Free Astronomy Magazine November-December 2017

ASTRONAUTICS General of Roscosmos, upon the signing of the joint declara- tion with NASA on 27 September, at the 68 th In- ternational Astronautical Congress in Adelaide, Australia, said: “ We understand that we are key players and we have to work on these mis- sions together. The station will be a serious platform for future research. Roscosmos and NASA have already agreed on stan- dards for a docking unit of the future station. Taking into account the coun- try’s extensive experience in devel- oping docking units, the station’s future elements will be cre- ated using Russian designs. 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” . Today, we cannot imagine what progress may be spurred by the broad agreement in Adelaide between the two biggest space agencies on our planet. We note, however, that Roscosmos and NASA have as yet only shown willingness to work together on a future cislunar space station, which does not oblige either party to build the spaceport. Also, as we have seen, the election of a new US president would be enough to reshuffle the deck and give top priority to other projects. ! T his scene shows Boe- ing’s idea for the Deep Space Tran- sit Vehicle, which will be used to carry the astro- nauts from the space station to the Moon and towards Mars. [Boeing] 47