Russia Mulling Joint Lunar Base with NASA, Europe (ContributorNetwork)

A report in Space.com and a number of other media outlets that Russia's Federal Space Agency, or Roscosmos, is consulting with NASA and the European Space Agency about a joint lunar base is causing some comment in aerospace circles.

What are the discussions about a lunar base?

There has been no official confirmation, as of this writing, from the United States or the European Union. Some sources suggest that the Russian report refers to the Global Exploration Roadmap, which is being discussed by representatives of a number of national space agencies. Two roadmaps are under discussion.

The first is "Moon First," which points to a manned lunar landing as the first step in solar system operation. This would be followed by a lunar base, likely close to one of the lunar poles where ice has been found in the permanently shadowed craters.

The second is "asteroid first" which would involve visiting an Earth approaching asteroid as the first space exploration goal. As per President Barack Obama's speech of April 15, 2010, this approach is currently official NASA policy.

Both roadmaps are designed to lead to Mars, sometime in the 2030s.

Why is Russia interested in a lunar base?

Russia has found some success in revitalizing its manned space program in its role of partner in the International Space Station program. It has provided a number of modules for the space station. With the end of the space shuttle program, it is the sole provider of space flights for astronauts to the ISS. Russia's participation has garnered it a great deal of prestige and quite a bit of cash from the United States is payment for rides to the ISS.

Russia is also reeling from a number of high profile space failures, most notably that of the Phobos-Grunt that was designed to conduct a sample return mission to Mars' moon Phobos. Instead the probe recently fell into the Pacific ocean, making a failure of Russia's planetary science program.

The Sticking Point is Money

Aside from the fact that a joint effort to settle the moon would require a revision of Obama space policy -- or the election of a new president -- the factor standing in the way is a lack of money. Both the United States and the European Union are experiencing a debt crisis that would tend to argue against taking on an expensive, new space project, no matter what the long term benefit would be. However cost sharing between NASA, the ESA, Russia, and perhaps other partners such as Canada, Japan, India, and Brazil might prove sufficient to get the thing off the ground. But the project would have to be sustained over many years, a hard proposition at best if history is any guide.

Mark R. Whittington is the author of Children of Apollo and The Last Moonwalker. He has written on space subjects for a variety of periodicals, including The Houston Chronicle, The Washington Post, USA Today, the L.A. Times, and The Weekly Standard.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/science/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20120121/sc_ac/10861289_russia_mulling_joint_lunar_base_with_nasa_europe

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