By Frank Morring, Jr.
Source: Aerospace Daily & Defense Report

Mankinds next objective in space exploration should be the establishment of a permanent international base on the Moon, in the professional opinion of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, instead of the near-Earth object (NEO) visit that is the stated goal of U.S. space policy.

Vladimir Popovkin, the Roscosmos head, told the Global Exploration Conference in Washington May 22 that the next big international exploration effort should build on the past 40-plus years of lunar exploration, and not repeat the sortie missions of the Apollo era.

Its a new Moon, Popovkin said of his agencys concept during a panel appearance with other space agency chiefs. A long-term permanent base could take advantage of the water-ice at the lunar poles, continue exploring the lunar surface, and prepare for the next leap into the Solar System, he says.

The concept, which is roughly the same one NASA pursued under President George W. Bushs Constellation program of human exploration development, would require the consensus of the other spacefaring nations in the world, Popovkin said through an interpreter. He joined Jean-Jacques Dordain, director general of the European Space Agency, and Steve MacLean, president of the Canadian Space Agency, in urging wider cooperation with China in space exploration. NASA is forbidden by Congress from engaging with the Chinese space program.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden was at the launch of the SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule to the International Space Station (ISS) and did not attend the conference.

The first commercial launch intended to berth at the ISS drew congratulations from the agency heads at the conference, and from stand-ins for Bolden and the leaders of the Indian and Japanese space agencies. Popovkin later told reporters that his agency is shifting its station-research focus from life sciences work to engineering developments that can support human exploration beyond low Earth orbit.

That work will center on a new multipurpose laboratory module Roscosmos hopes to launch to the space station in 2014, he says. Among the work that may be possible is an in-space repeat of the Mars 500 ground simulation of a human mission to Mars.

Russian President Vladimir Putin was a strong supporter of the Russian space program during his first term in office, and is expected to continue that support in his second term, Popovkin says. There has been no impact in the Roscosmos standing whatsoever, he says of the election results.



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"deeds, not words"

Russia and Japan aim for the Moon

22 May 2012 | 19:13 BST | Posted by Eric Hand | Category: Space and astronomy

It was a rare confluence the heads of the space agencies for Europe, Canada and Russia, along with senior representatives from the space agencies of India and Japan all up on the dais together at a hotel in Washington DC, where they were on hand on 22 May to talk about the benefits of international collaboration at the Global Space Exploration Conference.

Interestingly, the leader of the space agency whose headquarters is just a few blocks away was not on the stage. Thats because NASA administrator Charles Bolden was in Florida, watching the attempt by SpaceX to send its Dragon capsule to the International Space Station.

But perhaps it was somewhat appropriate for NASA to be absent. Increasingly, the agency has had a hard time consummating its joint ventures, and Europe in particular has had to turn elsewhere for partners.

NASA has also shifted its exploration goals relative to other nations. While NASA now intends to pursue manned missions to asteroids, representatives of several other space agencies reiterated that the Moon was still squarely in their sights.

Vladimir Popovkin, the head of Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, said that Russia will pursue extensive, long-lived operations at the Moons surface. Were not talking about repeating what mankind achieved 40 years ago, Popovkin said, through a translator. Were talking about establishing permanent bases. Similarly, JAXA, the Japanese Space Agency, issued a clear pronouncement about targeting the Moon. We are looking at the Moon as our next target for human exploration, said Yuichi Yamaura, an associate executive director at JAXA.

China was another conspicuously absent member of the aerospace club as represented on stage. Those present were asked whether they should be doing more to collaborate with China. Were all for it, says Popovkin. We have to talk to China. Steve MacLean, the president of the Canadian Space Agency, described how impressed he was by Chinas space operations after a recent visit. He says it would be prudent to explore more collaboration.

http://blogs.nature.com/news/2012/05/russia-japan-aim-for-the-moon.html

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"deeds, not words"

Nice, if there's ever a war on the moon, the US's ACU uniform pattern can finally have a real purpose.. ;0

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All for the moon base. We can send people that we do not like up there.

where are they going to get the money from to fund this?

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And soon... the whole universe will feel the joy of wearing nasty commie hats.

