december
11-09-2007, 12:23 AM
10/ 09/ 2007
http://img.rian.ru/images/4205/61/42056149.jpg
MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti political commentator Andrei Kislyakov) - On the last day of summer, the Russian Space Agency made a sensational announcement. Its head Anatoly Perminov painted an epic picture of Russia's immediate future in space, specifically its manned part.
A week and a half ago, during a final news conference with journalists at the MAKS-2007 international air show, to the surprise of many, he spoke modestly about the evolutionary path to be taken by the space industry. "Our primary objective," he said, "is to stick to existing reliable systems already used in manned flights." Evidently they found the air show to be the wrong place to disclose the agency's truly revolutionary ambitions.
What are these ambitions?
1. A new manned space transport system by 2015.
2. A new space center on Russian territory built from scratch (the existing launch facilities do not meet the requirements of the new transport system).
3. A Russian manned station in a polar orbit, after the International Space Station (ISS) outlives its usefulness in about 2020.
4. "A manned mission to the Moon in 2025, and a permanent base on the Moon in 2028-2032." (quoting Perminov - A. K.).
5. A possible manned flight to Mars after 2035.
It is no easy task. To build a new space center means first of all building an all-amenities town complete with every service. It seems such a garden city, which no one yet knows where to build, is to go up before the transport system is in place. Imagine how much steel, cement, bricks, vehicles, soldiers' barracks, potatoes, spaghetti, kilometers of road, manpower, etc. will be needed. And you should have these figures at your fingertips now, not tomorrow.
Also, you need to start designing the town's own generating plant, calculate its industrial load and put together a personnel recruitment program if you really wish to do it all before 2020.
To use military terminology, we are being told to go on the offensive on three strategic sectors at once, even without taking the Moon and Mars operations into account. And all that is to be done at the same time as juggling the currently running and widely publicized programs, to say nothing of the embryonic state of our space science and other things.
And this at a time when our space effort is financed at one-sixteenth of the total American contribution. To be sure, there has been much talk of off-budget funds, particularly foreign injections into our space industry. The only reality, however, is the number 16, while overseas enthusiasm is enough only for ISS tourism.
READ MORE -
http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20070910/77697780.html
Russian Space Agency
http://www.roscosmos.ru/PictFiles/DSC_2888.jpg
Director of Federal Space agency (ROSCOSMOS)
Anatoly Perminov
http://www.roscosmos.ru/index.asp?Lang=ENG
http://claudelafleur.qc.ca/images/ProgressM1-10.jpg
http://img.rian.ru/images/4205/61/42056149.jpg
MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti political commentator Andrei Kislyakov) - On the last day of summer, the Russian Space Agency made a sensational announcement. Its head Anatoly Perminov painted an epic picture of Russia's immediate future in space, specifically its manned part.
A week and a half ago, during a final news conference with journalists at the MAKS-2007 international air show, to the surprise of many, he spoke modestly about the evolutionary path to be taken by the space industry. "Our primary objective," he said, "is to stick to existing reliable systems already used in manned flights." Evidently they found the air show to be the wrong place to disclose the agency's truly revolutionary ambitions.
What are these ambitions?
1. A new manned space transport system by 2015.
2. A new space center on Russian territory built from scratch (the existing launch facilities do not meet the requirements of the new transport system).
3. A Russian manned station in a polar orbit, after the International Space Station (ISS) outlives its usefulness in about 2020.
4. "A manned mission to the Moon in 2025, and a permanent base on the Moon in 2028-2032." (quoting Perminov - A. K.).
5. A possible manned flight to Mars after 2035.
It is no easy task. To build a new space center means first of all building an all-amenities town complete with every service. It seems such a garden city, which no one yet knows where to build, is to go up before the transport system is in place. Imagine how much steel, cement, bricks, vehicles, soldiers' barracks, potatoes, spaghetti, kilometers of road, manpower, etc. will be needed. And you should have these figures at your fingertips now, not tomorrow.
Also, you need to start designing the town's own generating plant, calculate its industrial load and put together a personnel recruitment program if you really wish to do it all before 2020.
To use military terminology, we are being told to go on the offensive on three strategic sectors at once, even without taking the Moon and Mars operations into account. And all that is to be done at the same time as juggling the currently running and widely publicized programs, to say nothing of the embryonic state of our space science and other things.
And this at a time when our space effort is financed at one-sixteenth of the total American contribution. To be sure, there has been much talk of off-budget funds, particularly foreign injections into our space industry. The only reality, however, is the number 16, while overseas enthusiasm is enough only for ISS tourism.
READ MORE -
http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20070910/77697780.html
Russian Space Agency
http://www.roscosmos.ru/PictFiles/DSC_2888.jpg
Director of Federal Space agency (ROSCOSMOS)
Anatoly Perminov
http://www.roscosmos.ru/index.asp?Lang=ENG
http://claudelafleur.qc.ca/images/ProgressM1-10.jpg