US and Russia join forces on lunar ‘stepping stone to Mars’

RUSSIA and the United States have agreed to cooperate in building a lunar space station that will act as a stepping stone on the journey to Mars.

Nasa and the Russian space agency Roscosmos will collaborate on the Deep Space Gateway, a base similar to the International Space Station (ISS), which will be placed in orbit around the moon. Despite tensions between the US and Russia in recent years, the two countries’ space agencies enjoy close ties, and Nasa still uses the Russian Soyuz rocket to send astronauts to the ISS.

Work is due to begin on the spaceport in the 2020s, and the US space agency has said the station will offer a “true deep space environment” where astronauts can gain experience for human missions deeper into the solar system, while also allowing easier access to the surface of the moon.

Nasa is developing a Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft to make the trip to the base, which will be permanently crewed. But the space agency is keen that other countries should be able to dock there too.

At an astronautical congress in Adelaide yesterday, Roscosmos announced that a cooperation deal had been signed with Nasa to work on the Gateway, saying: “The partners intend to develop international technical standards which will be used later, in particular to create a space station in lunar orbit.”

The Russians and Americans would cooperate to build the systems needed to organise scientific missions in lunar orbit and to the surface of the moon, the agency’s statement added.

“Roscosmos and Nasa have already agreed on standards for a docking unit of the future station. Taking into account the country’s extensive experience in developing docking units, the station’s future elements will be created using Russian designs.”

Igor Komarov, Roscosmos’s general director, said no fewer than five countries were building their own rockets and systems, and it was critical to have a unified system. He said: “To avoid future problems over technical cooperation, part of the standards should be unified – for a possibility for various countries to work on their craft and dock to the international lunar station.”

The statement also said that the two countries were discussing using Russia’s Proton-m and Angara rockets to help create the lunar base’s infrastructure, adding that the main works were scheduled to begin in the mid-2020s.

In a mission statement for the project, Nasa said: “Nasa is leading the next steps into deep space near the moon, where astronauts will build and begin testing the systems needed for challenging missions to deep space destinations including Mars.

“The area of space near the moon offers a true deep space environment to gain experience for human missions that push farther into the solar system and access the lunar surface for robotic missions, but with the ability to return to Earth if needed in days rather than weeks or months.”