Mars: The View From Moscow
The Russians want in on
President Bush's plan to go to the moon and Mars over the next 25
years. In fact, they might just go themselves.
"Even though our space engineers lacked money to build new
hardware, they have done a lot of prospective design work," said
Russian Space Agency spokesman Vyacheslav Mikhailichenko. "We have
preserved and developed our scientific potential."
Russian aerospace firms hope they can bring that sort of forward
thinking to the table as NASA figures out what sorts of vehicles it
will need to get to the moon and stay there, much less the space
vehicles it needs to allow humans to explore Mars.
The Russians, along with members of the European Union, say
it'll be mighty tough for the US to establish a base on the moon
and fly a manned mission to Mars without international
cooperation.
"It will be most
expedient to build a lunar settlement in close international
cooperation, as it was done in the case with the International
Space Station," said Roald Kremnev, First Deputy Director-General
of the Lavochkin Science and Production Society, in an interview
with the ITAR-Tass news agency.
And if the US decides it doesn't want help, the Russians might
decide to go it alone or form their own Moon-Mars consortium with
the EU.
"A federal space program, covering a period of up to 2015, is to
be drawn up before the year is up. The above-said projects may be
included in it,” Rosaviakosmos First Deputy Head Nikolai
Moiseyev told Itar-Tass. Many initiatives are coming from
scientists to launch Lunar and Martian expeditions, but it is yet
unknown which of them will be included in the federal program."
Kremnev said the Russians were prepared to employ their powerful
Energia booster (right, shown with Russian space shuttle) in
the program. With it, he said, there would be enough lifting power
to get the right personnel and equipment to the moon.
Once there, Kremnev said, Russian technology might again
prevail. "We are ready to make robots, capable of building
temporary housing on the Moon," he said.
The Russians say they could put a human on Mars in ten years --
and do it cheaper than NASA.
"The first flight of earthmen to Mars is possible, from the
technical point of view, already in 2014. Only about $15 billion
will be needed to do it, though the Americans evaluate their own
project at $150 billion, said Leonid Gorshkov, a designer at the
Energia Corporation.
Already, the Russian Academy of Sciences has picked six
volunteers who'll be locked in a self-sufficient environment for
500 days to test the feasibility of sending humans to Mars.