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Europe and Russia Are Headed Back To the Moon Together (bbc.com)
MarkWhittington writes: Russia is turning its attention to the moon again for the first time in about 40 years. The first Russian mission to the moon since long before the end of the Cold War will be Luna 27, a robot lander that will touch down on the edge of the lunar South Pole as early as 2020. Russia is looking for international partners to help make Luna 27 a reality and may have found one in the European Space Agency, according to a story on the BBC. "The initial missions will be robotic. Luna 27 will land on the edge of the South Pole Aitken basin. The south polar region has areas which are always dark. These are some of the coldest places in the Solar System. As such, they are icy prisons for water and other chemicals that have been shielded from heating by the Sun. According to Dr. James Carpenter, ESA's lead scientist on the project, one of the main aims is to investigate the potential use of this water as a resource for the future, and to find out what it can tell us about the origins of life in the inner Solar System."
Yeah, because putting a man on the moon was definitely the last hurtle in space. It's not like Russia went on the put up the first space station, or continued to launch men into space with by far the best safety record of any country, or is the only country in the world today still capable of putting men into space. Nope, the space race definitely ended with the first man on the moon.
USA! USA! USA!
BTW, can someone give us a ride to the ISS, please? We'll pay for gas.
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
Hmm, Russians used a robotic rover on the moon in 1970.
The USA used a manned rover on the moon in 1971.
Hardly "decades before the US started using them"....
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
Yeah, the Americans had ONE first (first man on the moon). Russia had EVERY OTHER SPACE FIRST.
You win, America! Go USA!
Well, not *every* other space first... and lest we forget, both countries were pretty well bootstrapped with German missile technology. Here are some other U.S. firsts, apart from the whole landing on the moon thingy:
1. First human-made object to leave solar system
2. First communications satellite
3. First solar probe
4. First weather satellite
5. First object successfully recovered from orbit
6. First operational navigation satellite
7. First geosynchronous satellite
8. First probe to land using retrorockets
9. First probe to map the Moon
10. First manual control of a crewed spacecraft
11. First crewed spacecraft to change orbit
12. First rendezvous in space
13. First docking with another spacecraft
14. First crewed mission to leave Earth orbit
15. First to orbit the Moon
16. First spacecraft of any type to perform Trans-Earth injection
17. First successful flyby of Venus
18. First successful Mars flyby
I suppose we could count some of the SpaceX accomplishments, as well, given that Elon Musk has U.S. citizenship:
19. First privately funded, liquid-propellant rocket (Falcon 1) to reach orbit
20. First privately funded company to successfully launch, orbit and recover a spacecraft (Dragon)
21. First private company to send a spacecraft (Dragon) to the ISS
22. First private company to launch into geosynchronous orbit (ES-8)
23. First private company to deliver a vehicle beyond Earth orbit (DSCOVR)
And that's just the highlights reel.