The Washington Times is reporting that Russia is preparing for a 2018 manned voyage to Mars. The paper pads the headline with the recent news of the Mars Exploration Rovers landing sites which were selected last week. The British Beagle 2 lander, scheduled to reach Mars aboard the Mars Express spacecraft in early December also gets a somewhat confused mention. (The Beagle 2 is the lander, the Express is the spacecraft. I guess the Times isn't very concerned about accuracy.)
After 20 paragraphs of this "old" news, we get to the good stuff. "Russia, meanwhile, said last week it will confine six cosmonauts in an imitation spacecraft for nearly a year and a half to prepare for a possible manned flight to Mars in 2018, and foreign cosmonauts could be invited to join in the isolation project."
While this may initially sound like great news for proponents of manned flight to Mars, I read it as something of a setback. Earlier studies from the Russian Space Agency and from NASA had all pointed to 2014 as the best possible launch date.
I suppose that "any news is good news". At least the money hasn't stopped flowing alltogether.
Posted by asa at April 14, 2003 08:34 AM