CNN.com - Russia proposes joint effort to conquer Mars - July 7, 2002

Somehow, I think "joint" is the operative word here. Russia isn't exactly a technological juggernaut. Also, they say they'll contribute $6 billion towards a $20 billion cost of the project. Where are they going to find $6 billion?

"It must be an international project," said Vitaly Semyonov, head of the Mars project at the M.V. Keldysha Space Research Center. "No one country could cope alone with this task."

Ahem. Well, we'd have to shake down Congress, but we could do it. We'd have to do it anyway, since there's no way we'd trust Russian rocketry with our astronauts.