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Earth-like: Venus is roughly the size of our home planet (archive image)
Photo: JPL-Caltech / dpa
Russia wants to explore the planet Venus together with the USA.
"We have agreed with the Americans on a joint mission to Venus," said the head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, Dmitri Rogozin, in an interview with journalist Vladimir Solovyov on YouTube on Sunday night.
Together it is easier to approach the task from an economic and technical point of view, for example.
"Problems like this are easier to solve together by using the talents of our scientists," added Rogozin.
The USA is also interested in this.
He did not give a schedule.
The announcement came as a surprise because international cooperation in space had recently been burdened by geopolitical tensions.
Rogozin himself announced a few months ago that Russia wanted to build its own national space station.
"If you want to do it well, do it yourself," he said at the time.
Utopians dream of colonization
Russia had already announced a mission to Venus last year.
At the time, it was said that a probe could launch in the years 2027 to 2029.
Soon afterwards nothing more was heard of the plans.
Most recently, the United Arab Emirates announced that they would like to explore the planet.
The neighboring planet Venus is similar in size to the earth, but is wrapped in a dense cloud cover.
Due to a strong greenhouse effect, there are several hundred degrees Celsius on the surface.
Even so, some utopians believe that humanity could cool the planet down and turn it into a new earth.
The science channel »Kurzgesagt« recently explained this possibility in a video.
However, this would require some technical innovations.
Even in optimistic scenarios, the transformation would take several thousand years.
mpz / dpa
