Rivals for lunar conquest four decades ago, Russia hopes to join the U.S. moon exploration program with technology and know-how, a Russian space agency spokesman said Thursday.
Russia was conducting talks with
NASA and voiced hope that a deal could be reached within months, said the spokesman, Igor Panarin.
"We want the agreement to reflect Russia's status as a great space power [Emphasis added - WB]," he told The Associated Press, adding that Russia plans to contribute technology rather than money to NASA's project.
NASA said Monday that it would send a four-astronaut crew to the moon in 2020 and set up an international base camp on one of the moon's poles that would be permanently staffed by 2024.
Panarin said the agreement with NASA could be modeled on Russia's deal with the European Space Agency, which envisages launches of commercial satellites by Russian Soyuz rockets from France's Kourou launch pad in French Guyana starting in 2008. Under that deal, Russia would provide booster rockets and the ESA would fund launch pad upgrades.
"We could use a similar approach in the moon project," Panarin said.
I can't say that I am terribly enthused about this. There are a few reasons. Lessons that we all gained from the ISS ought to have been learned by now. The first one is that the US is bad at doing international tech development. We always end up spending far too much on these big projects and have them drag out even when by ourselves. When we include others often things get much much worse (caveats: Canadians don't seem to be a problem nor working with the Italians (!)). The second one is that the Russians are a PITA in all of this. How many times did they threaten to take their toys and go home? On top of that, we have a Russia that's increasingly hostile again. This is not a good idea. Betcha they'll promise some tech and then we'll pay for it and they keep it/use it to their own ends.
No thanks. I'd say pass on their participation.
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