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Russia to Send Three Pilotless Expeditions to Mars
Russia will send three pilotless expeditions to Mars between 2009 and 2015. “We are to send three missions to that mysterious planet before 2015. Thus, Fobos-Grunt project’s space vehicle will be launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in 2009 towards Mars’ moon. Another one, that will fly around the Red Planet, will be launched in 2012. The task of the third expedition, in about 3 years after the second, is purely practical: landing onto Mars’ surface and exploration by means of a mars rover,” said Georgy Polishchuk, Chief Designer and Director General of R&D Imeni Lavochkina.
Polishchuk pointed out there is no piloted flight to Mars in Russia’s space program yet. He added that “robots, and not humans, piloted and pilot the way to space for mankind”. “Their abilities were first tested on the Moon. It turned out then, our robots gathered no less information than U.S. astronauts. The maximum time for Americans to explore the Moon was 75 hours. Meanwhile, two Soviet moon rovers worked for several months each, transmitting a huge amount of valuable data. By the way, both the research and the delivery of moon soil to the Earth by our automatic stations cost much cheaper than U.S. expeditions with astronauts. Not to mention the lack of risk for the latter,” RIA Novosti quoted Polishchuk as saying.
When asked why the USSR lost the ‘moon race’ back then, he said that “we did not lose it, judging by the exploration’s results”. “Our program was suspended due to resources and other reasons. Yet, the fact remains true: the country was ready to send a human being to the Moon. Mars-wise, however, we are not prepared for it yet. Back then, Mars vehicles were accomplished by about 30 percent. Nowadays, it is the automatic expeditions that are in the Federal Space Program,” Polishchuk added.
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