Mars Piloted Orbital Station - Evolution of The Project

Evolution of The Project

The idea of this ‘hybrid’ mission was first advanced by US-trained Russian space policy expert Dr. Yuri Karash; he got his Ph.D. in Space Policy and International Relations from the American University in Washington, D.C. in 1997. His article was published in the Russian Nezavisimaya Gazeta on October 18, 2000 under the title Vperyod, Na Mars! Rossii sleduyet vzyat kurs na sozdaniye marsianskoi pilotiruemoy orbitalnoy stantsii . Karash claimed that Russia, while continuing its participation in the International Space Station program, should build the rest of Russian modules for the station but instead of attaching them to the ISS, assemble them in orbit as an autonomous complex and launch it to Mars with a crew on board. He also gave this space complex its name MARPOST.

Further concepts see Marpost to pave the way for a joint Russian-American mission to the Martian surface. Russia, capitalizing on its extensive experience in building and operating long-term orbital space stations, would build a trans-planetary spacecraft while America, capitalizing on its experience gained during the Apollo Moon landing program, would build a Mars landing module.

The idea of Marpost was then picked up by Leonid Gorshkov, one of the main designers of the RKK Energia (Raketno-Kosmicheskaya Korporatsiya - Rocket-Space Corporation) company, the leading Russian space developer and builder of human spaceflight hardware. Gorshkov proposed to use the space complex called MEK (Mezhplanetniy Ekspeditsioniy Komplex, or Interplanetary Expeditionary Complex), that was already developed and designed by RKK Energia.
The projected cost would be $14–16 billion and the period of realization 12–14 years. The elements of MEK were initially designed to be launched into space by the Energia heavy booster, resembling the Saturn V moon booster by its payload capacity. Later however, in order to lower the cost of the mission, the elements of MEK were redesigned to be launched by a Proton or Angara rocket. The overall weight of MEK is about 400 tons. The flight from earth orbit to Mars will be powered by ion thruster engines.