Joint American-Russian Manned Mars Mission?

The head of NASA's Moscow office has invited Russia to carry out a joint manned flight to Mars, RIA Novosti is reporting today.

Marc Bowman told an international aviation and space conference in Moscow that the Mars mission should take advantage of the achievements made by the International Space Station and use a multinational crew.

Bowman said the flight should be under the control of NASA and the Russian space agency but with the participation of international space agencies. However, he said that before a joint flight to Mars could be made, it was necessary to complete the ISS mission and fly to the Moon to collect essential scientific and technical information.

Bowman is the Manager of Moscow Technical Liaison Office (MTLO), the Deputy Director of the Human Space Flight Program-Russia (HSFP-R), in addition to serving as an attache with the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.