Russian deputy PM: 'We are coming to the Moon FOREVER'

Barely six weeks after rolling troops into the Crimean Peninsula, an official from Vladimir Putin's Russia has announced the country's next expansion target: the Moon. As reported by the Voice of Russia, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin told the government daily Rossiiskaya Gazeta that establishing a permanent Moon …

[foo_bar_baz]

Sigh of relief

This is great news for us Europeans who have had to suffer from nutty dictators' peen-extending excercises for ages. It has been looking like it might start again, as olympics and sports in general weren't doing it for the Russians. We now need to pretend to compete and lose, and make as if we are impressed while Putin engages in this latest sand castle building competition. Just drag it out as long as possible.

Might also pretend to start our own project that will surely catch their attention, one that Russians will win for sure, like building a long railway line or drinking the most vodka. Anything that they can feel good about that doesn't involve making like Attila the Hun on Europe.

[Mark 85]

Russia Vs USA to the Moon?? Err.. no.

I think this more about China's aspirations. Russia and China have been feuding and warring long before the USA got involved. Putin has high hopes of being he Russian Savior and this would go a long way towards that by settling or at least "topping" some old grudges.

[Tail Up]

Encouraging!

The most of the soothing global political coming-outs of the century apperars to be done by a Russian deputy PM. "Coming to the Moon FOREVER"! The world would seem much safer and corruption-free place/space if they took some of their American and European colleagues along.

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, you see, the Russian population on the moon is in danger due to unrest, and it is Russia's option - nay, its duty - to protect her own! How many more lunar Russians will fall to the moon's right wing extremists? No, Russia must act now! It's for justice!

[Rhomboid]

Putin seeking Sponsorship?

After their success sponsoring a NASCAR driver, I suggest the Doge coin community jumps onboard, joint venture style with the Moon coin community to crowd fund the enterprise.

Obvious choice of slogan...... To the moon!

[Tinkerer]

Much Ado About Nothing

Look, folks, cool down, I beg you. This Rogozin guy has a track record of being a total tiresome uncontrollable windbag. He is always full of it in a pathetically boastful manner. And, yes, I live in Russia.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Much Ado About Nothing - it's OK

We understand. We have politicians like that too. And some people take them seriously, too. The real US beef with Purtin is that he's like Cheney, Wolfowitz, Palin, Rumsfeld and a few others all rolled into one, and they wish they had thought of establishing a Republican breeding line to achieve their own version first.

[Lapun Mankimasta]

Re: Much Ado About Nothing - it's OK

Oh Lord! Cheney, Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld and the rest on top of Palin? I now know real terror!

[Bladeforce]

oh yes..

Russia on the moon with nukes pointing at Washington next

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: oh yes..

That means getting something capable of launching nukes, and a nuclear weapon that has a long shelf life, onto the Moon in the first place.

The opposition can then launch a nuclear warhead to wipe out the lunar base knowing that the result will be asymmetric; i.e. are you going to launch your lunar nukes, wiping out most of human life on Earth, in order to protect your lunar strike capability?

Orbiting nukes are different because they are hard to identify, but even there there are obvious logistical problems.

The energetics and those logistics make the entire scenario not worth the bother. The way China is going, the easiest way to defeat the US would be by invasion. Just keep coming till the enemy runs out of ammo, and still half a billion or so surplus Chinese around (no, this is not a serious proposal.)

[Lapun Mankimasta]

Re: oh yes..

Now why the H#&( would the Chinese waste their population on a frontal assault on Washington DC? The NSA has thoughtfully opened the Internet of Things to infiltration, and the Internet of Things is attached to the Internet of (non)Things, which amongst other things, is attached to financial weapons of mass destruction such as the Bank of America, Citibank and Goldman Sachs. They don't need to send anyone into battle. The 1% in America will do it all for them, out of love (of financial mass destruction)!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

A couple have mentioned China

Maybe it is not the reason, but I would certainly think there is a reason to get there before China does. Because China will; probably soon; and will treat it like it treats Taiwan and Nepal. Sino-Western diplomacy is essentially us hoping to nudge China towards democracy and even a smidgeon of respect for Human Rights before they're too powerful to give a shit what we want, and China trying to get too powerful to give a shit what we want.

[DropBear]

Re: A couple have mentioned China

...what do you mean "before"?

[tempemeaty]

Russia, steping in to fill the vacume left by the US

Considering the US Gov is now wilfully avoiding manned space exploration, it's now up to Russia and China to do it for all of humanity. I keep asking myself why the US Gov has been engaging a wide range of excuses and avoidance tactics against taking manned space exporation beyond orbit. They have been doing orbital science since the days of "Skylab" in 1973. That's 41 years of research on the human body in low to zero gravity. It shouldn't have taken 41 years to do the orbital research to figure out how our next step farther into space should be done. If they did this before going to the moon we would never have gone there.

[Levente Szileszky]

Re: Russia, steping in to fill the vacume left by the US

All Russia is stepping in is a giant pile of shit - see Ukraine. Putin can barely cover his military overhaul and he's still mostly riding on the back of free draftees, not paid professionals (they are still limited to elite services.) Very soon he won't be able to wipe his @ss without some of his oligarch's money and the lats thing they will want to spend money is on some never-before-done luna-tic expedition...

