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Moscow: Russia's Jupiter research project, which includes a lander mission
to its moon Ganymede, will receive its first funding next year, a
space agency official said.
"The project has been included in the Federal Space Programme
until 2015; next year, first funding for the project will be
supplied, though so far it is not very large," said Viktor Voron,
aide to the chief of the federal space agency Roscosmos.
Between 10 million and 30 million rubles (about $300,000 to $1
million) will be provided during the first year for R&D, and
construction of the first mockups could start by 2017, said Maxim
Martynov, deputy general designer at the Lavochkin Science and
Production Association.
The project envisions sending one orbiter and one lander to
Jupiter's largest moon, Ganymede, by 2023, in order to study the
planet for about three years.
It is not yet clear whether the Ganymede Lander will be a partner
mission for the European Space Agency's (ESA) Jupiter Icy Moon
Explorer (JUICE).
JUICE is the first large-class mission that is part of ESA's
Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 programme.
It will be launched in 2022 from Europe's spaceport in Kourou,
French Guiana, on an Ariane 5, arriving on Jupiter in 2030 to
spend at least three years making detailed observations.
The spacecraft will finally enter orbit around Ganymede in 2032,
where it will study the icy surface and the internal structure of
the moon, including its subsurface ocean, ESA said.
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