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"Peace is a precious and a desirable thing. Our generation, bloodied in wars, certainly deserves peace. But peace, like almost all things of this world, has its price, a high but a measurable one. We in Poland do not know the concept of peace at any price. There is only one thing in the lives of men, nations and countries that is without price. That thing is honor." - Józef Beck on the outbreak of WW2

Gazprom and international partners.

I'm sure ESA, CSA, CSNA, ISRO and JAEA would all like to contribute under a Russian led mission.

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"deeds, not words"

What has Russia done in space for these last 30 years apart from using ICBMS to launch cosmonauts in capsules?



An unavoidable war is called justice.
When brutality is the only option left,
it is holy.
Machiavelli - The Prince 1513.

"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take"

I'm not American, I'm from Flanders.

Really?? :|

Buran, Mir, a big part of ISS, RadioAstron, Granat...

Not to mention without the reliable Russian Soyuz we would be stuck on earth right now.

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"deeds, not words"

Buran => prototype, does not exist anymore

Mir => 26 years old, does not exist anymore

a big part of ISS => with modules based on those used in Mir and even partially financed by the US ...

RadioAstron => not bad indeed but it's limited as it's a radio telescope

Granat... => 23 years old, does not exist anymore

Not to mention without the reliable Russian Soyuz we would be stuck on earth right now. => rockets are very reliable nowadays, how many Atlas V or Ariane 5 or Delta IV rockets have failed? Capsules are inherently more reliable than Spacecrafts for obvious reasons.




When it comes to probes and actually landing on other planets Russia has been failing time and time again.



An unavoidable war is called justice.
When brutality is the only option left,
it is holy.
Machiavelli - The Prince 1513.

"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take"

I'm not American, I'm from Flanders.

You said past 30 years lol, so I named stuff in the past 30 years. Although Buran was only a prototype it still flew and successfully. It's just too bad they never had the money to use it.

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"deeds, not words"

The only feasible reason I can think of to want a moon base would be to use it as a pit stop to Mars. The financials behind such an ambitious idea would be monstrous, and not worth it just to beat ones chest and say "ha ha we have a moon base"...

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Helium-3 is abundant on the moon, almost reason enough to go. It could and would also be used as a launch base for the mining of asteroids (Planetary resources)

Another reason would be to advance technology enough so that we could eventually set up shop on Mars, or one of her moons, both, maybe Vesta as well. There is untold technology from the moon base, and it gets us a great launching platform for other exploration.

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"deeds, not words"

How much longer before an astronaut is trapped in space and will die asphyxiated? Prolonged stays in space destroy the human body. I think many if not almost all of the jobs can be done by robots for a smaller cost.



An unavoidable war is called justice.
When brutality is the only option left,
it is holy.
Machiavelli - The Prince 1513.

"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take"

I'm not American, I'm from Flanders.

A few Russian stayed on Mir for over a year, and remember on the moon they wouldn't be in micro gravity. They would be in less gravity than earth yes, but more than what is in orbit.

The problem with robots is that they cant think, they can't fix themselves and you need to send new ones constantly to do each new experiment, which takes years to design, build and test. Plus it still leaves us on this rock, without any advancement in long term space travel. Which is the REALLY long term goal in this is to make it to another "goldie locks" world.

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"deeds, not words"

A few Russian stayed on Mir for over a year, and remember on the moon they wouldn't be in micro gravity. They would be in less gravity than earth yes, but more than what is in orbit.
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True however those Russians staying on Mir for so long have destroyed their bodies
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effect_of_spaceflight_on_the_human_body

Take the time it takes to go to Mars, stay there for a while and back. That's about 4 years. Psychologically and physically this is extremely hard and needs a lot of preparation and support. Few people could do that I would say.





The problem with robots is that they cant think, they can't fix themselves and you need to send new ones constantly to do each new experiment, which takes years to design, build and test.
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And how long do you think it takes to train an astronaut? Robots, once you have a good design you can keep sending them in high numbers. And if your goal is to mine etc then a robot can definitely do that independently. Robots don't need rest, entertainment, living space, food or water. If they are build to last 2 years they'll last that long. This seems a much more cost effective way of mining space resources.



