Excellent, we need more and more high technology projects, we need return our research funding to much higher levels, in the area of research. But we need focus and we need discipline for use of the funds. Space is an area we have a good platform in, one that we have competitive advantage in. You could see the US as Boeing and us as Airbus in the space game. It is an area in which we must be a main tier one player, the derivative applied IP is immense, driving whole secondary and tertiary industries. There are many other areas for research including food and water production, renewable energy, medicine......... that we need pump in the investment to. We need however complete transparency and ring fencing of the budgets, to ensure funding is collected and distributed into key areas. This does not mean that there should not be other non-strategic research. It just means big money, will have big controls, small money will have small controls and enable a more free bottom up directed approach. Of course the aggregate of smaller investments will have strong overall control. It has been a real shame, to see the collapse of the levels of research here, let's recover it in a controlled manner, in the big strategic areas.

One does and everyone copies or buys a giant. Why don't you pay your scientists, and other people in the world, equal to what they'd get in the US to keep them there or offer them something else? It's kind'of like a price matchup. Otherwise, the situation hacks me off to no end. One knows what to do. The other does not. We went through a moral eval after Sputnik was launched and still haven't reformed our schools to compete on the level of the world. You should read a textbook from the 1950s even then one of today, and you'll be amazed by the difference in both language and substance. It's ridiculous. Not everyone was destined for school but certain classes "have" to go anyway. America's parents aren't truly pressured to force their kids to succeed either because there is no fear. Everyone is "equal." So slow... slowing the hope down for everyone. I've been in all sorts of courses from average, to below, to honors, to AP and the difference is that quantity of work, not the material, and they wonder why so many fail or struggle with their first year or so of college. Teachers are not equal either. Why not match the best with the best? You know, any adult could probably get a degree after enough life enlightenment and they slide in later after work, but I think it's essential that children at least have an equal shot at the political aspects of school, to secure a decent job slot. Otherwise, they have to use other means of competition, which is ridiculous.

Yes, it's excellent, Count Cash, agree. It's one huge leap forward we're talking about. I've also noticed it's the "Energia" in charge, and who can forget the "Energia Buran" Soviet space shuttle, that was far more advanced than its US counterpart, but unfortunately Soviet financial collapse brought an end to the whole project.. . Now, I think we need a whole new order in society in order to move forward as species; order where scientists with real contributions must be the super rich of the future and not so called businessmen, bankers, resellers and so on.. . BR Aleks

Russia has a lot of talent in the area of rocket engines and outer space finesse. This is very commendable because someday the whole world may depend on Russia's expertese to intercept and redirect an incoming asteroid or other space object. Russia could specialize in rocket engines and mass produce them much like the Japanese dominate the automobile manufacturing industry.

Before we start making rocket sleds to whisk us off of our dying planet we need to escape the cave man mentality (not achieve escape velocity) that keeps us in pyrotechnic means of fueling our way around the world/universe and realize we can't run our thermodynamic clocks backwards indefinitely. Before so called "global warming" or "financial collapse" ruins the world we will starve to death before any good comes out of this because big bucks and big media and big business drives what the world consumes. (and our 100 calorie oatmeal breakfasts still cost one thousand calories each to bring to the table) Yes, it is still a class war gong on on our fair planet, since what we are fed on the media drives what drives our psyches. "Super size me" doesn't fit when picking worlds to live on. Let's learn to live with the changes we are creating as the major force of change upon our planet before we ditch it, or else we'll make the same mistakes in every other corner of the universe!

Excuse me, but without reading any of the previous 5 comments I am about to turn 58 and I distinctly remember an INTERNATIONAL TREATY was passed sometime in the 1960s that forever prohibited nuclear material to be sent into earth orbit or outer space. We here in the United States are acutely aware of what it means to stray from the wisdom of old as we continue to safeguard, and retain the rights observed by our founding fathers. Physics in the third dimension regarding radio activity and it's potential harm to life on this planet has not changed. If radioactive material is to be used it cannot nor should it ever come from this planet. If it comes from any other source deal with the ethics then but by then we should have colonized another body so destruction of the indigenous population of the originating planet will not result in eliminated the entire race. Yes, we are talking rocket science !

nuclear propulsion system by David Sereda - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzrxevGgD_8

Jaime Yarbrough...Your founding Fathers have nothing to do with the rest of the world. If Obama was to anounce a nuclear space program you would be cheering. Stuff your international treaty.

OK... Please don't think that all Americans are pathetically misinformed as Jaime Yarbrough... Nuclear materials are used in various space applications all the damn time. Voyager 1 is still running on it's radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG). As a matter of fact, many science experiments currently in use in space use RTGs to power their energy requirements due to the lack of sunlight. Personally, this new nuclear engine sounds bad ass - I'm looking forward to seeing it in action! March 01, 2010, 17:43, Jaime Yarbrough wrote > Excuse me, but without reading any of the previous 5 comments I am about to turn 58 and I distinctly remember an INTERNATIONAL TREATY was passed sometime in the 1960s that forever prohibited nuclear material to be sent into earth orbit or outer space. We here in the United States are acutely aware of what it means to stray from the wisdom of old as we continue to safeguard, and retain the rights observed by our founding fathers. Physics in the third dimension regarding radio activity and it's potential harm to life on this planet has not changed. If radioactive material is to be used it cannot nor should it ever come from this planet. If it comes from any other source deal with the ethics then but by then we should have colonized another body so destruction of the indigenous population of the originating planet will not result in eliminated the entire race. Yes, we are talking rocket science !

@Jaime Yarbrough

what is with you americans thinking you run the whole world.
well I have news for you.
You're not even the world power anymore.
plus, the idea of nuclear spacecrafts is exciting to say the least
and is a nice change of pace from what nuclear has been traditionally used for.

The Americans tried to build a nuclear powered rocket engine back in the 50s and 60s but the whole project got scrapped for political reasons.  Now the US can't build one because some jerk will launch a law suit against NASA.  They tried to block the mission to Saturn because it was powered by a small nuke to supply electricity because of the distance from the sun.
What is needed is some far thinking country to develop a nuke engine and deploy it in space.  Once that is done the US will try to play catch up.

Whoever colonises L4 and L5 will be the gatekeepers to the cosmos. Anyone wishing to leave the gravity well will have to get permission.
L4 and L5 are the keys to the boundless wealth of the Universe.
Once out of all gravity wells one would be foolish to go down another, for instance to Mars.
Dr Gerard O'Neill has shown us how to colonise the Lagrange points.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O%27Neill_cylinder
Several orders of magnitude more people will be living in space than on the surface of this planet.
It has to be done

Having propulsion that can operate for years rather than minutes is far more useful than occupying lagrange points, or points of balanced gravity.

The sad fact is that when we are ready to send a probe intentionally to to a star outside our solar system before it is half way there we will likely have improved propulsion performance by so much that a new probe built years after the first is launched will probably have a better chance of getting there first... such is progress.

Nuclear propulsion will make exploration of the outer solar system much easier and quicker and likely much cheaper.

Very exciting times.

excellant planning for the future of man in space! glad to see that russian engineering is leading the way! let's mine those asteroids of their metals and minerals and not waste anything! to mars and beyond! go russia,go!