Izvestia: "Time to fly to Mars"
Vladimir Putin outlines tasks for aerospace industry.
Russian professionals will soon launch half of all international space flights. But the country would not limit itself to the role of an international space ferryman, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said at a meeting on the development of the Russian space industry.
Meeting ahead of the 50th anniversary of Yury Gagarin's pioneering space flight, the Russian government decided to discuss the condition of the country's aerospace industry, the prospects of manned flights and space exploration until 2030.
They chose a site for the meeting with a symbolic meaning – the town of Gagarin.
Gagarin rests only 20 kilometres away from Klushino, the birthplace of the world's first man in space. However, the weather prevented the participants from flying to Gagarin, and they met in the prime minister's residence near Moscow instead.
Russia plays a leading role in space launches, launching 31 of the world's 74 carriers last year, and stands every chance of bringing the figure to 50% of the world's total.
But this role could reduce a leading space power to a mere carrier of crews and cargo, which Russia cannot accept, Putin said. Therefore, even in unfavourable circumstances, the government is raising its space budget.
"The total allocations for 2010-2011 roughly amount to 200 billion roubles," he said. "We need to expand our presence on the global space market, which has grown by 150% since 2003 to approach $200 billion."
In Putin's words, the number of satellites Russia's GLONASS navigation system is operating on a global scale should increase from 23 to about 30. Other goals for the next 4 years include designing and building at least 30 innovative space units and systems, he said.
The International Space Station and Russia's new space port, Vostochny, are given special attention in further space exploration. The Russian segment of the station will be completed by 2016. The first launch pad at the new space centre will be ready to launch cargo spacecraft at about the same time.
The first manned flight will blast off from Vostochny two years later. The new space port will finally give Russia independent access to space.
All these plans can be viewed as a bird in hand, compared with the "two in space" that the scientists attending the meeting showed Putin.
Lev Zelyony, the director of Russia's Space Research Institute, described the latest space discovery.
According to him, about one billion years ago, a Mars-sized space object hit the Earth, ripping off a great chunk of the planet. The location where this occurred is now the Pacific Ocean. The chunk became the earth's natural satellite, he said.
"Do you mean that the Moon was originally a part of Earth?" Putin asked in disbelief.
"Historically, the Moon is indeed the Earth's seventh continent," the scientist said and offered some proof of his theory.
According to him, all of the chemicals included in Mendeleyev's Periodic Table have been found on the Moon, just like on the Earth, including metals. It is possible that the Moon will soon become an important source of mineral resources for humans, he added.
"The United States, Europe and China must realize this too," Zelyony said. "Where there are resources, there is always competition."
Anastasia Savinykh
