MOSCOW. March 30 (Interfax) - Soil samples will be brought to the Earth as a result of the second Russian mission to Venus, according to Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin.
"In my opinion, it [the mission] will be very interesting, considering that samples of Venus soil will be taken and brought to the Earth," Rogozin said at the plenary meeting of the Korolyov Readings forum.
Preparations for the Russian-U.S. Venera-D mission are being made in Russia. Director of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS)'s Space Research Institute Anatoly Petrukovich told Interfax earlier that the preliminary project would be ready in 18-24 months.
"Work has only begun now and we need to formally issue a preliminary design. It is a clarified project design and if Roscosmos accepts it, it will be produced this way. I believe, this work is to last for about a year and a half or two," Petrukovich said.
At the current stage, only the development of the preliminary design has been funded, he said. "The amount of funding is relatively small, so they gave us money despite all, let's say, problems," he said.
The exact amount of funding required to complete the space mission will be determined following the development of the preliminary design, he said.
According to Petrukovich, the tentative launch date remains the same, 2029-2030, despite delays in the design project stage.
Space Research Institute Deputy Director Oleg Korablyov told Interfax earlier that Russia will have to contribute 17 billion rubles to implement the Venera-D project. According to him, the funding of research-and-development work should have begun in 2019-2020 in order to send the mission in 2029.
The mission will include a landing module, which will take soil samples from the planet. The module will be able to work for about one day. Leading research fellow of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Space Research Institute Natan Eismont told Interfax earlier that one of Venera-D's objectives is looking for the signs of life on Venus.