RSC Energia Has Plan For 2014 Manned Mission James Burk MarsNews.com Sept 25 - While NASA is struggling to keep their unmanned robotic Mars program on track, news is coming out of Russia that efforts are underway to land cosmonauts on the Red Planet well before their previously announced goal of a manned landing in the year 2020.   In a press conference last week, the Chief Designer of RSC Energia, Leonid Gorshkov, stated that the entire mission to send Humans to Mars for the first time has been mapped out by the company. The mission has an estimated price tag of US$10-$12 billion total over next decade, far less than the US$150 billion estimate for NASA's Design Reference Mission, and even less than the US$20-$30 billion range of Robert Zubrin's Mars Direct plan. Update: For more detailed information on the mission plan, visit this page at RSC Energia. Visit the Mars NewsWire for a report on the press conference from The Moscow Times.

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