Russians say they intend to establish permanent moon bases

At Washington meeting between heads of national space agencies, Russia's space agency puts down a moon marker.

The United States may have its sights set on a mission to Mars or manned missions to asteroids sometime in the future, but the Russians have a closer space goal in mind. Vladimir Popovkin, who runs the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, said during a pantel discussion in Washington that Russia intends to press ahead with long-term human operations on the surface of the moon. "We're not talking about repeating what mankind achieved 40 years ago," Popovkin said. "We're talking about establishing permanent bases."

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Russians say they intend to establish permanent moon bases | Cutting Edge - CNET News

Ah, a little competition.

First civilian contractor capsule splashed down off the coast of Mexico this week after visiting the space station.

Competition? from who? No one else is trying.

The US politicians and many in the public need competition before they'll do many things. It is what drove the original Apollo moon landings.

Well, hopefully Curiosity will reveal a lot about the composition of the rocks. It will be very interesting to see if there are any trace metals or other human useful elements that could be extracted. If there isn't, then I'd say it pretty much rules out Mars as the next destination. Why go all that way if the planet is incapable of providing any resources, save a few hundred thousand gallons of ice? I think it's more for the sake of imagination and glory. We made it to the moon first, and now we want to be first on Mars. So what?

On the other hand, the moon may have some promise for mining materials. There's even some evidence that there may be moisture trapped in rocks that could be excavated. It's also REALLY close. If anything goes wrong, the ability to send up a rescue ship in a matter of a few days is essential, whereas with Mars it would be many months. I think the Russians have the right idea.

... the Chinese.. will want mineral rights.. Hey, it's a good thing there aren't any islands.. they would be disputing those!

Seriously, the Chinese are attaining top ranking in supercomputers, seeking to establish a deep sea base, a space presence, run the fastest trains.. win a gold medal for the 'most kms of high speed (elevated) track built in a year'.. and incidentally, a prize for the largest proportion of the most polluted cities, and the fastest rate of urbanisation

Hey, that's a bit like Victorian & post-Victorian England.. Babbage, Industrial Revolution, railways, speed records, pollution, Victorian terraces.. now who built the first submarine...?

The earliest submarine I know of was by an inventor in the American Colonies, before separation from England, who made one that was hand operated to turn handles and large screws, not quite propellors, on the outside of it. This would have been about 1775-1776.

He got to the Royal Navy ship, and couldn't attach the explosive because the mechanism was defeated by the copper sheathing placed there to defeat marine boring worms.