Russian Jupiter mission to get first funds

Russia's Jupiter research project, which includes putting a lander on the moon Ganymede, will receive its first funding next year, officials said. "The project has been included in the Federal Space Program until 2015; next year, first funding for the project will be supplied, though so far it is not very large," Federal Space Agency Roscosmos chief Viktor Voron said. An amount of funding somewhere between $300,000 and $1 million would be provided for a first year of research and development, Maxim Martynov, deputy general designer at the Lavochkin Science and Production Association, told RIA Novosti. The proposed mission would see one orbiter and one lander sent to Jupiter's largest moon, Ganymede, by 2023, for a three-year study, officials said. Russia's proposed project could become partner mission for the European Space Agency's Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer effort, set to launch in 2022 for arrival at Jupiter in 2030, RIA Novosti reported.