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It is hard to support a shuttle with a downturned economy. But here we are now 35 years after we walked on the moon, and now we're trying to think of a the best to get to the moon. For all the money and time we spent the US is going to take 15 years to return. We are no closer than the Chinesse.
We should take clark's advice and learn from our mistakes.
I don't know how we are going to garner the public support, but if we are going to go anywhere, we must.
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About Russian space tech. I have to say the people involved in their development are usually top notch in knowledge, as there is more widespread enthusiasm for space throughout the population in the east as I have yet experienced in the west.
They're really getting the best out of the limited financial and political situation there. Those guys would do wonders were it not for that miserable system they got.
They have yet to do anything like the Voyagers, Viking Landers or Apollo to the Moon, some say Russia can't really compare to the great stuff by NASA
however there are those who think NASA has been going downhill lately, not just for the reasons of the projects but also because of external economic and world political issues
'first steps are not for cheap, think about it...
did China build a great Wall in a day ?' ( Y L R newmars forum member )
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For interplanetary probes they had the Venjera to Venus and also sent probes to Halley for example.
Of course landing on the Moon is a unique accomplishment of the US and the best candidates for surpassing that is the US itself up to this date.
Nonetheless the Sojuz spacecraft has proven to be a reliable piece of hardware that can appearantly still work with the small budget of the Russian space agency.
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I find it odd that Russia touts models like this one when their space agency doesn't seem to have any real long-term plans beyond the ISS. A few weeks ago Putin went so far as to mention that long-term exploration plans should not be a priority for Russia.
NASA is often accused of being myopic but at least they have some clear roadmap to follow. It doesn't seem like anyone in the Russian Space Agency has any concrete plans beyond ferrying to and from LEO via Soyuz.
Soyuz to launch from French Guiana, the Russian technicians have already visited European space launch base in French Guiana South America. The Kliper could be in service in the 2010-2011 timeframe. Novosti has also quoted Perminov as saying that the Kliper can be launched from European as well as Russian spaceports. ESA had plans for the Hermes space plane but it fell through because of problems but ESA's Future Launchers Programme is important if they want to do space station work and go to Mars with Aurora.
Russian mission Phobos-Grunt has been given high priority, the Phobos-Grunt is a planned Russian sample return mission to Phobos, one of the moons of Mars. Phobos-Grunt will also study Mars and its environment, including atmosphere and dust storms, plasma and radiation. Electric jet propulsion is considered for this Russian mission. Phobos-Grunt is scheduled to be launched in 2009 on a Soyuz launcher.
The European Mars mission was launched with Soyuz/Fregat launcher at Baikonur, Kazakhstan while the Cluster satellites each were 2 Russian Soyuz rockets. The Venera-D landing craft will be delivered to Venus in the ballistic pattern used for the other past Russia missions to Venus, At present it is most likely that a Soyuz launcher will be used for the Venera-D spacecraft, as in previous Venus missions. Venera D is a planned Venus Mothership and Lander which is developed by Lavochkin, about 1,300 kg of heavy Lander, which is to be able to survive over a longer time on the hellish surface "Venera D" is probably started by a Soyuz rocket and similarly as the first Venera probes directly, without a flyby stage, on the planet Venus to land. The landing is planned on the night side of the Venus and emphasis of the mission lies in the investigation of the lower atmosphere, in addition during the descent the surface in the infra-red light is photographed. Russia's future plans for Space, manned missions, Venus, the ISS and Mars.
http://www.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/cont … 6/02.shtml
http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/ESA_Permane … ..._0.html
http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Launchers_A … ..._0.html
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/spacetra … l-05j.html
http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/ESA_Permane … ..._0.html
http://aviapress.com/viewonekit.htm?NOK … NOK-200311
http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/ESA_Permane … ..._0.html
http://sci2.esa.int/nextstep/RussianPro … rogram.pdf
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6623693/]ht … d/6623693/
Russia is about to return to development and launch of deep space probes due to better financial environment. Fobos-Grunt now scheduled for launch in 2009 is the obvious leader and it now may host an additional U.S. payload. The next one now being considered is a Venus lander Venera-D . Russian participation in European BepiColombo mission (2012) would also be quite significant: launch vehicles, the MSE lander and instruments on both MPO and MSE. The Ptaneta-A program envisages Russian instruments on NASA and ESA probes. Luna-Glob, Mars-Grunt and Aster projects are under consideration too.
An approximate list of the instruments could look in such a way: a panorama camera, a descent camera, a mass spectrometer, an alpha ray x-ray spectrometer, a gamma-ray spectrometer, a laser spectrometer, a nebula measuring instrument and a seismic detector. The costs of the mission are to amount to approximately 300 million euro, the development are 2006 to begin. During the Venera mission the composition and physical properties of the Venusian atmosphere would be measured at altitudes of up to 60 km above the surface. The dark-side landing would include IR imaging during descent, starting from 40-45 km altitudes. There are also plans to investigate the possible long-term operation of part of the science equipment on the planet's surface. Kliper was proposed in 2004 by the Russian Energia Corp, money that ESA could provide to the Russian space effort could easily pay for development of the Kliper and it would give the ESA a manned craft that may well be capable of being launched by Arianne or by a generation of Russian boosters from the ESA facility in french guyanna. Today the Russians and ESA work close and the European ESA is to pay Russia to build Soyuz pad at Kourou
'first steps are not for cheap, think about it...
did China build a great Wall in a day ?' ( Y L R newmars forum member )
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