Russia comes with a big plan for 2019: Wants to send people on Mars .

Russia and United States have quite a long history when it comes to being rivals. From the advancement of warfare equipment to the accomplishment of space exploration, these nations are competing for supremacy over one and another. Both the countries are alleged for conspiring against each other and are regarded as potential threats. They have contested to the best of their respective abilities in various fields of research. One of the most heavily fueled areas of research these days is the exploration of an alternate residence for the mankind as scientists fear that rapidly changing climate could make Earth a hostile place for human survival. The announcement of Elon Musk of SpaceX to take humans to Mars in 2024 came earlier this year which was freshened up following the statement of Putin to accomplish this feat next year.

These plans of Putin are a part of the Cold War between these two mega powers of the world. Cyber attacks on sensitive information of each other are the most common strategy that is being employed these days. Americans also claimed that Putin interfered with the results of their presidential elections. This theory circled around for quite a while after Donald Trump was elected as the President of the United States of America. Vladimir announced this in an interview prior to his bid for being the Russian leader for the 4th time (he did get re-elected). He told the world that they are planning to send unmanned missions to Mars in the coming year which will be followed by manned missions. He further added that different missions will be sent to other parts of the space including the Moon. He said,

“We will now carry out unmanned and then manned launches to explore deep space, and a lunar program and then the exploration of Mars. The first will be very soon. In 2019 we are planning to launch a mission toward Mars.”

The last launch to Mars from Russia came in 2011 when Phobos-Grunt failed to make the journey. There are a lot of theories wandering around us regarding this statement. According to one of them, it is more of a reactive announcement as Musk announced to send a probe to Mars in the coming year.

Read also: On Mars it’s snowing every night

The space race between America and Russia have very deep roots and none of them would want to lose this battle after investing so much into it. Putin also mentioned sending missions to Moon as he feels there is enough evidence to have signs of water on its poles. He explained his viewpoint and said,

“Our specialists will try landing near the poles because there are reasons to expect water there. There is research to be done there, and from that, research of other planets and outer space can be undertaken.”

He seemed pretty clear as he expressed his desire to expand the space exploration of Russia. He listed a number of ambitious projects including a joint Moon base with NASA. On the other hand, SpaceX is ready to launch test flights to Mars in 2019. This means that the race to glory is up for grabs and both the countries are giving a fierce competition to each other. The successful experiment of Falcon Heavy to launch Musk’s Tesla into Earth’s orbit had given a slight edge to America but Putin responded just at the right moment to keep the balance in the middle. However, he kept the reasons hidden for the moment. Was it for international domination or to bring glory to Russia? Only time will tell but his claim ensured that his country is recognized as a big power in the world.

As discussed earlier, Russia lags behind the Americans when it comes to the exploration of Mars. Curiosity Rover is the difference as it is circling around the red planet for 5 years. Insight lander will be sent in May to bolster the ascendency, a bit further. The mission of Russia’s Roscosmos sent an orbiter to Mars in 2016 and a rover will join it in the next year. A series of failed operations hindered the Russian flow as Roscosmos met quite a lot of accidents. A rocket crash, that destroyed payload from Japan, Germany, Norway, Russia, and Sweden, is one of the most popular ones among all of them. However, if the statement of Putin is given any kind of weight, the Race is certainly on.