Who is ready today? Considering the successes of the space program of both nations, I would say the U.S. is far more prepared than Russia at this time.
I just said that russian space industry may do that for fraction of cost then american space industry.
Yet those savings would be penny-wise and pound-foolish. As another already pointed out, the failure:success ratio in Russian spacefaring is much larger than that of the United States. Bottom line: if given the choice between sending a manned mission to Mars in 10 years for X dollars and not having them return, I'd rather opt for a manned mission to Mars in 20 years for 10*X dollars and have them return safely.
It's never a good idea to cut corners on safety and redundancy. And from the looks of things, that appears to be precisely what the Russian space program does.
Yes, the U.S. space program has 17 casualties to its name. All losses were tragic, but considering how far we've gone, the casualty rate is exceedingly low. If we'd ignored safety and redundancy on the scale that the Russians have consistently done, the work-related mortality of our astronauts could easily have been three- or four-fold what it is.
Yes, the U.S. space program has 17 casualties to its name. ==
Russian rate is 0. Soviet rate was 5.
Consider that Soviets then Russia continuously stayed in space begginning from late 70th. There was almost constatnly space station with 2-3 cousmanauts on board. Each day of all this years.
Then Russia continued that tradition. During all this turbulent years of russian independence there were always space flights.
Russian SOUZ rocket is safest in the world. There was already about 1500 launches of it. Only few about 5 or 6 failures.
Recent air leak on ISS was due to american module not russian. No one report it in american press. But if it would russian leak then I would see lot of reporting.
It is press of cause. But investigative mind have to seek truth on its own.
Ask boris. His main reprimand that russians "dump" thier hardware for fraction of cost. But he told good about ussian launch vehicles or engines for example. Do you know that new american rocket Atlas-5 uses russian engines. American car with russian engine so to speak:)).
Beleive or not. Russia can do everything America can. And for fraction of cost. It is only the question of financing. There are no scientific or technological backwardness in Russia.