Currently Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft, which are built by RSC Energia, are the only vehicles capable of sending humans into space.

Nasa has been relying upon the system to send its astronauts to the International Space Station along with regular supplies of cargo.

In a statement posted on the RSC Energia website, Mr Solntsev said: ‘The high-priority line of activities for Russian manned programs in the next 10 to 20 years is lunar exploration.
‘Russia develops a new-generation advanced transportation spacecraft, in the nearest future development of other elements of the lunar program will also begin.’

The new spacecraft, dubbed the Angara-A5V heavy-lift carrier rocket, is expected to be built using composites specifically designed for lunar missions.

Russia has never landed a human on the moon and plans to do so drawn up in the 1960s were never completed after Nasa’s Apollo moon landings.

Instead, the country has concentrated on sending a series of unmanned probes to the lunar surface. However, it has not sent a spacecraft to the moon since the sample return mission Luna 24 in 1976.
However, the country’s new effort to send cosmonauts to the moon could see it beating US in its attempts to return to the lunar surface.

Nasa had been planning to return humans to the lunar surface as part of its long-term plans to send astronauts to Mars.

However, the plans were scrapped in 2010 favour of landing on an asteroid in an announcement by US President Barack Obama.

Hit by major funding issues, a mission to the moon was seen as being a low priority although some officials have indicated Nasa may send future missions to orbit the dusty satellite.
A recent study funded by Nasa has, however, also suggested Nasa is still hopeful about establishing a human presence on the surface of the moon.

The Evolvable Lunar Architecture Plan outlined a cut price way of building a base on the moon for around $10 billion using private rockets and mining water ice from the poles.
The study, conducted by NexGen Space LLC, said it would be possible to land humans on the moon within the next five to seven years and establish a base within 19 years.

A number of former Nasa staff have also suggested that the space agency is quietly planning a mission to the moon as part of its build up to Mars.

However, Russia’s ambitious plans to return to the moon could now trigger a new race to exploit the minerals and other resources on the lunar surface.
Earlier this year, the European Space Agency said it was interested in joining Russia’s attempts to colonise the moon.

ESA and Roscosmos said they were working together to send a lander to the moon’s south pole to look for water.

The Lunar 27 mission will launch in 2020 and its primary mission will be to look for deposits of water ice in craters on the surface, which could be used by future manned colonies on the moon.
Professor Igor Mitrofanov, one of the lead scientists on the project at the Space Research Institute in Moscow, told the BBC: ‘We have to go to the Moon.

‘The 21st Century will be the century when it will be the permanent outpost of human civilisation, and our country has to participate in this process.’

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