[Frankee Llonnygog]

We are coming to the Moon FOREVER

Iron-ski

[amanfromMars 1]

Re: We are coming to the Moon FOREVER

Iron Sky ...... FTFY, Frankee Llonnygog

[Frankee Llonnygog]

Re: We are coming to the Moon FOREVER

On the one hand, honoured to have received attention from Mars. On the other, it wasn't broken. Weak maybe...

[Anonymaus Cowark]

why is everyone thinking about the USA

As indicated they are not a serious contender.

This is the beginning of a space race between Russia and China.

[Winkypop]

The moon is a harsh babushka!

Forget Reds under your beds!

It will be Reds over our heads!!

[Alan Brown]

The last time they tried.....

They managed to kill off most of the development team. (N1)

It'd be pretty obvious if someone was doing a manned moon mission. That needs a pretty fuckoff large launcher or a LOT of smaller ones.

[Trollslayer]

Yeah, there could be a problem

Russia's economy is collapsing, albeit slowly, because of the massive corruption.

I mean on a scale larger than the economy of many other countries.

In 10-15 years they are going to start needing economic aid.

[Anonymous Coward]

Putin Wins

Once they have a manned base, won't be long before they have nukes in position, to give them the final strike advantage !

[James Gosling]

Russia can do it....

Russia can do it because they can do it cheaper. As the saying goes the Americans spent billions developing a pen that could write in space, the Russians used a pencil. Do you remember the fuss over recycling water on the international space station? The Russians had a working solution, but it was so low tech in the conventional sense that the Americans simply couldn't understand how it worked and insisted on spending millions developing a highly sophisticated replacement that was less efficient. The Russian approach is like brains over brawn, imaginative solutions rather than expensive ones.

[Derpity]

Re: Russia can do it....

I don't recall hearing a fuss about the water recycling mechanism on the ISS. What was the Russian approach?

[Trollslayer]

Going to launch from

Ukraine?

[Beachrider]

WOW, Crimea and Lunar Settlement in the same paragraph!

Crimea is an interesting topic. It is likely to begin an attempt by Europe and the USA to lessen Russian integration into the market economies. It will also cause NATO to dig-in for the Baltic former-SSRs that are now full members. Anticipating it HAS already caused 4 NATO Airbases to be established in Bulgaria and a HUGE anti-missile base in Romania. It looks like USN residence in the international waters of the Black Sea will also now be commonplace. The Budapest Memorandum has clearly been discarded by Russia, at this point.

Russian 'marketing' of a Lunar settlement is interesting. NASA clearly feels that a self-sustaining settlement on the Moon is out of reach for near-to-mid-future technology. If Russia has other data, the more power to them! NASA does posit that mid-future technology COULD produce a sustainable Martian settlement. That is where NASA is placing their chips.

The proof of the pudding is in the eating!

[amanfromMars 1]

Re: WOW, Crimea and Lunar Settlement in the same paragraph!

Russian 'marketing' of a Lunar settlement is interesting. NASA clearly feels that a self-sustaining settlement on the Moon is out of reach for near-to-mid-future technology. If Russia has other data, the more power to them! NASA does posit that mid-future technology COULD produce a sustainable Martian settlement. That is where NASA is placing their chips.

The proof of the pudding is in the eating! .... Beachrider

Quite so, Beachrider, although the proof of the pudding is also fully dependent upon there being master chefs in the kitchen/master pilot chiefs in the engine room. Without that, is the lauded technocratic feast a catastrophic consumer disaster with irate customers demanding compensation and all of their monies back.

[JaiGuru]

And just like that the crimea situation solves itself. Goodbye Russia. Don't come back.

[Levente Szileszky]

Yeah, we know, Zvezda... talk is cheap, clowns, show me action.

Last time I checked you couldn't even build a proper re-usable system (eg shuttle.) You are playing catch-up ever since Koroljov died (1966?1967?), as I recall due to profound bleeding during a botched routine cancer surgery (another "great" example of your system, when your #1 space man dies in the hands of some 'trustworthy' Commie butchers with medical degrees...)

His successor was an alcoholic (well, arguably the most common pastime in Russian-speaking countries since Tzarist times so no surprise there) and completely mismanaged the entire program, not only resulting in a canceled moon landing program altogether but he & his successors left your entire space program in tatters, WAY BEHIND the Americans FOREVER, as it seems to be so far. (No, the fact that shuttles ran their course and the bloated and corrupt US bureaucracy was unable to plan ahead for its replacement does not give you any points, likewaise the fact that your 30+ years old design is being used as a cab to haul stuff to the ISS is just paying your bills, without which you probably couldn't even keep them operational.)

You still HAVE NOT MANAGED TO PUT ANYONE ON THE MOON, you fool - first show that feat. After that we might start believe some of your BS propaganda about your 'lunar base'...

[Scott Pedigo]

Iron Sky Curtain?

Putin is dreaming of the Helium 3.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1034314/

[Isendel Steel]

The H2G2 version...

Russia, on the other hand, has a series of missions to the Moon in the planning stages, albeit unmanned ones for now. The first will be the Frogstar Class A which is scheduled to launch in 2016. After that will come Frogstar Class B, an orbiter that will map the lunar surface, followed by another rover that will explore the Moon's south pole. - Frogstar Class C ?