From the Moon, with Love

Not much to this ScienceDaily.com article except for an announcement from Anatoly Perminov, head of the Russian space agency, that his country plans to launch a manned mission to the moon and establish a permanent lunar base by 2025. I know it's a long way away off. According to my 1962 issue of Weekly Reader, we'll all be teleporting from place to place by that time, and our bodies will be composed entirely of impenetrable titanium alloy, which would make a Russian moon base seem unimpressive by comparison. According to the agency's announcement, they also plan a manned mission to Mars after 2035. This all kind of reeks of Cold War era chest puffery, but so does the entire Putin administration, frankly. Still, I do kind of wish this announcement had been made during the '80s, if only to see it inspire a Sylvester Stallone-starring blockbuster where he flies to Mars and beats up all the Russkies. You just know it would have been called Red Planet, and it would have kicked that Val Kilmer movie's ass.