Russia Planning Manned Mars Trip by 2014
Posted on: Wednesday, 14 January 2004, 06:00 CST
MOSCOW (AFP) -- Russia is capable of placing a man on Mars within 10 years at one tenth of the cost of rumored US plans, a top Russian space official said.
"Technically, the first flight to Mars could be made in 2014. It would cost around 15 billion dollars (11.7 billion euros) to do it, compared with the American estimate for their project of 150 billion dollars," Leonid Gorshkov, chief designer with Energia, the Russian space constructor, said.
The Russian Mars ship would be similar in design to the Zvezda module that is servicing the International Space Station, Gorshkov said, as quoted by the ITAR-TASS news agency.
The Russian plan is for the 70-tonne spaceship to be assembled in orbit where components will be delivered by unmanned Proton carriers, he said.
According to Gorshkov, the "space assembly workers" could live aboard the ISS while constructing the spaceship that would take a crew to Mars and bring it back.
The manned mission, which would comprise a crew of four to six cosmonauts, would last between 18 and 24 months, he said.
US President George W. Bush was expected later Wednesday to outline a new US space initiative aimed at sending manned missions to the moon, and eventually beyond.
Russia has long expressed an interest in a manned mission to Mars.
In May 2001 the Russian Space Agency announced a tender for designs for a manned flight to the Red Planet, with experts saying they expected the final plans to be announced in 2005.
In 2002 Russian space experts urged their US and European colleagues to join them in launching a manned flight to Mars by 2014.
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