After successfully annexing Crimea, Russia is now setting its sights on the moon. Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin has announced that the Eurasian nation is planning to expand their territory to the moon.

Voice of Russia reported that the country is planning to build a permanent base on the moon instead of just leaving it after several missions.

Mr Rogozin, who is in charge of running Russia’s defence and aerospace industries, said that Russia wants to create a lunar base by 2040, explaining that the base is more reasonable than making several trips to the moon and back.

“The moon is not an intermediate point in the [space] race, it is a separate, even a self-contained goal. It would hardly be rational to make some ten or twenty flights to the moon, and then wind it all up and fly to the Mars or some asteroids,” he was quoted by the government daily Rossiiskaya Gazeta on Friday, as translated by the Voice of Russia.

“This process has the beginning, but has no end: we are going to come to the moon forever.”

Mr Rogozin also said that he moon is the only realistic source to obtain water, minerals, and other resources for future space missions, and it is also a suitable platform for testing new space technologies.

Russia also intends to search and explore the solar system and beyond to obtain natural resources.

“We should not be afraid to dream, to raise the bar as high as possible for our future development. Russia has everything needed for a new breakthrough in space research. All we need is to learn how to combine idealism and pragmatism and how to properly organise our business.”

This isn’t the first time the deputy prime minister has announced the country’s intention to build a lunar base.

In 2012, as reported by Reuters, Mr Rogozin said that Russia should set the “super goal” to give a new sense of purpose to its space program.

He told Vesti FM radio station, “Why not try to build a big station on the Moon that would be a base for future ‘leaps’ of science?”