WHAT'S RUSSIAN FOR "FLAGS AND FOOTPRINTS"? If you liked the International Space Station, you'll love Russia's proposal for an international Mars mission:

Anfimov said two spacecraft could be sent to Mars, one carrying a six-person crew and the other the expedition's supplies. The mission would take about 440 days to complete, he said, with three astronauts visiting the surface of the planet for a period of two months.

Hello? Two months? Have you not been listening to the Mars Society or other Mars-advocacy groups?

Okay, so I do appreciate the effort and the attention this is bringing to the idea of Mars exploration -- several normally-disinterested friends have brought up this proposal in conversation in the past few days, so the idea has struck a chord. I just worry that an ill-considered architecture like this could be picked for the next Big Project, thereby setting back real progress by decades.

Now, maybe if they planned to send paying tourists to Mars instead...