 million rubles ($7.5 million) on studying issues of manned flights to the moon, data published on the Russian public procurement web portal suggests.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The Central Research Institute of Machine Building (TsNIIMash), a research institute within the Russian space agency, is set to carry out the studies, according to the portal.

Under the procurement deal, TsNIIMash will also have to develop "key elements and technologies, including in medical and biological areas, to provide safe life and work conditions for cosmonauts on the Lunar orbit and on the surface of the Moon."

In June, TsNIIMash announced that Russian engineers were working on a project of a lunar base that would eventually hold up to 12 people.