US & Russia Pencil in Mars Launch by 2018

snilloc writes "The Washington Times is reporting that the US and Russia (and the Europeans are mentioned too) are planning for an eventual manned Mars trip. Suggested launch years are 2014 or 2018. The article discusses unmanned probes at greater length than the manned plans, but check out the Russian isolation experiment where 6 people will spend 500 days in a simulated spacecraft environment. (Sounds like a good reality TV show to me.)"

Comments

Re:Huh?

[Junior J. Junior III]

That was my initial reaction, but then I realized it was one of those fabled Russian pencils. Thank God the Russkies are lending us their pencil, as it has become cost prohibitive to send the million dollar space pens on long-range missions. They're singlehandedly making space exploration affordable again.