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After unveiling an ambitious plan to install a permanent base on the moon, the Russian space boss, Dmitry Rogozin, has now added a truly sci-fi-esque detail: humans will control it from Earth through a sophisticated "robotics avatar".
"We are talking about creating a long-term base, not constantly busy, but visitable", Rogozin, who heads the Russian space agency, told RIA Novosti Roscosmos on Tuesday.
The base will be mainly managed by "Robotic systems, avatars that will perform tasks on the surface of the moon", he said, noting that the whole project would be more important than the American program "Apollo" of the 60s and 70s.
READ MORE: Russia will have a permanent moon base – space chief
Rogozin has not gone into the details of this ambitious plan, leaving many people wondering how lunar "avatars" will look and function. The choice of words suggests that it was inspired by James Cameron's 2009 sci-fi blockbuster. The box office hit told the story of the distant planet of the jungle called Pandora. Since the air was not breathable for humans, they roamed the planet mentally "connecting" to "avatars", which imitated the bodies of the local humanoid race, the Na'vi.
Without doubt, the greyish landscape of the moon seems dark compared to the bright colors of Pandora, but the main idea is probably the same: humans use advanced technologies for remote exploration. This certainly corresponds to other strange things that Roscosmos officials have recently considered, such as the repair of space equipment with the help of spare parts, 3D printed directly from the lunar floor.
Whether the 'avatar robots' seem to be as appealing as the blue-skinned Na'vi or not, the current Russian space program plans to land the first cosmonauts on the lunar surface in 2030-2031 .
Scientists from the Russian Space Research Institute have recently confirmed that the country has the means to install the first lunar module at this time.
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