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I was just reading the book "Carl Sagan's Universe" and I saw in there when they were discussing the Russian's space program that they were planning to send a human expidition to mars. They were in the planning stage in 1988. They said in that book that they had the technology to do it. It never got done.
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Russia has had "Mars on the brain" for a long time. Nuclear power and electric propulsion have also been prominent features of their assorted Mars plans. Every year or so, Energia corp. dusts off their solar-electric Mars plan and tries to generate interest, to no avail. In terms of life support, the Russians have unparallelled experience, but the life-support loop has not been closed to support a voyage to Mars.
It is hoped that Russia's nuclear-electric Mars plans will mesh with the Bush administration's own agenda that promotes nuclear-electric propulsion. However, Russia also wants to create a moon base, and the idea has some support from the administration. The next six months will be a critical time for determining the course of manned spaceflight, but the Russians will no doubt have a large say in the final decision.
Who needs Michael Griffin when you can have Peter Griffin? Catch "Family Guy" Sunday nights on FOX.
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I heard from an AIP fyi that Congress was talking about a Mars mission. Was the information authentic?
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Mars is one of the options being considered by Congress and the administration. A Russian-American moon base is also being investigated. The future of the space program will probably be an international effort, and it will hopefully have some greater goal in mind. Several prominent congressmen have expressed their desire for NASA to move on to exciting goals beyond earth orbit, and the administration is hearing them out.
Who needs Michael Griffin when you can have Peter Griffin? Catch "Family Guy" Sunday nights on FOX.
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"Mars is one of the options being considered by Congress and the administration. A Russian-American moon base is also being investigated. The future of the space program will probably be an international effort, and it will hopefully have some greater goal in mind. Several prominent congressmen have expressed their desire for NASA to move on to exciting goals beyond earth orbit, and the administration is hearing them out."
I think it's good that the government is finally considering a Human Mars mission. It's about time they started thinking about human space exploration beyond "Low Earth Orbit".
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