Plus it still leaves us on this rock, without any advancement in long term space travel. Which is the REALLY long term goal in this is to make it to another "goldie locks" world.
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Why does that leave us without any advancement in long term space travel? Space travel as I see it is not restricted to humans only. Humans would be hard pressed to live 10 years alone in space, robots can and have done it for as long as 50 years.




An unavoidable war is called justice.
When brutality is the only option left,
it is holy.
Machiavelli - The Prince 1513.

"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take"

I'm not American, I'm from Flanders.

Take the time it takes to go to Mars, stay there for a while and back. That's about 4 years. Psychologically and physically this is extremely hard and needs a lot of preparation and support. Few people could do that I would say.

Who said anything about coming back? I would imagine the first martian explorers would be there for the long haul. Few people are bred to be astronauts! But that also assumes that we use CURRENT technology for our Mars mission. Why would we? A moon base could help us research long term radiation exposure and protection against it, toy with artificial gravity techniques, develop way against it really affect the human body.

And how long do you think it takes to train an astronaut? Robots, once you have a good design you can keep sending them in high numbers. And if your goal is to mine etc then a robot can definitely do that independently. Robots don't need rest, entertainment, living space, food or water. If they are build to last 2 years they'll last that long. This seems a much more cost effective way of mining space resources.

It takes less time to train and astronaut than it does to create a concept, receive funding, design, build and test a rover actually. Curiosity has been around since 2004.

I do agree that robots will be better suited to mining on an industrial scale in space.

Why does that leave us without any advancement in long term space travel? Space travel as I see it is not restricted to humans only. Humans would be hard pressed to live 10 years alone in space, robots can and have done it for as long as 50 years.


Sending things with no life support has been done. We know how to do it, we're scaling up those efforts now but there haven't been any true breakthroughs in the probe program. We don't know how to have a human survive in space for an extended period of time, sustaining human life, plat life etc.. in a healthy manner for years at a time. If we always continue with unmanned space flight we won't ever get there.


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"deeds, not words"

Who said anything about coming back? I would imagine the first martian explorers would be there for the long haul. Few people are bred to be astronauts! But that also assumes that we use CURRENT technology for our Mars mission. Why would we? A moon base could help us research long term radiation exposure and protection against it, toy with artificial gravity techniques, develop way against it really affect the human body.
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So you want to send humans on a one way ticket into space? That's pretty radical ^^






It takes less time to train and astronaut than it does to create a concept, receive funding, design, build and test a rover actually. Curiosity has been around since 2004.
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Well you can re-use a design. That takes a LOT less time (and it's cheaper) than keep training astronauts for years.






Sending things with no life support has been done. We know how to do it, we're scaling up those efforts now but there haven't been any true breakthroughs in the probe program. We don't know how to have a human survive in space for an extended period of time, sustaining human life, plat life etc.. in a healthy manner for years at a time. If we always continue with unmanned space flight we won't ever get there.
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But what's the use for that except the "prestige"? Most people agree that the ISS has been a huge waste of money yet you want to do much more expensive and risky experiments. I just don't see that be actually beneficent to us. Who would want to pay for that? Companies: HELL no. Governments? Most citizens would be against that. Can you imagine NASA spending 100 billion a year on such a project? That's just too crazy for words.
I believe that in the short term at least human space exploration is dead. A revolutionary propulsion system will be needed to change that I think.




An unavoidable war is called justice.
When brutality is the only option left,
it is holy.
Machiavelli - The Prince 1513.

"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take"

I'm not American, I'm from Flanders.

People are against it because they don't realize what a profound effect the technologies developed in the space program have on their daily lives.

http://spinoff.nasa.gov/

A one way trip is pretty radical, but I bet there are 25,000 volunteers that would be ready to go right now if you asked. I would be one of them.

The ISS is a great science project with a lot of experiments being done there, although I agree it is kind of a waste. Mir had run its course, they should have jumped straight to the moon base instead of wasting so much time and money on ISS. Although we have learned lessons from it that would help a permanent settlement on the moon.

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"deeds, not words"

will they fight against the UFOs?

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"Las Malvinas fueron, son y serán Argentinas"

Maybe Newt Gingrich should have run for the Presidential elections in russia so he could get his moon-colony

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will they fight against the UFOs?
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If they do, E17 will be the first to migrate to moon to take revenge.