Russia claims lead in manned race to Mars

If this scientist is right, the first human words spoken from Mars could be Russian. The director of the Russian Space Research Institute, Lev Zelyony, said that his country could land a cosmonaut on the Red Planet as early as 2025. Current U.S. plans call for a manned mission to Mars in the 2030s.

Read the full story on Breitbart.com: " Russia says it is ahead in race to put man on Mars".

[starch_y]

Nothing like a little Putin-esque posturing to liven things up. No one country is going to be able to afford doing a manned mission alone a la '60's space race.

[blish]

The russians have never been afraid to sacrifice a few cosmonauts in the name of the next grand and glorious achievement.

[steed]

I like the idea of the Russians saying that they will beat everyone to Mars. History repeating itself. The Russians were ahead in the race to space until the famous speech by John F Kennedy. Since the early 80's NASA has been losing it's focus. America needs to get it's collective etc in gear and go for it. Who know maybe they will get out of Iraq by that time. Hope that Iraq will not be another Vietnam

[rdupuy11]

The Russians didn't just say there would be the first to space, they were the first to space.

Sputnik was the first satellite.

Yuri Gagarin was the first human in space, he was a cosmonaut. The order was Russia, United States, then China, in putting humans in space.

America did participate in the space race and had some firsts, such as going to the moon.

[rdupuy11]

@starch and @steed...

You seem to think that a) Russian cannot afford to go to Mars, or b) it will prod the United States into going to Mars (with people).

Actually, the issue of affordability weights very much for Russia, and against the United States at this time.

Russia has paid off most of its sovereign debt, the United States, carries more debt than any other country in the world. Plus, in Russia, the costs of getting to space, are far less than half, of the costs for NASA. Add to that, Russia has the will to do it, is in a boom economy, and Americans currently don't care, and are entering into a period of recession.

All that means, is that the U.S. probably would have to highly prioritize this mission, and really care about it a lot, in order to compete... I don't think its happening. On the other hand, I fully believe the technical know how certainly exists....and the U.S. could compete, if some miracle happens and all the money isn't spent on wars or a new health care system, and other entitlement programs in the next Clinton administration. Even if she manages to raise taxes, in an environment of recession, receipts are going to be low, and the national debt is huge....I don't see a budget for space missions, when that doesn't bring out the votes here. (Compare to Russia, where they are very proud of high profile national programs)>

But the U.S. is spread too thin, being the world's policeman and fighting foreign wars, and the situation isn't favorable for multi-billion dollar missions to mars. Unmanned probes, will probably seem like a better choice.

Thats just analysis...not hope. My hope is we 1) balance our budget, 2) have a boom economy, and 3) explore the heck out of space. But my best guess, is we will eventually have an economic recovery, but this round, like previous rounds, will go to the Russians.

[fred dunn]

rdupuy11 You nailed it.
The Russians learned their lesson in Afghanistan and since the breakup of the Union Russia has become an Oil producer. So after being an impoverished country during the Union and shortly after they are now one of the more wealthy nations.
That lesson that the Russians learned in Afghanistan was primarily due to covert US backing of the Afghan rebels with arms and finally Stinger shoulder fired rockets. Don't think that Russia has forgotten this and is not giving assistance to pull the US down in the quagmire of Afghanistan and Iraq.
But that's not enough, while we spend over 300 Billion dollars on the war every year that we don't have the White House wants to make itself look good by reducing the tax burden on the richest 1% of the US population.

To summarize: If we had leadership that knew basic accounting maybe we could go to Mars by 2020. My personal opinion is that we should just get the Helium3 from the moon use it for fusion generation of electricity and only send unmanned missions to Mars. If they want the glory let them have it, as was said before they were way ahead of the US is space to start with and the only reason they didn't go is that we got there first.