Russian recoverable space probes will be apt to deliver samples of moon ice to the Earth in 2021.

      The director of the Space Researche Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences Lev Zeleny has reported about it.

      Today scientists are sure that there is water in the form of ice or hydrated minerals on the Moon. Researchers have found out that liquid water cannot exist on the surface of the satellite planet: it evaporates under the influence of sunlight and dissipates into the space.

      As for the ice, it can quite well remain in the Moon craters, where the sunlight does not reach. The frozen water can also be harbored deep in lunar soil.

      It is a reminder that Russia plans to establish a manned space station on the Moon after 2030. The Federal Space Program has planned the Moon-Globe and the Moon Resource missions, in the course of which the Polar Sample Return probe, capable to deliver lunar soil samples to the Earth, will be sent to the Moon.

      ROSCOSMOS (Federal Space Agency of the Russian Federation) experts assume that it will be more convenient to explore the Moon providing that lunar soil and local water can be used in construction.