China Aims At Moon 23
SEWilco writes: "ABC News reports the head of the State Aerospace Bureau says China will explore the Moon. They've conducted an unmanned test of their first capsule, but not much else is known about their project. The comments were made at U.N. World Space Week, on the Sputnik 1 43rd anniversary."
Re:I think that this is kinda cool (Score:1)
granted.. the chances of this working and succeeding do depends alot on how willing they will still be to show what they can, but would you not agree that if they could just get over the hump of "Well I don't have to show off now anymore" they could do alot better.
Is it not so that it should actually be, that they show off for the citizens of the respective countries
When they get sufficiently powerful, & we in the west realise we have a fight on our hands, we may find ourselves in another sort of Cold War.I suspect propoganda will be even more important this time. Problem is, it'll probably be much scarier next time.
We as the people are actually the only ones that can do something aboutit once it starts and that is why I agree with the propaganda being more important, but this time it might be alot different since there is internet and people are in contact daily, hourly even with pplfrom all over the world so that might be a soothing factor, since if the people know that there is no such thing as a big mean bad guy on the other side of the world, I think Cold War will not be.
-= Free your mind and your Ass will follow,
I think that this is kinda cool (Score:2)
From the not-bloody-likely dept? (Score:2)
I think that they got a good chance.
China has to have learned from the US and the Russians. When we were trying this kind of stuff in the fifties and sixties, it was all theoretical. It had never been done before. It's all well-documented now.
China already has been making quite a bit of progress in the area of spaceflight, recently- See the articles about how they are preparing for
manned spaceflight. They are not as backwards as some people believe, technologically.
They already have a good variety of launchers, as shown here [geocities.com]. They have more powerful and more accurate rockets than we did when we first started sending boosters to the moon. So why is this so unreasonable? Plus, its not like they're saying they are going to go next week. It's going to be a space program. They're going to go through all the research and design, the work, and then do it.
If they can keep up the pace that a lunar program would take, then why not? Plus, you have to admit, the propaganda value for the Chinese would be incredibly valuable... just as it was for America in the sixties.
What do I do, when it seems I relate to Judas more than You?
Re:China's millenium? Space war treaties? (Score:1)
the propaganda value for the Chinese would be incredibly valuable... just as it was for America in the sixties.
Sure. They could say that only Chinese have walked on the moon in the current millenium.
I know there were some treaties at some point with countries agreeing not to war in space. Anyone know what these agreements really specified, and whether China signed them?
Life,
Rad
China to the moon is good for US (Score:1)
Do i like this? (Score:1)
Technologically speaking I believe that it's going to be relatively easy for them to get there. Of course there still going to have to use ridiculous fuel-loads, but developements in material science (alloys, ceramics, even plastics) and even things like CAD/CAE and computer-controlled factories are going to mean that the precision building and heatshileding etc are going to be relatively simple, even relatively cheap (i.e. cheap compared to basically bankrupting the USSR and giving the USA what should have been, and still should be, crippleing dept).
On the other-hand, I might have an issue with a country that still has a peasent economy spending billions on space travel, but then again, i know economics doesnt work like that, so I'm free to support them.
..........I wonder if there going to use one of those 'supercomputing PS2s they've banned for the guidance system? [dont laugh, its more than powerful enough.
China could prove... (Score:2)
...if the nationalist model works. Right now, China is conspicuously absent from the International Space Station. That's due to reasons mostly of politics, but suffice it to say that they're doing all their own development work. One reason the IP's (International Partners) want to work with the USA and Russia is to learn.
China has the ability to show us if the one-country model works. I'm not totally thrilled with ISS, even though I'm helping build a payload for it for a foreign company [guigne.com]. It's a mess, and that's primarily from the bureaucracy.
Perhaps China can shake up some of the market. The story states that Mars is their goal. It should be ours, too.
--
Re:China to the moon is good for US (Score:1)
Re:China to the moon is good for US (Score:2)
Then we shouldn't have bothered sending ships to look for water on the Moon. And we know some of the minerals on the Moon...but China is interested in actually mining them. Well, we already know what minerals are there, we don't have to actually use them...
Re:Is anyone else worried about this? (Score:1)
Hmm...go ahead and claim the Sea of Tranquility...what will that accomplish?
"oh no, the chinese are claiming precious resources situated on the moon!"
How the hell are they going to exploit these resources?
