RKA Brings Technology And Expertise To The Table

Russia's space agency, RKA, is willing to let bygones be bygones and set aside old rivalries in the new space race. It wants to join NASA in the US agency's planned moon exploration program slated to place a permanent manned presence on the lunar surface.

RKA spokesman Igor Panarin told the Associated Press "We want the agreement to reflect Russia's status as a great space power." He added that Russia will contribute technology rather than money to the project.

As ANN reported, NASA announced plans last Monday to send a four-man team to the moon in 2020 with hopes of establishing a permanently-manned base by 2024.

Russia's state-owned RKK Energiya has proposed its own moon program, but so far hasn't garnered any support from the country's government.

During NASA's manned-moon mission glory years the then Soviet Union launched numerous unmanned moon exploration mission. The USSR even managed to put a couple of rover vehicles on the moon's surface, but the program eventually collapsed following a series of launch failures and booster rocket explosions.

RKA's Panarin envisions a relationship between his agency and NASA much like the one RKA shares with the European Space Agency (ESA). Starting in 2008, RKA will launch commercial satellites using its successful Soyuz rockets from France's Kourou launch facility on the eastern coast of French Guyana in South America. The broad terms of the deal has Russia providing boost capability while ESA maintains the facilities.

NASA remains coy about publishing a figure for a permanent moon base's total cost, but it has said the first mission will likely top $104 billion.

With those kinds of costs involved, Panarin's idea of using RKA's Soyuz rockets might be a better idea than developing new booster technology from scratch as is planned.

FMI: www.nasa.gov, www.federalspace.ru