“The world is moving to a new world order, which, I am sure, the presidents of the United States, Russia and the chairman of China will agree on in the near future. This new world order will need a beautiful human project. … I believe that it is simply impossible to come up with a better joint project for the Moon or Mars that the three leaders of these states could offer to humanity.”
—Andrey Ionin, Member of Russia’s Council on Foreign and Defense Policy
May 1—A recent statement by Kirill Dmitriev, the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), mooting the possibility of the U.S. and Russia cooperating on a manned mission to Mars, raised a few eyebrows, and even caused some heckles. Dmitriev pointed to the great interest in a mission to Mars shown by Elon Musk, serving as an advisor to President Trump. Is a manned mission to Mars even possible, one might ask? Certainly not in the immediate future. And could Russia and the United States cooperate on such a mission? Given recent tensions between Russia and the U.S., one might presume that this would not be on the agenda. But if it were the case that the U.S. and Russia succeeded in re-establishing relations, a mission to land humans on Mars would catapult the relationship above mere diplomacy and establish the basis for long-term mutually-beneficial collaboration, while at the same time spark one of the greatest economic advancements in U.S. history.
Dmitriev was one of the people in attendance at the Feb. 18 negotiations in Riyadh between the U.S. and Russia to discuss peace in Ukraine. While he was not one of the principal negotiators for the Russian side, he was there on behalf of President Putin, who had appointed him to be in charge of commercial outreach with the U.S. and other countries, in what was predicted to be a coming thaw in U.S.-Russia relations.
On March 15, Elon Musk announced on his X account that he would be sending a starship to Mars next year, and would be prepared for a manned mission by 2029. Noting this, Dmitriev proposed to Elon Musk on his own X account that he send a joint mission of Russia and the United States to Mars in 2029. He reiterated the idea a few days later on March 18 while attending the annual congress of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs. “There will certainly be discussions with Musk soon,” Dmitriev said. “We believe he is a unique leader committed to advancing humanity as a whole.” “Our vision for cooperation with Musk goes beyond just Mars,” Dmitriev added. “It’s about leveraging the strong expertise within Roscosmos and Rosatom, which could contribute to making a Mars mission more efficient and safer. I believe this dialogue will continue.” On March 27 at the Arctic Forum in Murmansk, Dmitriev added the point that Russia could provide a nuclear power plant for Musk’s Mars mission.
It was clear that this was not simply some futuristic whim in the head of Dmitriev, but was rather something of a “feeler” that was being floated in the context of a revived optimism about U.S.-Russian cooperation. Dmitriev had also discussed his idea with Dmitri Bakanov, the new head of Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos.
Space cooperation between the U.S. and Russia has never fully ceased since it was initiated with the Apollo-Soyuz program in 1975, and has even continued in spite of the general hiatus in diplomatic contacts since February 2022. On April 8, Roscosmos chief Bakanov met with Kenneth Bowersox, NASA’s deputy administrator of Space Operations, to discuss coming missions of the International Space Station (ISS) and follow-up in orbital and lunar manned missions.
Fostering a New Space Renaissance
All too often described as a “failing economy” because of the war in Ukraine, Russia is actually thriving, in spite of, or rather because of, the rather futile attempt to isolate it from the world economy. The sanctions from Western nations have forced Russia to concentrate on producing what it had previously imported, and its exclusion from the markets of the West has led to increased trade with the populous countries in the Asia-Pacific and South Asia regions. The rates of growth Russia is now experiencing are objects of envy by those in Western Europe who are themselves suffering the most from their insistence on continuing the conflict in Ukraine. But most importantly, Russia has accelerated investments in its scientific-military-industrial capacities.
On April 2, a round-table discussion was held at the Bauman Moscow State Technical University, one of the most prestigious institutions of higher technical education in Russia, under the rubric “International Expedition to Mars in 2030-2040.” The round-table gathered representatives from scientific institutions, universities, from Roscosmos, and even from the banking community. The discussion centered around a possible joint Mars mission, and was no doubt lively.
