In its quest to get closer to the level of the United States in the field of space exploration, Russia is ready to take drastic measures and significantly accelerate the planned missions to the Moon and Mars at a later date. According to data received from Roskosmos, it became known that Russia plans to conduct the first manned flights to the Moon by the end of this decade, and by 2030, according to new plans, a base will be established on the Moon. The first man will go to Mars no earlier than 2040, but this is also much earlier than planned.
In one of the telephone interviews, the head of the Russian Space Agency (Roscosmos) Anatoly Perminov said the following: “At the moment, the government has provided us with decent funding. The agency's budget for the current 2011 was 3.5 billion dollars, which is more than three times more than the most successful 2007 and an absolutely record amount since the collapse of the USSR in 1991. With all this in mind, we can gradually move forward on all issues."
At the moment, the main goal of Russia in the development of space programs is the commercial, technological and scientific aspects of space travel in the near future. During the Soviet era, the main goal of the development of space programs was a geopolitical victory over the United States in the Cold War. In particular, President Dmitry Medvedev calls the space industry one of five areas through which the Russian government plans to help the country's economy move away from the unsightly status of the world leader in the supply of energy resources and stop focusing on their production.
“We are significantly increasing the budget for the development of space programs, since the time has come for a real technological breakthrough,” said Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. "We need to replace obsolete infrastructure and continue to actively maintain our leadership in space development."
Continuing cooperation on the space station
Early Tuesday morning, the Russian Soyuz TMA-21 spacecraft, carrying three cosmonauts, launched from the Baikonur international cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. This launch of the spacecraft to the International Space Station became a jubilee, because on April 12, Russia will celebrate the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's space flight. On board the spacecraft are Andrey Borisenko and Alexander Samokutyaev from Roscosmos and NASA representative Ron Garan. (Ron Garan). Already on April 7, they arrived at the station, indicated on the Roscosmos website.
Cooperation between Russia and the United States on the ISS continues and is likely to continue in the future. First of all, the Americans are interested in cooperation, for whom, after the decision to end the Space Shuttle program, which has operated for more than 30 years, this remains the only way to deliver American astronauts to the station.
USA money
It is known that for sending American cosmonauts to the ISS until the end of 2015, Russia will earn $ 752 million in payment from the United States. Considering the number of planned flights, the cost of sending one cosmonaut into orbit is $ 63 million, and, according to Perminov, these significant funds will be spent on engineering, maintenance and modernization.
Back in February last year, US President Barack Obama announced the completion of NASA's Constellation program, which was developed under the supervision of the administration of President George W. Bush, according to this program, new spaceships and launch vehicles to return to the Moon had to be built by 2020 …The decision has been heavily criticized by astronauts on past missions and NASA officials, including the former head of the agency and the first person to walk on the lunar surface, Neil Armstrong. According to him, such a decision will take the existing American space exploration program out of the international game. Without manned spacecraft prepared for launch, planned and conventional orbital launches into near-earth orbit must be handed over to private companies created for execution.
China's plans for space exploration
China, which made its first and truly successful manned launch of the Shengzhou spacecraft in 2003, plans to install a special capsule on the lunar surface in 2013 and by 2020 prepare and develop technology for a manned mission. This was announced on March 3 in Beijing by Xu Shijie, a member of the People's Political Consultative Council of China.
Last year was one of the most difficult for the Russian space industry. The biggest failure can be called the fact that the Proton-M launch vehicle was unable to deliver three navigation satellites of the GLONAS type, a competitor to the GPS system operating in the United States, into space orbit. Due to the loss of satellites, Dmitry Medvedev fired Viktor Remishevsky, deputy. chairman of Roscosmos, and Vyacheslav Filin, deputy. head of the production of space rockets "RSC Energia", in addition, the president made a reprimand to Perminov.
“Russia needs a flight to Mars, it will not only spur technologies, but also bring them to a completely new level,” said Yuri Karash, a full member of the Russian Academy of Cosmonautics. engines, completely new anti-radiation drugs that will be able to protect people while in outer space."
Mission to Mars
According to Karash, if the mission to fly to Mars is included in the current federal space program, then we can say with confidence that in 12 years this mission will be implemented. In June 2010, Roskosmos launched a program for simulating a real flight to the planet Mars - three Russian cosmonauts, two from Europe and one from China were locked in a huge 1, 750 square meters, five-module complex and left in complete isolation for 17 months …
Commercial space
“The need to send an increased number of crews suspended in 2009 the program to send space tourists together with crews,” says Perminov, “space tourism, operating on a commercial basis, will be able to return as early as 2013. Astronauts from other countries currently have to wait in a long queue, as the orbiting ISS has growing needs to increase the intensity of communication with the Earth, and Russia's delivery capabilities are limited by a small number of spaceships. Naturally, Russia could receive a billion dollars a year from these launches. It would be nice to have two or three space tourists a year, maybe more. Roskosmos is holding consultations with RSC Energia on the possibility of increasing the production of space rockets."
