Flight to Mars possible after 2035 – Roscosmos chief
11:10, 14 April 2011
MOSCOW. April 14. KAZINFORM A manned flight to Mars will be possible after 2035, the head of the Russian federal space agency Roscosmos, Anatoly Perminov, said on Wednesday. He was speaking during the "government hour" question-and-answer session in the Federation Council.
"At the current level of technology, I think, it will be possible only after such period of time," he stressed.
According to Perminov, for missions to Mars there will have to be created a new spacecraft with a nuclear propulsion system.
"Then the flight will take a month - that is a realistic task," he said.
According to Itar-Tass,the propulsion system is to be created by 2012, and a new spacecraft by 2025, Perminov said.
"It will be absurd to fly on the vehicles and with the engines that we have," he stressed, noting that "at such a level of technology a voyage to Mars will last eighteen months."