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Russia's Roscosmos plans Mars missions in distant future

The current journey time to reach the planet renders missions to Mars impossible, according to the manned spaceflight director of Roscosmos

© Elena Berezina/TASS

PYATIGORSK, August 20. /TASS/. The Russian Roscosmos State Corporation for Space Activities is studying possible missions to Mars, however, the current journey time to reach the planet renders them impossible, Manned Spaceflight Director at Roscosmos Sergei Krikalev at a meeting with the Mashuk forum participants.

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"In planning future Mars missions, we see that the radiation dose a cosmonaut can receive travelling in the direction of Mars, to one of its satellites or Mars itself is actually unbearable for a human being, considering the current journey time and existing protection equipment," he said.

According to the Manned Spaceflight Director at Roscosmos, this issue can be solved by either increasing the protection means or speeding up the flight time. Krikalev clarified that new engines would make the spaceflight quicker.

In turn, Director General of Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin told the forum that the cosmonauts from the team that is being assembled now would work in the far outer space.

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