DocM Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 Not a hop out, take a walk and go home mission, but a permanently manned MOONBASE. http://en.rian.ru/science/20120119/170840782.html Roscosmos Revives Permanent Moon Base PlansRussian Space Agency Roscosmos is in talks with its European and U.S. partners on the creation of manned research bases on the Moon, the agencies chief, Vladimir Popovkin, said on Thursday. "We don't want the man to just step on the Moon," Popovkin said in an interview with Vesti FM radio station. "Today, we know enough about it, we know that there is water in its polar areas," he said, adding "we are now discussing how to begin [the Moon's] exploration with NASA and the European Space Agency ." There are two options, he said: "either to set up a base on the Moon or to launch a station to orbit around it." The project of a "prospective manned transportation system" to be sent to the Moon is currently being developed, the Roscosmos chief said. The Moon base project seems to revive Cold War-era plans to create a permanent outpost on the Moon, which was talked about by some Soviet and U.S. scientists since the late 1950s. Russia is also planning to send two unmanned missions to the Moon by 2020, the Luna Glob and the Luna Resource, Popovkin added. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qdave Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 This would be fantastic! I wish nasa/jaxa/chinese would join in to provide more funding. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocM Posted January 20, 2012 Author Share Posted January 20, 2012 JAXA's busy figuring out what hackers stole the plans for HTV cargo spacecraft :p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muhammad Farrukh Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 This would be great indeed. But has no one, i.e. NASA, ever thought about this? I mean, what they are saying completely makes sense, but what took it so long to realize that we need to make a station up there? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocM Posted January 20, 2012 Author Share Posted January 20, 2012 It's been floated a few times by about everyone, but in todays tight budgetary environment worldwide it's more compelling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+M2Ys4U Subscriber¹ Posted January 20, 2012 Subscriber¹ Share Posted January 20, 2012 Awesome news. A lunar base would make it a lot easier to execute any manned missions to Mars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psionicinversion Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 Let the evil scientists with the big space lasers get to work, and everyone will look the same cus of cloning. There be no laws on da moon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neufuse Veteran Posted January 20, 2012 Veteran Share Posted January 20, 2012 it's definatly one of those things that one country alone should not do... we need to bring the world together to work on this, and yes including the chinese... we need Russia, the ESA, NASA, the Chinese, Japan, etc we can all work together to do this Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neoadorable Posted January 22, 2012 Share Posted January 22, 2012 so one minute Popovkin is accusing us of destroying his Mars ship, the next he's planning to settle the moon with the US and EU...yeah this guy is off his rocker. having said that, the sooner we have a permanent moon base the better. for me supporting a moon settlement is common sense, we need it. this can be easily done tomorrow. just "retire" and refit the ISS as a moon base/orbiter, save money like that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocM Posted January 22, 2012 Author Share Posted January 22, 2012 Trust me - his duplicity is causing a lot of chuckles. Still, I think this is a good idea and should be taken seriously. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neoadorable Posted January 30, 2012 Share Posted January 30, 2012 Of course it's a great idea, we should do it tomorrow. As long as Popovkin remembers to take his meds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocM Posted January 30, 2012 Author Share Posted January 30, 2012 Not just him - there sre qute a few in Russia who long for the bad old days of the Cold War. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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