Pravda: Space cooperation with the USA to ruin Russia's space industry

Pravda: Space cooperation with the USA to ruin Russia's space industry

02/09/2005 19:04

Russia's adherence to American plans might therefore imply many years of
setback and financial losses for the Russian space industry

Anatoly Perminov, the head of the Federal Space Agency, described
Russia's perspective for upcoming several decades as far as the development
of the national space industry is concerned. The International Space Station
project tops the list of Russia's priorities in space. A manned exploration
of the Moon, including lunar settlements, ranks second, whereas Mars comes
only third. The FSA director tied nation's space activities to new space
plans of the US President George W. Bush: "Back to the Moon!" (Americans
plan to make another manned flight to the Earth's natural satellite by 2015)
and "To Mars!" (a manned flight to the red planet after 2030).

It is hard to assume, though, that the policy of the Federal Space
Agency corresponds to Russia's interests outside Earth. Let us imagine what
would happen if Russia, which used to be the USSR back then, joined the 1984
US-led "Freedom" orbital station space project, instead of working on the
Mir space complex. The American project was developing really slowly for ten
years. The USSR put Mir into space in 1986. The station was operating for 15
years and was destroyed only in 2001, when the International Space Station,
which eventually appeared as a result of the "Freedom" project, was only
several months old.

Russia's adherence to American plans might therefore imply many years
of setback and financial losses for the Russian space industry. When the
Soviet Moon project was closed in the beginning of the 1970s, the USSR aimed
its efforts on a manned flight to Mars (in addition to orbital stations).
"Russia has accomplished a lot more at this point in comparison with the
USA," Leonid Gorshkov, a leading specialist of Energia Corporation said.
"The backlog is a lot larger in this field as opposed to the exploration of
the Moon," said he.

A redirection of the Russian space industry from Mars to the Moon will
result in a considerable loss of the scientific and technical potential,
which the country saved during preparations to the mission to Mars. A lot of
outstanding Russian academicians do not support the idea of the Moon's
priority to Mars either. "Mars is much more interesting than the Moon from
the point of view of actual objectives that space explorers have, including
the talked-about question of possible extraterrestrial life," deputy
director of the Institute of Space Exploration of the Russian Academy of
Sciences, Vyacheslav Rodin said.

Russia's views regarding space cooperation with the USA as the driving
force may not be justifiable at all. Academician Ronald Sagdeyev, the former
director of the above-mentioned institute (he currently works as a
university professor in Maryland) said that it was quite difficult to
convince the USA of the need to cooperate with someone in space. It is the
USA that forms 75 percent of the global space budget. America, therefore,
does not need Russia much to implement its space plans. Furthermore, any
form of Russia's participation in those plans can become possible only if it
follows USA's conditions. Erik Galimov, the director of the Institute for
Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences,
said that Americans would simply expropriate Russia's contribution: "Russia
will get nothing in return,"¦ he concluded.

The implementation of the manned lunar project (in addition to the one
developed by NASA) is economically and politically senseless indeed. This
fact has already made Russia turn down the idea of Mir-2 station several
years ago to the benefit of the International Space Station. It is
noteworthy that the near-Earth exploration cannot give an incentive to the
development of the Russian space industry anyway. Even the USA considers
space stations as something money-consuming and possessing a doubtful
scientific value. The USA has already spent $100 billion on the space
station, which will not be finished until the end of the current decade, The
Washington Post wrote. American specialists say that the international
cooperation experience within the scope of the International Space Station
project was negative to its members.

It is necessary to cooperate with the USA in the field of space
exploration, although it does not have to be performed within the scope of
only one space project. Russia's Energia Cooperation has the cheapest
variant of a manned mission to Mars at its disposal: the project includes
the exploration of the red planet without landing on it. If the project is
approved in 2005, Russian cosmonauts will be orbiting Mars at the end of the
next decade (whereas NASA plans to return to the Moon during that time). The
price of the Russian Martian project is quite comparable to the one that
Russia will have to pay to let its cosmonauts join American astronauts on
Selena. A mutually beneficial exchange deal is possible at this point:
Russia takes Americans to Mars, and NASA includes Russians in the number of
lunar colonizers.

"Rand Simberg" wrote
Jim, do you have a link?

http://english.pravda.ru/science/19/...942_space.html

On Wed, 09 Feb 2005 17:24:00 GMT, in a place far, far away, "Jim
Oberg" made the phosphor on my monitor
glow in such a way as to indicate that:

Pravda: Space cooperation with the USA to ruin Russia's space industry

Jim, do you have a link?

Andi Kleen wrote:

While I somewhat doubt they will have enough money in 2005 for a Mars
mission it still sounds like a interesting concept. Maybe they can
pull that off a few years later though.

With the rise of oil prices, the russians have payed all debts
they had with the FMI...

No debts, they are in a good possition to carry on their space plans.

h (Rand Simberg) writes:

On Wed, 09 Feb 2005 17:24:00 GMT, in a place far, far away, "Jim
Oberg" made the phosphor on my monitor
glow in such a way as to indicate that:

Pravda: Space cooperation with the USA to ruin Russia's space industry

Jim, do you have a link?

I saw the article at http://english.pravda.ru Friday, when I was
skimming there for this week's _Nuggets from Pravda_.

If it's not still on the main page, I'd say check under the
science section.

However, I just looked, and it's at:

http://english.pravda.ru/science/19/...942_space.html

pgf