China's First Mars Probe Ready To Launch

henrypijames writes "At the Shanghai Aerospace Exhibition last week, China's first Mars probe Yinghuo-1 was the main attraction. The newly completed probe will soon be sent to Moscow for some further testing, before a joint launch with Russia's own probe Phobos-Grunt from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan this October."

How delicious...

[PatrickThomson]

The story is showing in red on the main page - perhaps reflecting the fear of a red mars in all of us. Oh, wait...

Sounds fine to me

[Bearhouse]

China's first Mars probe Yinghuo-1 was the main attraction. The newly completed probe will soon be sent to Moscow for some further testing, before a joint launch with Russia's own probe Phobos-Grunt

A probe to Mars, made by China, tested and then launched by the Russians with their effort called 'Grunt'.
What could possibily go wrong?

Re:Sounds fine to me

[Anonymous Coward]

Our two glorious socialist motherlands will teach you yankees yet. Mars is the red planet and naturally belongs to us.

Phobos-Grunt?

[FlyingSquidStudios]

In space, no one can hear you grunt.

Re:Sounds fine to me

[CrazyJim1]

I sense DOOM.

Re:How delicious...

[moon3]

They should have sent a manned mission. I heard the suicidal rate in Russia and China is one of the highest anyway..

It's quite ingenious really. Pure Chinese knowhow

[Garbad Ropedink]

I heard about this probe. It's really a marvel of engineering. Looking at it you can see it's the next phase in Chinese innovation. The probe they're sending is designed to go to mars, steal the American probe, then bring it back to China. After reverse engineering the American probe, the Chinese then launch their new probe back to mars.

Re:Sounds fine to me

[JordanL]

That's awfully unique grammatical syntax for someone who grew up in the States.

Re:Oblig...

[Anonymous Coward]

Communist Mars probes you!

Re:Sounds fine to me

[DNS-and-BIND]

Did you drive a Japanese car in 1970? They were crap, and rightly ridiculed. They became popular for 2 reasons: the oil embargo and the beginning of the end for American carmakers (finally finished last week). When the workers are pushing defective products out the door to show their contempt for the company, the competition's cars are going to look good.

In addition, because something happened to Japan doesn't mean the same will happen to China. Making assumptions like this is the worst sort of racism ("all those people are the same").

If...

[Blankw]

...everything else China's produced (product wise) is anything to go by... can we expect this probe to be primarily made of plastic, and not fit for the intended use?

Re:Sounds fine to me

[SerpentMage]

While I would like to agree with you. Read what the other posters have wrote. And while many will think USA made goods are crappy, the stuff from other countries is crappier.

Call me sensitive, but I was part of the car industry during the times when North American's laughed at the Japanese cars. I never laughed, and neither did my father (he was a German VP in Magna during those days) If you really want to get an eye opener of how times were rent Gungho

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091159/ [imdb.com]

These days it is very quaint, but it was a reflection of those times. And I just see those things repeating AGAIN...