China Launches First Moon Orbiter

hey0you0guy writes "China has launched its first lunar orbiter, on a planned year-long exploration mission to the Moon. Analysts say it is a key step towards China's aim of putting a man on the Moon by 2020, in the latest stage of an Asian space race with Japan and India. Earlier this month, a Japanese lunar probe entered orbit around the Moon. India is planning a lunar mission for April next year."

Re:Space Superiority

[MightyYar]

I think that you are a bit out of the loop! We are in fact designing a system of rockets designed to deliver us to the moon once again. They are largely based on existing hardware that is being built today in the USA. Much of it shuttle derivatives, but also some older stuff - like some engines that trace their roots back to Apollo.

Check out Project Constellation [wikipedia.org].

Compared to NASA's aborted shuttle replacements, this project is pretty low-risk and has a high likelihood of success.

Sending an unmanned probe around the moon is cool, and I'm happy to see Asia exploring space... but it is a far cry from sending men there.

Re:Space Superiority???

[LWATCDR]

What?
Gee what about this Lunar orbiter? http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/lunarorb.html [nasa.gov]
Take a look at the date.
Yea it was 40 years ago.
Your right it isn't like the US has done anything recently. Like say a mission to the asteroid belt http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/database/MasterCatalog?sc=2007-043A [nasa.gov]
Or a fly by of Mercury http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/database/MasterCatalog?sc=2004-030A [nasa.gov]
Or a mission to Pluto...
But what about the moon?
Well there was at least two missions to the moon in the 1990s Clementine and the Lunar Prospector.
Does it look like China is getting interested in space? Yes.
Seems like you are getting a little worked up with the US just having a 40 year lead at this point.

define "technology"

[Quadraginta]

Oh I don't know about that. Seems to me the Chinese are merely proving they can do in 2007 what the Americans and Soviets did in 1966. Indeed, the Chinese are having it way easier, since (1) they don't have to invent the ideas and technology, it already exists, and (2) one of the biggest problems in early space shots was the immense amount of calculation that couldn't be done quickly and in a small machine. That problem has been solved by the development of microprocessors.

Furthermore, you're overlooking many other "technology fronts" that are arguably more exciting. What about networked computing software? Hear of any killer Internet apps (other than viruses) that have come out of China lately? What about biotech? Have the Chinese come up with any novel AIDS or cancer drugs? (Or any AIDS or cancer drugs at all, for that matter.) Where do you expect breakthroughs in treating Alzheimer's to come from? Or how about materials? Boeing is building a composite airplane (the 787 'Dreamliner') that will be 20% more fuel efficient than any other passenger plane in its class. Can the Chinese do that? Nope. Lockheed-Martin is building an air superiority fighter (the F-22) which is fast and stealthy, due in significant part to clever computer-assisted design and new materials. Can the Chinese do that? Nope, not even close.

Even in the space-related front, the Americans have a probe on its way to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt (New Horizons) and another on its way to Mercury orbit (Messenger). They've got 2 spacecraft in orbit around Mars, 2 rovers driving around, a lander on its way, and a bigger rover in the works. Cassini is still sending back marvelous pictures of Saturn. The Space Shuttle is delivering another chunk of ISS this week. NASA is busy with a new crew exploration vehicle (Orion) for lunar or possibly even Martian manned trips. The Americans even now have a private space industry. Virgin Galactic is taking reservations for suborbital flights on Spaceship Two, and Bigelow has put up prototypes of inflatable orbital hotels.

If you compare China and the US in terms of population or GDP, the Chinese ought to be behind the US by at least a bit. But they are way behind. I know it's popular to think they're "catching up," but they're not. They're certainly moving, catching up to where they might have been, had they not indulged in the spectacularly suicidal folly of Communism for 50 years. But you can't forget the US is moving, too, and generally faster. Maybe it's not moving as fast as you'd like it to, but that's a different story.

Re:Want space? Start learning Chinese!

[Guano_Jim]

Ke bu ke yi wo qui nie de huo jian? (May I go in your rocket?)

Bu ke yi.

Wo men mei xu yao mei guo ren. Wo men zuo so you de ni men de dong xi.

Hmmm.

[WindBourne]

First off, there are no plans for the saturn. In fact, NASA had to go study one of the spares sometime ago to figure things out. Secondly, your engineering friend is clueless. We have the ability to fab currently. We do a lot of it. What we do not do, is cheap fabing. For that, you go elsewhere. But rockets are NOT built on cheap fabs. They are built on high quality machines. And as to an inability to build it, well, I suggest you go look at scaled composites, Spacex, spacedev, armadillo, and even new shepard, as well as Boeing AND l-mart. We are building plenty of rockets . In fact, we launch more in less than a year than China does in 5.

And since you got the previous stuff so wrong, well, then I will tell you that your ISS comment is way off. Why? Because it allowed us to do a number of things. It taught us to work with other countries. In fact, NASA has disseminated a load of information to Russia, Canada, and Europe. What did we get in return? We have learned how to survive in close space. That has been hard. It was hard for USSR/Russia with Mir. It is hard for the ISS. We have also learned about what works and what does not work. Now, I know that kids like you say the same thing. But lessons are not always about what works, but many times are about what does not work. America, and the world, assumed that Russia had all the knowledge about building and surviving. Have you seen how well their oxygen generator has done? It has not been bad, but not great either. Likewise, the computer malfunction was interesting to note. New approachs have been designed at NASA and RSA because of these 2 items. Likewise, the construction of the ISS lead to transhab, which lead to bigelow. Bigelow will end up building not only local space stations, but will be used for transportation to the moon AND mars, as well as surface buildings on both luna and mars. Yes, the ISS has been far more expensive than it should have been. It is also not in the orbit that it should be. And finally, if we are really going to make it extremely useful, we need to bring up the CAM. But this has been about crawling, before walking. And all this info is going well beyond NASA. It is also going to scaled composites, Spacex, spacedev, armadillo, etc.

If you buddy is a real engineer, then tell him to find a new line of work.

Re:Objective pictures!

[Anonymous Coward]

The cameras don't have enough resolution to discern the landers. Not that it matters. Even if they did it would be obvious to any dyed-in-the-tin-foil moon-landing-deniers that the landers were photoshopped into the pictures and the alien cities were photoshopped out.