Women can't go to Mars...

Russians seem to believe that women should not go on a mission to the Red Planet.

Now there are different schools of thought on this one. The first is that a mission to Mars would take a long time, and the most socially stable environment would be one with a crew of married couples. Of course people dicker over whether they should be sterilized for the trip to avoid pregnancies, or whether their children should come along for the ride. The other school of thought, that I've heard of at least, is the exact opposite of what this Russian is saying.

The fact is that women consume less oxygen than men, require less food, and are smaller so they could save money by building smaller habitats. It would actually be a better bet to send a crew only of women more than anything - at least from a biological perspective.

Either way, the US will still fork over money to the Russians... For those that don't know right now the US is almost totally dependent on the Russians until the Shuttle gets back in flight. Even then, the new safety guidelines are going to make shuttle costs balloon. Meanwhile the Russian Soyuz throw-away capsules don't have the same safety regulations and cost less.

So it's either pay the Russians, or go with some other private industry competitor. You take your pick.

I hope for my sake they let a few members of the male sex go along for the ride.