Chinese Space Program 10
ilduce writes "Here's a short but interesting piece on China's space program. It doesn't reveal a tremendous amount of new stuff, but I think it's especially interesting that they target economic benefits as one of the reasons for justifying it. I'm reminded of a NYTimes article a few months ago on genetic engineering that said that in 1986 (?) they gathered scientists for and poured money into the seven areas of science critical for their future. This interests me because it would seem that with the more or less stall in the american program and the willingness of the chinese to spend money and lives, china may end up being the first (20 years later) to mine the multi trillion dollar near earth asteroids. Food for thought. (or not)"
Of course they invented the rocket... (Score:2)
(History: the Chinese invented it, the British first used it as a weapon, Goddard stuck a nozzle on the bottom that multiplied its range enormously, and then the Germans started lobbing Goddard-style rockets back at the British... perhaps there is some justice there after all
Re:fluids on the moon make electricity? (Score:2)
Helium-3 [spacer.com] is an isotope of helium, with two protons and one neutron in the nucleus. It's desirable because it can be used in a fusion reactor at reasonable temperatures and pressures, and won't produce as much secondary radioactivity as things like deuterium or tritium (heavy hydrogen isotopes). There's a lot of it on the moon -- it arrives in the solar wind, and sticks to the surface -- but not much on Earth.
It's one of the good reasons to establish a lunar base.
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Get real. (Score:1)
Try 200 years later.
It is about a ICBM's (Score:3)
Re:fluids on the moon make electricity? (Score:2)
Yes, and nuclear fusion is fantastically well developed today, so that will be a great source of energy!
#endif
Helium 3 is even more difficult to get to fuse than the normal reaction. But if you can manage to do so, then getting back more energy than you put in in the first place is much easier.
Trouble is we can't even get normal d-d or d-t reactions to work well enough to get significant fusion to happen, never mind helium.
Personally I am a controlled fusion skeptic. The tech isn't there. Its been 50 years away for over 50 years now, and will probably be so in another 50 years. The only people talking up fusion are the ones who's job depends on it.
We need the competition (Score:2)
The current emphasis on non-manned space flight shows that our space program is more mature and pragmatic now that we don't see Russia as much of a threat. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. This makes it easier to justify the expenses to already over-burdened taxpayers.
The perception that we were behind the USSR was good for the space program and engineering in general. US taxpayers may be short sighted when it comes to seeing value of pure research, but if you threaten our perception of being the world's greatest superpower, that's when the giant awakens. I hope China gets men into space. The public may not see space research as a priority until they feel we might lose the pissing contest between superpowers.
Re:fluids on the moon make electricity? (Score:2)
The water is used as a cheap rocket propellent (probably using nuclear power to turn it into steam first.)
Being in orbit and above the clouds, the satellites give 24x7 energy. The energy is beamed down using a low intensity km-wide microwave beam giving 80% efficiency. (Low intensity is ~1/50,000 of the power of a microwave oven, so you wouldn't get cooked if you walk into the beam!)
This is believed to be the most environmentally benign source of energy ever conceived. Zero green house gases. The only known concerns relate to the microwave beam, but birds and animals have been born and raised in the beam without any apparent ill-effects (and humans wouldn't be subjected to the beam in any case.)
fluids on the moon make electricity? (Score:1)
Woah! What kind of fluids found on the moon can generate electricity here??
=steve
Remember what Clarke wrote in 2010? (Score:1)
I'm sure they've had rockets with the power to put a good amount of mass in space. They have submarines with CO2 scrubbers to give their spacemen fresh air. They can buy surplus "Astronaut Ice Cream" from NASA. The Chinese are already getting training from Russia. What else do you need? A heat-resistant skin to your spacecraft for rentry? Guidence software? Fancy space toilet? What's taking China so long? The US busted its ass and got people on the moon in less than 10 years. People had severe doubts when President Kennedy said we were going there. I'm thinking that getting up isn't a very primary goal for China. Wasabi?
=steve
Re:It is about a ICBM's (Score:2)
Long term space resources are probably cheaper than earth resources. (Extraction on the earth requires an energy source, it's looking like solar furnaces are easy to build in space.)
Space based power satellites have been studied, appear perfectly practical and are cost effective if the scale is there. China has the scale to implement that, and probably the need to implement that.