Russian scientists from the Russian Academy of Sciences announced their plans to send a robot to the moon instead of humans, on board the first Russian manned vehicle.
Lev Zelioni, scientific director of the Institute of Space Studies, said: Scientists are planning an idea to combine the study of the moon by robots on the one hand and the manned lunar program on the other. The idea has been proposed to have a robot drive the first manned lunar vehicle, which will imitate a human not only in terms of its weight and external appearance, but also in terms of its mental functions.
He added that the main mission of this robot will be to collect various lunar soil samples. After the spacecraft lands on the moon’s surface, the robot will descend to the moon and collect lunar rock samples. It will then place these rocks in the spacecraft, close its door, and film the spacecraft’s departure from the moon, then send these shots back to Earth.
The scientific director of the Institute of Space Studies explained that the robot will remain on the surface of the moon, and instead we will send to Earth tens of kilograms of lunar soil that it will collect. Of course, the robot will be controlled by geologists from Earth who will determine which samples it should take. In this way, two tasks will be solved at once: the experiment of landing a manned vehicle on the surface of the moon, and the collection and sending of lunar soil to Earth.