And why the hell not detonate our nuclear weapons in space rather than on earth? Why not place our refuse on the moon? It's not like anybody lives there..
If this sort of story interests you... (Score:1)
Come on over and check us out -- we want to hear your side of the story!
OldSaxon
You like science?
Re:I think that this is kinda cool (Score:1)
this time it might be alot different since there is internet and people are in contact daily, hourly even with pplfrom all over the world so that might be a soothing factor, since if the people know that there is no such thing as a big mean bad guy on the other side of the world, I think Cold War will not be.
I think this is a very good point, my only quibble would be that there are plenty of examples of people living next to one another, and being in daily contact, but still developing a great animosity (N. Ireland, Yugoslavia, Israel etc) towards each other. I fully agree that we the people are the only ones that can do something about it once it starts, but possibly that is in itself a very western idea ; it seems to me that a lot of far eastern countries have very rigorous top-down societies & the people don't get much of a look in, and whats worse, they accept this as being perfectly normal. It seems that in countries such as singapore and japan, people are willing to live in an authoritarian system, as long as they are prosperous.
but would you not agree that if they could just get over the hump of "Well I don't have to show off now anymore" they could do alot better.
Yes ... theoretically:-) I just don't think that government/people are as altruistic as that. I think that space exploration will always be more impressive when it is motivated by fear, rather than curiosity. But then, this comes back to the optimism/pessimism thing again.
Re:I think that this is kinda cool (Score:1)
1. Worldpeace would be a step closer since the worldpowers are working together, they will understand each other alot better.
2. With less money per country one would be able to provide a better Space program since then there would not be alot of the "same" projects costing a whole lot of money while a different country allready did it before
-= Free your mind and your Ass will follow,
Re:China to the moon is good for US (Score:1)
NASA funding has become so tight lately that something like a manned mission to the moon is probably last on their list. With the ISS underway and the demand that it places on the space programs of all the involved countries there is no incentive (financially, the only one that ever seems to determine anything in the end) for trips.
As for spying on what the Chinese are doing, I think there are cheaper methods of watching them than sending men there, besides the fact that it would be extremely expensive from an energy considerations point of view for them to take anything of this size to the moon.
Re:Do i like this? (Score:2)
The ABC article says they intend to actually do things on the Moon. It is not just exploration. They don't say if they're going to mine tritium, build bases, refine ores, or launch building materials from the Moon.
Re:I think that this is kinda cool (Score:1)
I sometimes think that the next big push for space will happen in about twenty or thirty years time, when there *might* be another bout of idealogical competition between the east & west.
The next big challenge to the democratic capitalism we enjoy here in the west seems to be the authoritarian & very beurocratic systems prevalent in many Asian countries, such as Japan, China, Singapore, South Korea etc. When they get sufficiently powerful, & we in the west realise we have a fight on our hands, we may find ourselves in another sort of Cold War.I suspect propoganda will be even more important this time. Problem is, it'll probably be much scarier next time.
(just previewed the above. I sound like Katz! the shame...:)
Re:China to the moon is good for US (Score:1)
That statement reminds me of the statement in the early fifties that the total world market for computers is seven. Or perhaps another short-sighted pronouncement in the 1800's when some believed teh US should close the Patent office, because everything useful had already been invented.
Of course now we want to close the patent office for other reasons. . .
-MS2K
Re:Do i like this? (Score:1)
They are engaging in a "one-moon" strategy. They will all move to the moon, then blow the moon out of its orbit and nuke the earth on the way out of the solar system.
Oh my (Score:1)
Surprise (Score:1)
The Danger of Another Apollo (Score:2)
As a challenge.
In the sense that the Apollo program was good, this also promises to be good.
But the Apollo program was a very bad thing!
The Apollo program was very bad because it created NASA -- an umbrella bureaucracy that refuses to die and sees any true independent innovation as inimical to its interests as the "leader" of space activities.
A pan-Western NASA could easily grow out of renewed politicization of space -- especially at the level of East vs West.
Re:What would happen (Score:1)
Re:Is anyone else worried about this? (Score:1)
Aesthetic environmentalism is one of the stupidest ideologies in human history. It simultaneously requires humans to be considered separate from nature (scientifically irrational) and inferior to nature (a religious doctrine). And its believers are all hypocrites, since the only way to practice it is to kill as many humans as possible, including oneself, so that one ceases contaminating nature.
Too bad you weren't bold enough to post logged in.