Nasa and Russia to work together on missions

beuges writes: "Russia and the United States, the world's great space powers, celebrated the eve of the first satellite launch 50 years ago with a pact to use Russian technology on Nasa missions to seek water on the moon and Mars. Nasa engineers want to use their Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission to the moon in October 2008 to check what resources are there to support a permanent manned station planned for the following decade. "The (Russian) Lunar Exploration Neutron Detector (LEND) instrument allows us to be able to locate very specific sites where water may exist." Just over a year later, Nasa will despatch the Mars Science Laboratory, an unmanned mission which will land on the Red Planet in 2010 and spend two years analysing its surface. The same Russian technology will be used on that mission to hunt for signs of water."