Putin - Moon Base - Moon Flyby in near future ?

AugustusMinimus

Saw this over at nasaspaceflight.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sponsored/russianow/features/8432902/Space-travel-50-years-after-Yuri-Gagarins-flight-Russia-aims-for-Mars-and-a-moon-base.html

Now, talks of the Russians going to the moon and mars are obviously on the long finger.

1. They need a lander
2. They need to work how to propel themselves there.

As it stands, Roscosmos's budget is about 7 Billion dollars per year. That compares to NASA's budget of about 19 Billion per year. However, Roscosmos's budget is to increase over the coming years, mostly funded by Russia's booming gas and oil industries.


Now, on a seperate subject. There are also rumours that the Russians want to do an Apollo 8 style moon flyby in the near future using a Soyuz capsule starting from the ISS. However, what would the Russians use for the trans lunar injection ? Would an American, Payload Assist Module do the trick ?

Beeker

AugustusMinimus wrote: »

Saw this over at nasaspaceflight.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sponsored/russianow/features/8432902/Space-travel-50-years-after-Yuri-Gagarins-flight-Russia-aims-for-Mars-and-a-moon-base.html

Now, talks of the Russians going to the moon and mars are obviously on the long finger.

1. They need a lander
2. They need to work how to propel themselves there.

As it stands, Roscosmos's budget is about 7 Billion dollars per year. That compares to NASA's budget of about 19 Billion per year. However, Roscosmos's budget is to increase over the coming years, mostly funded by Russia's booming gas and oil industries.


Now, on a seperate subject. There are also rumours that the Russians want to do an Apollo 8 style moon flyby in the near future using a Soyuz capsule starting from the ISS. However, what would the Russians use for the trans lunar injection ? Would an American, Payload Assist Module do the trick ?

Dont hold your breath:eek:
As always newspapers like the Telegraph have a lot of facts wrong...

"After 30 years of service and 135 launches, Nasa’s shuttle fleet made its final run to the ISS last month."

Time will tell but I dont see the Russians heading for the Moon or Mars anytime soon.:(

AugustusMinimus

Beeker wrote: »

Dont hold your breath:eek:
As always newspapers like the Telegraph have a lot of facts wrong...

"After 30 years of service and 135 launches, Nasa’s shuttle fleet made its final run to the ISS last month."

Time will tell but I dont see the Russians heading for the Moon or Mars anytime soon.:(

It all depends on priorities. I hear the Russian military need to do a lot of working on their satellite systems. I guess this is a major priority.

In fairness though, it was Putin himself that made this anouncement. The Russian economy is starting to motor and I guess that if the money is available, Putin will put some of it into revitalising the Russian space programme. This all could be done too with the help of ESA funding and technical help.

A lunar flyby within the next few years wouldn't be extraordinarily expensive.

squonk

AugustusMinimus wrote: »

As it stands, Roscosmos's budget is about 7 Billion dollars per year. That compares to NASA's budget of about 19 Billion per year. However, Roscosmos's budget is to increase over the coming years, mostly funded by Russia's booming gas and oil industries.

I scanned that first as 'Roscommon's budget is 7bn" Ha ha!!

AugustusMinimus

squonk wrote: »

I scanned that first as 'Roscommon's budget is 7bn" Ha ha!!

I thought Luke "Ming" Flanagan was all about bringing down wastage

lord lucan

I reckon the Chinese will get there before the Russians. They've been quietly ramping up their spaceflight programme and at some stage are going to want to announce themselves on a grand scale. Money is not really a problem due to their powerhouse economy,it's just getting the right experience with the technology that's holding them back.

Overature

At least the Russians are not held back by money problems, lets hope they do it right and not like the last time when they were trying to get to the moon

AugustusMinimus

Overature wrote: »

At least the Russians are not held back by money problems, lets hope they do it right and not like the last time when they were trying to get to the moon

The price of oil is going to go through the roof over the next ten years. Expect their budget to keep rising.

Also bare in mind that Putin is a very nationalistic Russian. He wants Russia to look good on the global stage. If outshining the Americans in terms of space exploration is one way, then he'll do it.

lord lucan

AugustusMinimus wrote: »

Also bare in mind that Putin is a very nationalistic Russian. He wants Russia to look good on the global stage. If outshining the Americans in terms of space exploration is one way, then he'll do it.

