To boldly go ...

The reason Russia never got to the moon was their rocket technology led them up a cul-de-sac. Werner 'V2' Von Braunn was successfully pioneering rockets that had a few, massive engines for NASA, while his rivals in the Soviet Union were busily trying to work out how to make dozens of much smaller engines work together to achieve the same aim. They were also experimenting with highly toxic, unstable chemicals for fuel. It got them nowhere.

I haven't seen or read anything to suggest that they have since developed the magnitude of controlled thrust required to make a lunar transit - something they are going to have to do, in order to prove the technology, before going anywhere near Mars. Humankind has been stuck in low Earth orbit for more than 30 years now, the Americans by choice but the Russians because they never got any further.

If America, which has the technology to do this, has felt the need to go back to the drawing board and publish a very long-term timetable, I'm not sure how the Russians plan to do it any faster. Still, I wish them every success - another space race is the only thing that is going to speed this up and make it happen any time soon.

[TheNorm]

Originally Posted by Chris T

.... Humankind has been stuck in low Earth orbit for more than 30 years now....

Not if you count probes and rovers.

Just think, human space exploration might be undertaken by proxy - by a specially selected team of robots and rodents.

Originally Posted by TheNorm

Not if you count probes and rovers.

Just think, human space exploration might be undertaken by proxy - by a specially selected team of robots and rodents.

Sure, robots are very clever - gerbils are, too - but every piece of information ever sent back by a rover on the surface of Mars could have been determined by a small team of humans in a mobile laboratory within a matter of days.

Given the choice, we should always strive to go ourselves rather than by proxy. If we get too used to the idea that we can allow robots to do all our exploring for us, not only will we slow down our exploration of the universe, we will in all likelihood become even more sedentary and risk-averse than we already are.

A new spirit of adventure is what we need - that and a few billion dollars.

[TheNorm]

Originally Posted by Chris T

... and a few billion dollars.

Presumably that means US dollars. I don't think any other currency was used to get man to the moon.

Along those lines, it looks as though the UK is going to get more involved, as science minister Malcolm Wicks has said it is time to invest in space missions.

Just thinking in terms of money generally, using the world reserve currency ...

In the future it could be Roubles or Yen that get boots onto the lunar surface.

Originally Posted by Chris T

Just thinking in terms of money generally, using the world reserve currency ...

In the future it could be Roubles or Yen that get boots onto the lunar surface.

Who knows - 20 years ago, you couldn't give roubles away.