The Russians are training an elite team of rhesus monkeys to travel to the red planet and land sometime in 2017. And so began the Planet of the Monkeys!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3291456/Monkeys-heading-MARS-Russian-scientists-training-macaques-solve-puzzles-travel-space-2017.html
I think it is laughable that it is 'unclear' if the monkeys will return. Duh! Of course the monkeys won't be returning. The Russians weren't too concerned about Laika, the first dog in space. Heck, the Russians lost several cosmonauts during the Space Race thanks to their comparatively lax safety standards. Best case scenario is that one or two of the monkeys remain on an orbiter while the others land on Mars. The ones who land are there to stay. Those on the orbiter might make a return trip to determine the requirements of such a trip. The logistics of keeping the monkeys alive and well for a trip to and from Mars seem daunting. Will they be trained not to throw poop on the control panel?
We've landed probes and rovers on Mars and have had orbiters map Mars. The next logical step is getting living creatures there. The Russians have no experience beyond Low Earth Orbit (LEO), so this is more necessary for them than for the US. Still, the Russians are planning a big space program while NASA can't even get its astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) without hitching a ride on a Russian Soyuz.
I went to the Houston Space Center several years ago and saw amazing things and heard about impressive plans. That was five years ago. Five years after Kennedy called for America to put a man on the moon, we had completed Project Mercury and were wrapping up Gemini. Today, we don't even have a vessel for our astronauts to fly. The closest thing is the SpaceX Dragon which is currently delivering supplies to the ISS. Yes, we can't get monkeys in space but the Russians are going to send some to Mars. Who won the Space Race? Who won the Cold War?
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