{"id":26106,"date":"2016-05-27T14:47:56","date_gmt":"2016-05-27T21:47:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2016\/05\/russia-is-working-on-a-taxi-to-the-moon"},"modified":"2017-04-24T20:43:35","modified_gmt":"2017-04-25T03:43:35","slug":"russia-is-working-on-a-taxi-to-the-moon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2016\/05\/russia-is-working-on-a-taxi-to-the-moon","title":{"rendered":"Russia is working on a taxi to the moon"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

A Russian rocket company has announced that it\u2019s working on a space taxi that\u2019ll shuttle crews from the ISS down to the moon. The plans were announced at an international conference on space exploration just outside Moscow and reported by Russia Today<\/em><\/a>. The craft, provisionally named Ryvok, would be permanently docked on the ISS<\/a> \u2014 or its replacement \u2014 transporting cargo and crews to the lunar surface. Each flight would be powered by fuel in an \u201caccelerator block,\u201d brought up from Earth on the back of a Russian rocket. The report explains that it\u2019s likely to be the Angara A5, a heavy-lift vehicle that\u2019s intended to replace the trusty old Soyuz.<\/p>\n

Once it\u2019s time to return to the ISS, the craft will blast off the moon for the five-day return journey. In order to slow its speed on approach, the ship will deploy a 55-square-meter \u201cumbrella\u201d that\u2019ll reduce its speed like a parachute on a drag racer. At least, that\u2019s the idea. The craft is expected to be developed by 2021, with the first launches anticipated to take place in 2023. The company is suggesting that its concept would be cheaper and faster to implement, since you don\u2019t have to wait for the Angara rockets to be certified safe for human transportation.<\/p>\n

If there\u2019s one thing that\u2019s given us pause, it\u2019s the historical parallel between this Russian plan and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine<\/em>. After all, things were relatively staid on the space station until the crew got their hands on the USS Defiant. After that point, the whole Federation suddenly found itself embroiled in a universe-wide war<\/a> with a vastly superior enemy. There\u2019s always a slight worry that, mere months after Ryvok docks at the ISS, that humanity, too, will find itself similarly overwhelmed.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Russian rocket company has announced that it\u2019s working on a space taxi that\u2019ll shuttle crews from the ISS down to the moon. The plans were announced at an international conference on space exploration just outside Moscow and reported by Russia Today. The craft, provisionally named Ryvok, would be permanently docked on the ISS \u2014 [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":367,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1514],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-space-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/367"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26106"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26106\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41630,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26106\/revisions\/41630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}