by Kenneth Rapoza | Blogs.Forbes.com | April 12, 2011
On April 12, 1961, Russia started the 20th century space race, sending its first cosmonaut, Yury Gagarin (Pictured), into orbit for 108 hours aboard the Vostok spacecraft. Fifty years later, the country’s president Dimitry Medvedev is talking about the world’s next space race: a nuclear powered manned space flight to Mars.
“We still hope to able to travel to other planets,” he told Russian television Tuesday during a special Cosmonaut Day celebration dedicated to Yury Gagarin’s life. “I don’t know how soon we will be able to achieve that, but I think that mankind will always…dream of exploring outer space,” he said, adding that space exploration brings scientific and practical benefits to life on Earth.
Back in the Soviet era, competition with the US pushed Moscow to invest heavily in space flight and new technology. Today, however, Russia is more likely to partner with the US and other countries to go beyond the shared International Space Station and deeper into the solar system. Medvedev is also talking about manned flights to Mars, and whether they are the first to make the next “giant leap for mankind” is still to be determined. One thing is certain, as a country, Russia is the one talking about it, and putting up the money to boot. Still, it’s a hard sell.
Ordinary Russians see little connection between space exploration and national economics. If anything, they see the Roscosmos space agency as a drain on the nation’s cash, or as one op-ed writer at Ria Novosti put it, “as if the dark vacuum of space somehow sucked the money right out of their pockets.”
Yet, the government is convinced that investing in the final frontier is important. It’s 2011 budget of $3.5 billion is almost three times more Roscosmos’ 2007 budget, and is the highest amount of money allotted for the space program since the Soviet Union’s space program budget back in 1991. Medvedev has said repeatedly this year that investments in space research are a way to diversify Russia’s economy. As it stands, Russia is dependent on the oil, gas and mining industries.
Space might be a way Russia can get excited about itself again. With Yury’s 50th anniversary celebration providing much of the motivation, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Tuesday asked neighboring Ukraine to join forces in building the $800 million Vostochny Space Center in Russia’s far east, a launch facility for satellite rockets.
Roscosmos last June began a Mars flight simulation program, locking three Russians, two Europeans and a Chinese astronaut in an 18,800-square-foot, five-module complex to live there in isolation for 17 months, Bloomberg reported on April 5. Russia will need a new rocket to get to Mars, though, and a new launch site to operate manned flights as early as in 2018.
For the past two years, Russia has asked NASA to help with a manned space flight to Mars. NASA is seeking an $18.7 billion budget for next year, though, $300 million less than the funding targeted for this year. So Russia has since turned its focus on China, which made its first successful manned flight in 2003 aboard the Shenzhou spacecraft and plans to put a capsule on the moon in 2013.
Gagarin never made it to the moon. On March 27, 1968, Gagarin was killed in an air crash during a training flight. His ashes were interred in the Kremlin Wall in Moscow.
French astronaut Jean Loup Chretien called Gagarin an “idol” among the old school astronauts.
In London, Queen guitarist Brian May said he was teaming up with Tangerine Dream to compose a song dedicated to Gagarin, Ria Novosti reported.
The UN marked April 12 as the first annual International Day of Human Space Flight. “Yuri Gagarin’s flight is an inspiration that engenders a quest for excellence; an inspiration that fans the flames of passion to pursue a dream, especially among the young. There is no higher value you can place on his achievement,” Mazlan Othman, Director of the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs (Wow…there actually is such a thing?), said in a press release.
Last week, on April 5, a rocket carrying the Soyuz TMA-21 “Gagarin” spacecraft was launched from the Baikonur space center. Russia continues skyward.
Meanwhile back in the US, President Barack Obama ended NASA’s Constellation program developed under President George W. Bush. It was designed to build spacecraft for a return manned spaceflight to the moon by 2020. The decision was harshly criticized by former NASA astronauts, including Neil Armstrong, saying it would sideline the American space program. With no manned government rockets ready to go, US space programs could be outsourced to private companies who have no means to profit off such costly endeavors.
Source: http://blogs.forbes.com/kenrapoza/2011/04/12/will-russia-win-the-next-space-race/
Comments
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.