US Govt Laws means ESA and Russians will partner for future

[dreada5]

http://space.com/spacenews/businessmonday_050530.html<br /><br /><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>But as ESA sketches its longer-term space-exploration effort, called Aurora, the agency is gradually coming to the conclusion that the U.S. legal regime known as ITAR — International Traffic in Arms Regulations — will foreclose whole categories of trans-Atlantic cooperative efforts in space exploration.<p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br /><br /><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>"It’s a shame, but it’s not for me to comment on U.S. law, only to note its effects, and for the rover, ITAR would have made cooperation too complicated to be feasible," said Daniel Sacotte, head of ESA’s Human Spaceflight program. "We are now obliged to develop our autonomy in various areas, which is no bad thing. We are fully capable in Europe of developing these technologies. We may also find partners besides NASA."<p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br /><br /><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>Sacotte said Russia’s proposed Clipper vehicle could be the basis of a future crew-carrying vehicle that would provide an alternative to the Crew Exploration Vehicle. For now, he said, ESA will propose to its governments in December that they fund a series of design studies, in cooperation with Russia, using Clipper as a starting point.<p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br /><br />This is a bad and good thing, I suppose. As it means the US Govt is hindering a fully international human exploration programme to Moon/Mars, but it also means Europe will be able to develop an ESA/Russian CEV based on the best of Russian technology. <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" />

 

[dreada5]

Yeah, and it makes you wonder why ITAR is necessary considering Europe and the US work together on so many other non-space, but defence issues.<br /><br />Anyways NASA has its hands full at the moment, so ESA might be better off investing in their own technology (or with Russians) for the near future. Especially when you look at the ISS situation.

 

[smradoch]

Exactly, future human flights of ESA, Russia, Japan and private sector lies at LEO and ISS. Future of NASA is somewhere else (we don't now how far from Earth yet) <br />So it has sense.

 

[dreada5]

Ok, but as wealthy as the US is, don't you think if NASA doesn't want future human exploration of Moon/Mars to end up as 'one shot-put up a flag' job, then they could seriously benefit from a joint multi-national venture here?<br /><br />ISS, Manned Lunar/Martian settlement etc are obviously not small programs, easily manageable by a single nation.<br /><br />I know international projects have their problems, but the unprecedented ISS both now and when complete is a product of international cooperation. So when you look at the typical Lunar/Martian endeavours planned by NASA etc.... international cooperation kinda making sense!!<br /><br />In any case I'm looking forward to ESA/Russia producing a Clipper CEV... that'd be cool! <img src="/images/icons/cool.gif" />