A veteran cosmonaut says Russia may accelerate its plans to fly to Mars because of private American aerospace manufacturer SpaceX's determination to reach the Red Planet in the next four to six years.
"Manned flights will not be implemented soon … However, everything can change thanks to [SpaceX CEO] Elon Musk," Russian cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev told reporters on Tuesday, according to Tass.
"He announced a flight to Mars much earlier. If he makes his plans happen, we could catch up, and the timeframes would change."
Artemyev, 47, is the commander of a new expedition to the International Space Station, which is set to blast off on Wednesday.
At the moment, Russia estimates it can launch a manned mission to Mars by 2030 to 2040.
But earlier this month, Musk, the billionaire founder of Tesla, predicted he'll be ready to send his private-venture space vehicle to Mars by 2022. The first trip would deliver mining and life support systems with a human crew landing there two years later to begin colonization.
According to NASA, the similarities between Earth and Mars are striking.
"Each planet has roughly the same amount of land surface area and their atmospheric chemistry is relatively similar. As well, both planets have large, sustained polar caps and the current thinking is that they're both largely made of water-based ice.
The United States has already landed two successful research probes on Mars.