Work on the preliminary design for the Luna-28 automatic station designed to return lunar soil to Earth will begin in 2026, Director of the Institute of Space Research Anatoly Petrukovich told TASS.
"Next year we will begin the preliminary design of Venera-D and Luna-28," he said.
According to previously announced plans, the Luna-28 spacecraft will take soil samples from the Earth's natural satellite from a depth of up to two meters, preserve them at cryogenic temperatures, after which they will be delivered to Earth.
