By Patricia Knox

November 17, 2017 - Russia is planning to colonize the Moon and explore its natural resources as part of ambitious plans to become a superpower in space.

After more than 40 years since it last carried out a lunar mission, Moscow is ploughing £30 million into building a new spaceship bound for Earth’s satellite.

Russian leader Vladimir Putin has instructed his space chiefs to make a first landing on the moon within 15 years.

As part of this drive, Luna-25 (formerly known as Luna-Glob) automated probe will be sent to explore the Moon’s South Pole.

The module will land in the Boguslavsky crater in the south pole and begin drilling.

The last Soviet lunar mission was sent in 1976 when the Luna-24 probe made a soft landing, collecting soil samples before returning to Earth.

The spacecraft will be gathering and transmitting information from the landing station.

But no cosmonauts will be going into space.

Instead there will be an automated space station directing an unmanned spacecraft.

As previously reported, a "cyber cosmonaut" will be sent ahead of tackling more ambitious tasks on the lunar landscape.

A key task for Fedor will be to "assist in construction and use of bases" on the moon and potentially other planets, said its Russian designers FPI.

The mission will mark the return of Russia a space power at a time when its military adventures are also mirroring the Cold War days.

The two superpowers are locked in an arms race, analysts warned, meaning a conflict is "likely in the future" unless both sides reach an agreement over the militarisation of space.

Meanwhile rocket technology is threatening the peace on terra firma.

US military chiefs are ignoring a landmark weapon ban after discovering Russia was flouting rules on developing ground-based cruise missiles, it’s claimed.

Short-range missiles that could strike within 310 to 3,420 miles were banned during the height of Cold War tension. 

A map of where Putin wants to base his initial lunar mission