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Russia Has Sights Set On Manned Moon Landing By 2030
New submitter techfun89 writes "Russia plans on sending cosmonauts to the moon as well as unmanned spacecraft to Mars, Jupiter and Venus by 2030. Considering the recent launch failures in Russia, these plans seem very ambitious. From the article: 'These ambitious spaceflight goals are laid out in a strategy document drawn up recently by Russia's Federal Space Agency (known as Roscosmos), the Russian newspaper Kommersant reported Tuesday (March 13).
And there's more. Roscosmos wants a new rocket called Angara to become the nation's workhorse launch vehicle by 2020, replacing the venerable Soyuz and Proton rockets that have been carrying the load since the 1960s.'"
It will be good to finally get back to the moon. Can't wait to find out in what ways it's changed since the last time we visited.
The manned moon has its sights on landing in Russia by 2030.
Moon lands on you!
never stopped Russia before
I like how the summary goes on about how ambitious it is for Russia to get to the moon in almost two decades. It took just a little over 8 years for the US to go from basically nada (hadn't even gotten into orbit yet) to landing on the moon. There is better technology out there today, plus it has now of course been done before; I would think there is some advantage in being able to look at the data from the Apollo missions (assuming NASA is willing to share it?) If anything, getting there by 2030 seems a rather conservative goal, even taking into account their recent issues.
It's not a coincidence that newer Russian designs don't work. The "old guard" has retired. The new — immgirated. Just the other day international rankings came out for higher education. Not a single Russian school is on the list. That's what happens when you don't even pay starvation wages to your professors. Sooner or later they throw in the towel. It's a miracle things held together this long.
Given the scarcity of talented engineers, and the pitiful salaries Roscosmos pays to its staff, I'm kind of wondering how they expect to pull this off. They couldn't even do it when they had some of the best schools in the world (which regularly minted Nobel laureates), during the Soviet times, with essentially unlimited budget and manpower. Nowadays they can only build 20 year old rockets, and make minor improvements here and there. Put simply, after neglecting higher education for about a decade and a half, they've pissed away their technical capability to do anything they haven't already done before.
I hope they do another lander--or better yet a rover.
>Considering the recent launch failures in Russia, these plans seem very ambitious.
Not sure I see the relevance, seeing as:
Recent failures are a blip in a long run of reliability, and
They're going to be flying different rigs by 2030, anyway, which may be invincible, or every one may fail...
Not sure I see much point to it, though. Maybe Putin is working on national morale, or make-work, or kickbacks to someone.
except that they will actually go; as opposed to faking some film in the desert
If they hurry, they can get there before China.
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
Well, I take some exception to that. The U.S. space program proved that no matter how dangerous the mission, there would always be volunteers. However, NASA (as far as we know) never forced men into capsules that they knew were doomed.
The reason is that once private space is properly funded, then it will go to the moon around 2020. That will push Russia to join them. It will be as another ship (probable) or as a buyer of service (not at 100%), or more likely, a combination of these. I suspect that once bigelow puts a base on the moon, then every nation will want to go there, even if it means contracting to bigelow/IDC Dover for lunar base, and one of several up/down services (armadillo, masten, blue origin, etc). Once you are on the lunar surface, then you can set up your own base. IOW, contract with these companies to create your own services.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
If I had a nickel for every time the Russians announced some ambitious program I could run my own space program. Let's see if any money actually gets allocated.
I recall seeing a show on the space race where the US boys were scheduled to have become the first men in space, but the launch was postponed for a week or so over safety concerns. In that time the Russians launched their own ship and beat the US to a man in space.
The United States called their space travelers astronauts ("star sailors" from the Greek), and it was 3 weeks later, on 5 May 1961, when Alan Shepard became the first one in space, launched on a suborbital mission Mercury-Redstone 3, in a spacecraft named Freedom 7.
From The Space Race.
While there are always volunteers to do things, they have a pretty decent record of only letting them do it if they feel it is safe enough.
Moved to http://soylentnews.org/. You are invited to join us too!
James Cameron could say "I want to film a space opera, on location on the moon" and investors would be lined up around the block to throw billions of dollars at him. Assuming he survives his current cinematic adventure, that is.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
We shouln't settle for landing a man on the Moon. We should be trying to land a man on the Moon and doing it better. This is because a new approach will advance science and engineering. Those advances will have applications on Earth. Those applications may create a new economic boom that may feed back on itself by providing real career opportunities for scientists and engineers, for both space/aerospace and terrestial industries. Recreating Apollo era technology to do science on the Moon and achieve political objectives will create a short boom/bust cycle. And maybe it will give Russia the boost that it needs over the next few years, but they (and China and India and us) should be looking towards a longerterm terrestial payoff - not just Moon rocks and nationalist pretige.
Hey, isn't there a US flag on the moon? That being the case, will the Russian astronauts need passports when they get there? I hope they thought this through. I'd hate to see them get deported from the moon for being illegals.
Why aren't you ashamed of the actions of your Government, which pays for a would-be Russian revolution?!
This is the very definition of a strawman troll. I am curious: What is it in my post makes you think that I am from the United States?
And you are desperate to see it coming;
Despite my cynisizm towards the future of Russia I honestly don't harbour any ill will towards that nation or its people. I find it regretable to see a country of such vast potential and hard-working ethics being stuck in a perpetual state of corruption and authoritarianism with no end to it in sight.
Though Russian people are hopeless at establishing and maintaining a free and effective system of government, they will get it right eventually. Their perseverence and endurance are nothing short of amazing and will see them through to the end. After all the turmoil Russia will earn its way back to greatness with only question being how long it will take.
Except that the death of a cosmonaut would go in the opposite direction: cast doubts upon the russian space program and lower the morale of future cosmonauts. So either the premise of the article is bullshit (the Russians didn't know that he would die) or the Russians were incredibly stupid (they thought that killing a person would improve their image).
Now, as we've read here on /. recently, before the Challenger disaster, some engineers warned the NASA management about the possibility of the accident, and tried to stop the launch. The management ignored them, and the disaster happened. Would you write an article saying that
and that the Challenger was a suicide mission, going on to describe the physical appearance of the charred remains of those who died? That would be exceptionally naive and disrespectful. Which is what I think of the discovery.com article.
as opposed to faking some film in the desert
You liar, everyone know it was a soundstage on mars.