US and Russia Team up to Build a Lunar Space Station

Russia and the United States are not on friendly terms much of the time. There has historically been a lot of political tension between both superpowers, and that situation may not change anytime soon. However, both countries are now collaborating to build the moon’s first space station. It’s an interesting idea, even though it remains to be seen how feasible such a venture truly is in the long run. Building a lunar space station is not something one can expect to complete overnight either.

Russia and the US Bury the Hatchet for now

Over the past few years, there have been multiple incidents involving the US and Russia. Ranging from “hacking” elections to another political tug-of-war, the relationship between both nations has seemingly soured quite a bit of late. Not everything is doom and gloom where Russia and the US are concerned, though, as both nations agree on certain things as well. Building a lunar space station, for example, is one thing both countries would like to achieve in the very near future.

To that end, both nations plan to collaborate on this project, which will be led by NASA. Building a lunar space station requires collaboration, as no nation on Earth can successfully do so on its own as of right now. If such a venture can bring the US and Russia together in a constructive manner, it is definitely worth paying attention to. According to The Guardian, the goal is to build a crew-tended spaceport and put it in lunar orbit. From this spaceport, the wider exploration of space can commence.

It has to be said that NASA has been pretty vocal about its space exploration ambitions over the past few years. According to the administration, sending humans to Mars by 2030 is still a very realistic goal. Colonizing Mars is also near the top of its priority list, although a lot more research is needed before that goal can be achieved. Returning to the moon is the first step along the way, as it has proven to be rather difficult to do so. After all, no human has set foot on the moon for quite some time now.

Interestingly, some of these plans are the direct result of Barack Obama’s presidency. While he ditched plans to return to the moon by 2020, Obama shifted the focus to visiting Mars by 2030. It is evident the moon and Mars are two important frontiers when it comes to space exploration. Establishing a lunar station will be of great help in this regard, as it could eventually be used to explore Mars and potentially other planets in the future as well.

However, it seems the Donald Trump administration will prioritize the moon over Mars once again. It is pretty interesting to see different politicians coming up with different plans of action in this regard. A spaceport orbiting the moon sounds like a more logical choice, all things considered, although we shouldn’t give up on the concept of exploring and potentially colonizing Mars either.

Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, recently announced that a cooperation agreement with NASA had been signed. Developing international technical standards will be one of the first priorities of this joint venture. Once those standards are in place, construction of the space station can begin. The future station’s docking unit will be built according to Russian designs, according to our sources. That is a pretty interesting development, but it makes sense given Russia’s extensive experience in the development of such hardware.