Roscosmos has promised to establish colonies on the Moon and Mars
Roscosmos Director Dmitry Bakanov stated that humanity will allegedly inevitably establish permanent settlements on the Moon and, eventually, on Mars. According to him, the current generation may witness the first long-term missions during which people will live on the Moon with the necessary infrastructure.
Bakanov spoke about the future of space exploration in an interview with “Yunashev Live.” He stated that establishing colonies on other celestial bodies is only a matter of time. “Colonies are 100% certain. First on the Moon, then on Mars,” said the head of Roscosmos.
According to him, in the coming years, humans may transition from short flights to long-duration missions. This involves people staying on the Moon with a certain level of infrastructure and the ability to work there for longer periods.
Bakanov also called the Moon a kind of backup option for humanity. In his view, in the future, people may need a place beyond Earth in the event of large-scale natural or man-made disasters. “There must always be a backup option where humanity could ‘relocate.’ And this will be impossible without space. The first stage is the Moon,” he said.
What Russia Plans
Russia does indeed have long-term plans for exploring the Moon. In 2024, the Russian Academy of Sciences developed a program for exploring Earth’s satellite, extending through 2060. The program includes a series of missions to study the Moon. Russian authorities have also announced plans to build energy infrastructure there.
In the summer of 2025, Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov reported to Russian President Vladimir Putin on plans to build a nuclear power plant on the Moon. According to the announced plans, they aim to launch it by 2036. It is expected to provide electricity for future lunar infrastructure. Russia is also considering projects to explore Mars. After 2030, the launch of the “Boomerang” interplanetary station is planned, which is intended to explore Mars’s moon Phobos and collect soil samples from it.
After 2036, the Russian program calls for further exploration of Venus and Mars. Plans have also been announced to develop space vehicles powered by nuclear energy systems.
Russia’s lunar program faces challenges
Moscow’s ambitious plans, however, have already been postponed more than once. The Russian lunar program is facing technical problems, failed missions, and delays. In August 2023, the Russian “Luna-25” lander malfunctioned and crashed into the Moon’s surface during a landing attempt. It was Russia’s first lunar mission in nearly half a century.
Schedule issues continued thereafter. In April 2026, Sergey Chernyshov, vice president of the Russian Academy of Sciences, announced that the launch of the next lunar mission had been postponed from 2027 to 2028. Several other planned missions have also been postponed. Therefore, statements about future colonies remain, for now, merely long-term plans. Implementing such projects requires sophisticated technology, substantial funding, and a stable space program.
Musk Also Talks About Settlements on the Moon
Russia isn’t the only country discussing the creation of permanent settlements beyond Earth. In early 2026, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk announced that the company had decided to focus on establishing a settlement on the Moon and to postpone its Mars program.
According to his estimates, it is potentially possible to build a settlement on the Moon in less than 10 years, whereas establishing a settlement on Mars could take more than 20 years. “SpaceX has already shifted its focus to building a self-sustaining city on the Moon, since we could potentially do this in less than 10 years, whereas Mars would take more than 20 years,” Musk wrote on the social media platform X.
Thus, the idea of permanent settlements on the Moon is already being discussed as one of the possible next stages of space programs. However, there remains a huge technological and financial gap between statements about future colonies and their actual creation. This is reported by Russian media.
On the night of August 15, a rocket strike on an industrial zone in Samara may have hit Workshop 106A of the “Progress” Rocket and Space Center, which is part of the Russian state corporation “Roscosmos.” This was reported by the Ukrainian OSINT project “CyberBoroshn” citing an analysis of satellite imagery.
