US snubs Russian request for joint moon exploration

Here is an interesting story on how the United States has declined to cooperate with Russia on future moon exploration. Also states that NASA has plans to have a moon base on the south pole by 2020. Why would the U.S. not involve other world powers in the scientific exploration of t he moon? Are there plans for other non-scientific applications on the moon?

From this story US Snubs Russia

The head of Russia's space agency Sunday said the US has rebuffed an offer from Moscow to jointly explore the moon, while announcing a separate contract with NASA for nearly one billion dollars for the International Space Station.

Roskosmos chief Anatoly Perminov was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency that Russia had proposed pooling resources to explore the moon.

"We were ready to cooperate but for unknown reasons, the United States have said they will undertake this programme themselves," he said.

-SNIP-

Well ... that's what the Russians say. Let's wait to hear what NASA says. It may, or may not, be the same story.

BTW .. skuttlebutt - from what I have heard - the Russian parts of the ISS are loud and 'falling apart'. Considering how behind Russia is ... I have no doubt that NASA wouldn't want to deal with the Russians.

Let's see what NASA says.

Originally posted by FlyersFan
Well ... that's what the Russians say. Let's wait to hear what NASA says. It may, or may not, be the same story.

BTW .. skuttlebutt - from what I have heard - the Russian parts of the ISS are loud and 'falling apart'. Considering how behind Russia is ... I have no doubt that NASA wouldn't want to deal with the Russians.

Let's see what NASA says.

There has NEVER been a report of poor quality from Russian parts? Please show me a link to a news source about this?

This entire story should not be surprising, it is painfully obvious the United States wishes to start a new arms race because the war is running dry. Military contracts need to be signed up for something..

I would not be surprised if there is also a Russian effort to assist the Chinese moon project. Why work with Russia if they feed technology straight through to China ?

The recent manned Chinese orbital mission used a copy of the Soyuz capsule and Soviet styled space suits.

Russia is allowed to trade with who ever they want quite frankly, even if the United States does not like it.

If the US won't operate with Russia how dare we be angry they go else where.

However, Russia is NOT cooperating with China in their space program, just selling them technology and materials.

I think the next president won't be such a jackass and we will once again have the international space exploration policy we all deserve.

The decision was completely motivated by the present administration?
Do we know this for sure or is this some long term strategic outlook that has been in place for some time now and has foresight deep into the future..?

With Putin's recent antics Russia should have nothing to do with an international moon mission. After all he has just accused the US of ratcheting up the risk of a nuclear war due to it's missile shield in eastern europe. By accusing the US of doing this he has HIMSELF increased the risk of such a conflict. O yea he has also increased the risk of such a scenario with the way he attempts to take Russia back to their Communist roots before Gorbecov and Yeltsin.

It is his leadership that has caused the rift in the international moon mission not the US. Putin is the biggest Russian Mafioso there is and as long as he is in power the US should share nothing with Russia. Putin will jeopardize all the world has to offer as long as it will help him to isolate and bring together his political power and influence. Forget Putin, forget Russia they are lost and can not be found. They will be left behind for their foolishness and selfishness as they should be.

the only equipment that has had a problem is the primary oxygen generator Elektron which was spoused to be shutdown after the one NASA built one was equipped. the far behind Russian and their supply ships are the only life lines to ISS at the moment (which they have over 4 launches every year with out loss of craft/crew or any emergency for at least 10 years and its thus by far worlds most successful and reliable launcher and the new version soyouze TMA are very modern machines featuring all glass cockpits and autonomous navigation unlike other space vehicles and other upgrades contrary to popular belief that is is 40+ year old technology) at least till NASA can cut through the red tape and start launching shuttle missions regularly which i doubt they will do before scraping the shuttle fleet altogether

i watch the nasa ch a lot an over the last year have picked up on some
guess you could call it dislike of rus.

i think this comes down to rus not having a problem letting semi avg joe's go on space missions nasa had a fit about it an still go on about it.

IMHO i jus think nasa fears having folks not in the loop or in house being up there an dislike rus cause they have no problem with it.

I think you will find old Russia will prosper once the shuttle is decomissioned. America will be reliant on EU and Russia to resupply the ISS. Or maybe India?

^
^^Duncan --

You're right...there will be a 4 year gap between the retirement of the shuttle in 2010 and the first scheduled operational flights of NASA's Ares rocket and the Orion Crew vehicle in 2014, but I thought NASA was looking to fill that gap with not only Russian Soyuz (just like they did after the 2002 shuttle disaster), but also with private American companies -- although I believe these private flights will be un-manned flights used for Space Station water, fuel, and equipment resupply only. They have already contracted with two companies -- RocketPlane Kistler and SpaceX -- to provide demonstration flights before 2010. NASA calls this program "Commercial Orbital Transportation Services".

Originally posted by Rockpuck
Russia is allowed to trade with who ever they want quite frankly, even if the United States does not like it.

If the US won't operate with Russia how dare we be angry they go else where.

However, Russia is NOT cooperating with China in their space program, just selling them technology and materials.

Russia CAN trade with anyone they want, but the U.S. wants to control the spread of their space and rocket technology to China. The U.S. is afraid (and one could argue for good reason) that if they share cutting edge secret technology with Russia, that technology could more easily find it's way into the hands of the Chinese -- maybe not through direct legal trade, but rather through devious means. If the U.S. kept that technology to themselves, they could control the dissemination of potential national security threats.

It is a shame, though...wouldn't it be cool if the U.S., China, Russia, Japan, and whoever else wanted, could work together in one global space agency.

[edit on 30-5-2007 by Soylent Green Is People]

...... just sayin.