Dmitry Znamensky - No single country has the resources to carry out an expedition to Mars, but together mankind does have the technological capability required to realize such an endeavor, according to Russian professor Vyacheslav Turyshev, speaking at Astronautics Week dedicated to the April 12 anniversary of Yury Gagarin's historic first manned spaceflight.

"These tasks cannot be tackled by any single country individually, but if we manage to motivate our respective space agencies and the governments of different countries to start a shared expedition preparation program, then I think we'll move up the date of the actual flight," said Turyshev, a professor at Mocow State University.

Turyshev added that the preparations for an expedition to Mars would span 20-25 years.

"Although unmanned missions should take place much sooner, possibly asteroid exploration flights or an extended stay [of astronauts] in space," the scientist noted.

In his opinion, such a project requires several tasks to be accomplished, including the creation of artificial gravity, a medical support system for humans in space and the psychological task of learning to work in a small team for a long time. Turyshev supposes a flight of this kind would last up to two years.

At the same time, Turyshev sees a manned Moon base as a more realistic project.

"If we factor out the funding question and look only at the technical capabilities, we are almost at the stage where we can launch a lunar base, as we have life support systems and a means of delivery," he noted.

The academic underlined that it is critical to prioritize well. "If the first mission to the Moon was driven by the political priorities of the USSR and the US, then today's reasoning revolves around the practical use of lunar resources and scientific research" Turyshev stated.

He sees 2015 as the start of commercial astronautics. "The first cars were very expensive and hardly anyone could afford Ford's first models, I think the first commercial space flights would not be affordable for most of us, but let's think about 50 years in the future. I think access to space will become more commonplace in the future, within the next generation people will easily travel to Earth's orbit to enjoy the beauty of our planet from space," Turyshev said.

Source: RIA Novosti