Won't be hard to outshine the Americans for the foreseeable future as they'll have little presence bar crew on the ISS. Might well be the perfect time for the Russians to capitalise.

clln

lord lucan wrote: »

Won't be hard to outshine the Americans for the foreseeable future as they'll have little presence bar crew on the ISS. Might well be the perfect time for the Russians to capitalise.

Bit of sour grapes from Bigelow Aerospace here,but Russia are doing it already,i would not advise Putin to push his luck,the American worm might just turn!

NASA recently executed a contract modification with the Russian Federal Space Agency purchasing additional transportation services to and from the International Space Station on the Soyuz. This latest contract cost $753 million, roughly $63 million per seat. Unfortunately, this is just the latest in a long line of agreements that has transferred billions of taxpayer dollars to Russia, below is a list of what NASA has spent on Russian crew transportation services since 2007.

2007: $719 million to fly 15 people -- $48 million per seat.
2008: $141 million to fly 3 people -- $47 million per seat.
2009: $306 million for 6 people -- $51 million per seat.
2010: $335 million for 6 people -- $56 million per seat.
2011: $753 million for 12 people -- $63 million per seat.
Total: $2.25 billion for 42 people – average cost per seat, $53.7 million.

Sending billions of taxpayer dollars overseas to support a foreign aerospace sector is deplorable and must come to an end. NASA funds should instead be invested in developing an American commercial crew transportation system that will support innovation and job growth here at home. Please join Bigelow Aerospace in calling for immediate and increased support for the commercial crew program in order to put an end to NASA’s outsourcing of human spaceflight and billions of taxpayer dollars to Russia

I thought Bigelow and his ideas were nut jobs,had no idea the inflatable spacestation/space hotels Bigelow aims for were already proven technology.(and now he is in partnership with Boeing)

@ Augustus that is also why i could not come up with an immediate answer on the CCDev2 thread,
i need to read up much more on these commercial companies, they seem to be crawling out of the woodwork everywhere!

The Bigelow homepage is well worth a visit to see what he has done and what he hopes to do.

http://www.bigelowaerospace.com/

AugustusMinimus

clln wrote: »

@ Augustus that is also why i could not come up with an immediate answer on the CCDev2 thread,
i need to read up much more on these commercial companies, they seem to be crawling out of the woodwork everywhere!

I'm just stunned that such small companies can produce workable spacecraft and launchers.

clln

AugustusMinimus wrote: »

I'm just stunned that such small companies can produce workable spacecraft and launchers.

Ditto!:)

So much was learned by the private companies from Shuttle.
each contender has remarkable ideas and such safe looking vehicles in the works i hope they all come to fruition.

Bigelows idea for a space hotel as well as a Science Space Station along with the need for ISS Cargo crafts and crew vehicles might see them all finding a niche.

i am beginning to think the Shuttle ending might only be "the start of the beginning"
i am getting excited at the prospect of what lays ahead,i was feeling miserable about the end of the Shuttle Era.

Beeker

clln wrote: »

Ditto!:)

So much was learned by the private companies from Shuttle.
each contender has remarkable ideas and such safe looking vehicles in the works i hope they all come to fruition.

Bigelows idea for a space hotel as well as a Science Space Station along with the need for ISS Cargo crafts and crew vehicles might see them all finding a niche.

i am beginning to think the Shuttle ending might only be "the start of the beginning"
i am getting excited at the prospect of what lays ahead,i was feeling miserable about the end of the Shuttle Era.

Like yourself I am starting to get a good feeling about the future of manned spaceflight. There is a lot of stuff going on in the background and hopefull it will all come together sooner rather than later. The fact that the US has to pay the Russians to launch their astronauts does not sit well with a lot of Americans and this alone will spur them to speed up the development of a US launcher and spacecraft:)

clln

Beeker wrote: »

Like yourself I am starting to get a good feeling about the future of manned spaceflight.

Taking me a long time to get around but figure i only have two choices:

Mope about STS being over or pretend it is the start of human spaceflight all over again and follow every little bit of new things happening.

It will be the secrecy during the test phase's that will be terrible.

NASA and NASA TV have me spoiled rotten!:(