"Buffy the Vampire Slayer" wrote in message
.net...

"Yama" wrote in message
...

"Michael Petukhov" wrote in message
om...
But Mikhailichenko dismissed any suggestion of a return to the Cold
War contest which Soviet Union led until the United States put men on
the moon in 1969. He said the Russian space programme, short of cash
since the collapse of Soviet Union in 1991, would continue its own
research and this would form the basis for future missions. "Such
plans in Russia are still being formulated. Realistic plans will come
to light by the end of this year or the beginning of next year," he
said without giving details.

Well lets hope so, because at the moment Russia does not HAVE scientific
space program outside of ISS, in which they provide like 2% of the
funding.
Unfortunate, really.



But the ISS has no real mission. They do an expirament once in a while to
justify having it. If it had been designed as an orbiting warehouse, it
would have a purpose...stockpiling supplies in advance of a mission to
Mars.

If you're going to go to Mars, you have to have enough supplies to get
there, land, wander around, take off and fly back home. Sending supplies
directly to Mars is a possibility but if your rendezvous fails, you're
finished. So stock piling the supplies in Earth orbit makes the most
sense.



that's not a bad idea, but i am sure that it could be done at a lower cost.
the iss is a status symbol. it always has been. and it's a damn good one
too.