Russia, US can collaborate in Mars exploration: Putin

AP ^ | 1.27.04 | AFP

[CyberCowboy777]

The government develop the little protocol you use to access the Internet. Why don't you give it up and use one of the proprietary protocols developed by industry?

[FreedomCalls]

The only pictures of the surface of Venus are from the 4 successful Russian landers. The U.S. has not yet managed to produce any pictures of Venus from a lander.

[Frank_Discussion]

A few of the folks was on a ballistic flight anyway /gallows humor

Seriously, the Russians are admittedly very good at what they do, but so are we. But folks are quite right that they have concentrated on endurance, where we've been more interested in accomplishing discreet tasks. That's one of my major issues with ISS - we're following the Russian model.

Additionally, my point re: Nedelin is that the Russians had many cosmonauts and technical staff die due to recklessness on the ground. Definitely a challenge for a cosmonaut to survive to their first flight.

And we STILL don't know their real injury/casualty rate.

[Frank_Discussion]

That's a great pic!

[Prime Choice]

The casualty count you cite was from a test run on procedures, not an actual flight.

Once again, you are comparing apples and oranges.

I'm still waiting for your stories of the Great Russian Successes in the manned landings on the moon, Phobos missions to Mars, and manned flights of the Buran...

Considering the head start that Russia had on the U.S. in the space race, they should have bratwurst stands on the moon by now. Yet for some reason, poor ol' bungling NASA has been kicking butt and taking names in every meaningful way since Apollo. Sorry you're unwilling to acknowledge that.

[Prime Choice]

The only reason we never explored Venus is because NASA's funding was cut by Congress.

The Soviet space agency was not thus handicapped.

[ambrose]

The only pictures of the surface of Venus are from the 4 successful Russian landers.

A crowning achievement of the Russian space program!

[FreedomCalls]

perhaps you can regale us with tales of ... the stellar flight record of the Buran.

The Buran never carried any astronauts. It was a program that was not persued. I can list many more such U.S. programs that were not persued (such as Dynasoar, X-24B, X-30, X-38, etc). Are they failures too?

[FreedomCalls]

That's a great pic!

Yes it is! Don Mitchell has taken the raw data from the old Russian landers and re-processed it using modern computers and he has gotten some spectacular results.

Go here for many more.

[FreedomCalls]

I'm still waiting for your stories of the Great Russian Successes in the manned landings on the moon, Phobos missions to Mars, and manned flights of the Buran...

As I am waiting for your stories of successful U.S. landings on Venus and manned flights of the Dynasoar, X-24B, X-30, and X-38.

[FreedomCalls]

The casualty count you cite was from a test run on procedures, not an actual flight.

You're hard to pin down! OK, the actual flight count is (people in, going to, or coming from space): 14 U.S. dead versus 4 Russian dead.

[Prime Choice]

And once again, those 14 dead were from use of REUSABLE SPACE VEHICLES. The Russians don't even have that.

The price of being more advanced is sometimes making more advanced mistakes. I guarantee you that Upper Volta, Sierra Leone and Iceland have lost no astronauts. By your reasoning, we should be following THEIR lead.

[DoctorMichael]

Russia, US can collaborate in Mars exploration: Putin

GIT OUTTA HERE, YOU KNUCKLEHEAD!

[FreedomCalls]

The price of being more advanced is sometimes making more advanced mistakes.

OK, granted. But the Russian's safety record is still better than the U.S.'s. Being more advanced has nothing to do with it. Our aviation industry is more advanced than Australia's, but Quantas' safety record is better than Delta's. Maybe the Russians long ago decided that Shuttle-class space vehicles were too risky and decided to go with safer capsules. In any event, to go back to the beginning, as I think even you admit above, the Russian safety record in space is better than the U.S. record -- less advanced perhaps, but more safe.

[FreedomCalls]

Let me guess, you're a Russian. Checkov?

No, just giving credit where credit is due.

[FreedomCalls]

But they have failed a lot also.

Absolutely. So have we. "He who dares, wins" as the SAS likes to say. But in the end they have chosen the safer route of the two.

[Professional Engineer]

OTOH, spaceport security delay would cancel out the advantages of instantaneous travel.

Sir, would you step up to the line and put your, uh, tentacle on the reader please.