It looks as if the Americans have turned their attention to the Red Planet for real. NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander touched down near the North Pole on May 25. The first shots sent back to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California report that the probe is in excellent health. NASA is exhilarated. The very fact of a safe landing on Martian soil is already a success considering that it is the sixth successful landing out of 15 attempted.

Why do the Americans need another unmanned mission to Mars? Most probably NASA is hoping to find, first, micro organisms, and second, failing that, to confirm that in the distant past there were large amounts of water on the planet. That would bring fresh confirmation that there was once life on Mars. This is what makes this mission unique.

That there was water and related natural activity on the Mars surface has been confirmed by the two Mars long-timers, NASA'a space probes Spirit and Opportunity sent four years ago.

Ever since that time the two tireless rovers have been crawling over the planet feeding back unique scientific data. By the way, the people at JPL are themselves surprised that the probes, designed for three months of active service, are still in action. The superb hardware and software enabled the rovers to withstand the tough conditions on the Mars surface and to settle into an optimum operation mode.

People may well be interested to know how America's main space partner and rival is faring.

The USSR and new Russia tried to organize unmanned missions to Mars eleven times, but none of them has been followed through: the probes either failed to reach Mars or stopped work immediately upon landing.

The Mars theme began to be mooted in Russia again in 2004 after President Bush declared that the U.S. should go back to the Moon and send a manned mission to Mars. Ever since that time arguments have raged among Russian scientists whether the costly attempts to land on Mars with uncertain results were worthwhile.

The Russian Space Agency does not have a clearly articulated Martian program. There is a reason for that. Russia at present is implementing the Federal Space Program for 2006-2015, which does not envisage large-scale Martian projects.

At the same time Roscosmos has repeatedly said that manned missions to Mars are certain to take place after 2030-2035. Next year will see the start of the much-touted Mars-500 project, when a group of volunteers will spend 520 days in a special module simulating the conditions of a prolonged space flight. As part of that project the Russian Medical-Biological Research Institute in late May completed experiments to assess the capacity of the human body to spend prolonged periods in a confined space with low oxygen content.

In addition, a detailed plan of a manned expedition to Mars has long been developed, as many Russian space officials have declared. The head of RKK Energia corporation, Vitaly Lopota, has been speaking about the Martian project developed by his corporation.

"The complex includes an interplanetary orbital vehicle, the power tug, and the take-off and landing complex. The interplanetary expedition complex should be assembled and tested in the near-Earth orbit as a reusable vehicle with a mass of up to 500 tons and a life span of 15 years. It would have a crew of four to six people. The mission to Mars would last up to 900 days, including a one-month stay on Mars of a crew of two to three people," Lopota said in a interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta in early February of this year.

That is all very well. But it should be noted that even the Americans have no idea when they will send a manned mission to Mars. Indeed I am not aware that they have any coherent plan for such an expedition.

Yet it is the American craft that are doggedly gnawing at the Mars surface, having outlived their projected lifespan many times over. What prevents us, while nourishing our ambitious plans, from building and sending a robot to Mars? Lack of money? Far from it.

So far the American program of two Mars rovers has cost $1.5 billion. A hefty but affordable cost for the Russian space budget, not to speak of the Phoenix program, which is estimated at $420 million.

In my opinion, a simple but real unmanned mission to Mars is better than starry-eyed plans of future flights.

The opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.