COLORADO SPRINGS (Sputnik) — Russia, Europe, the United States and other countries should cooperate on decoding how to proceed with international space exploration in the future, German Aerospace Center (DLR) Chairman Pascale Ehrenfreund told Sputnik.
"Internationally, we are trying to achieve a vision for international space exploration," Ehrenfreund stated. "The major space powers like Russia, Japan, the US, Europe, China, India, we all have to work together in order to find a way how we go forward in international space exploration, what happens after the space stations, do we continue human exploration, do we go to the Moon, to the Mars."
When asked about the current space cooperation between Russia and Germany, she said, "We have very good relations."
"We always have very good cooperation, particularly planetary science, and particular in our research and technology, and also in the framework of ESA [European Space Agency]," the chairman explained. "We have future cooperation in the missions for Luna-Resurs and obviously also on the International Space Station."
Ehrenfreund also noted that Russia and Germany have good cooperation in planetary science, and hold regular meetings.
Ehrenfreund spoke on the sidelines of the 33rd Space Symposium in Colorado Springs. The event brings together representatives of world's space agencies, commercial space businesses as well as military, national security and intelligence organizations, providing an opportunity to discuss and plan the future of space exploration.
Head of German Aerospace Center Going to Russia's MAKS Air Show in July
Pascale Ehrenfreund told Sputnik that she would visit Russia in July to attend the country’s largest and most popular international air show MAKS.
"I will be at the Maks in July this year," Ehrenfreund said.
MAKS-2017 will be held in the town of Zhukovskiy on July 18-23.
MAKS-2015 was visited by around 400,000 people in six days. It has contributed to a significant renovation of the aviation and space segments of the Russian Armed Forces. For example, during the event contracts on the supply of advanced Su-35 and MiG-35 fighter jets, on the design of cutting-edge assault drones and on commissioning systems aimed at countering air and space attacks were signed. A number of agreements on the military technical cooperation had also been signed at the forum.
Russia, Europe Cooperation on ExoMars Mission Proceeding 'Well'
The collaboration between Russia's Roscosmos and the European Space Agency on the ExoMars project is advancing well, Pascale Ehrenfreund told Sputnik.
"ExoMars is one of the biggest missions we have right now between Russia and Europe. Germany has very important instruments on the ExoMars mission, and we are very happy that the cooperation goes well and that the mission will really be launched in 2020," Ehrenfreund said.
A Russian Proton-M rocket carrier lifted off with the ExoMars’ orbiter and the landing modules from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on March 14.
The Schiaparelli lander, which was meant to test technologies for the second ExoMars expedition scheduled for 2020, which is a joint project between ESA and Russia, was ejected from the Trace Gas Orbiter on October 16, but failed to successfully reach the surface of Mars.
