ZHUKOVSKY (Moscow region), August 17 (Itar-Tass) — Russia’s Roskosmos Federal Space Agency has offered to organize an international conference to assess the results of the Mars-500 project that ends in November, the head of the European Space Agency (ESA) Jean-Jacques Dorden said after talks with Roskosmos head Vladimir Popovkin.
In reply to reporters’ queries, he expressed confidence that a flight to Mars would take place one day. He said it is now early to speak about concrete time frameworks. The main thing is that joint work on the project continues, and concrete moves are made, for example the Mars-500 project in which a Chinese representative takes part, Dorden said.
He said the head of Roskosmos had offered at their talks to organize an international conference to assess the results of the Mars-500 project. Popovkin, for his part, expressed confidence that “flights to Mars are necessary”.
“This is not a matter of tomorrow, but I believe the humankind will learn to cover such distances,” he added.