Russian Manned Spaceflight Goal

I worked with the Russians in 1993 when NASA was looking into buying a Soyuz
as the station's lifeboat. They told me their goal at the time was
permanent manned presence in space at minimum cost. If they got some real
science back, great. But to them the Mir itself was a big science
experiment.

Part of me thinks we should do better -- i.e. explore the solar system
and/or do lot of science. The problem is the cost goes WAY up. Part of me
thinks permanent manned presence in space for the lowest cost possible might
not be a bad goal for NASA. With the current budget situation, this might
be as much as NASA can do. It certainly is an objective that is easy to
measure. The key is to look at how to get the cost down. As a minimum we
would learn a lot about what is needed to go to Mars someday.

Danny

On Mar 7, 12:00 am, "Danny Deger" wrote:
I worked with the Russians in 1993 when NASA was looking into buying a Soyuz
as the station's lifeboat. They told me their goal at the time was
permanent manned presence in space at minimum cost. If they got some real
science back, great. But to them the Mir itself was a big science
experiment.

Part of me thinks we should do better -- i.e. explore the solar system
and/or do lot of science. The problem is the cost goes WAY up. Part of me
thinks permanent manned presence in space for the lowest cost possible might
not be a bad goal for NASA. With the current budget situation, this might
be as much as NASA can do. It certainly is an objective that is easy to
measure. The key is to look at how to get the cost down. As a minimum we
would learn a lot about what is needed to go to Mars someday.

Danny

One might try to keep the station going without
resupply for 2 years. That would help perfect what's
needed for interplanetary flight without the dangers
of being far from home and beyond help.

One could also test artificial gravity.

A "cheap" reusable launcher (i.e. not the STS)
would also be needed for later interplanetary
flights.

The Russian development of orbital assembly
(i.e. MIR) and orbital refueling (i.e. Progress)
will be the core technologies of EOR construction
of future interplanetary craft.