China's First Mars Probe Ready To Launch 67
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."
China's First Mars Probe Ready To Launch (Score:5, Insightful)
Slashdot editors: Read the damn summary at least!
Re:Sounds fine to me (Score:5, Insightful)
I have no idea why this is modded as funny. I am not Russian, nor Chinese, but Western (grew up in Europe, Canada, and the States). And jokes like these is what made us inferior. Remember those jokes in the 1970's regarding Japanese cars! What could wrong! HA! We know what went wrong...
I am not saying let's be confrontational. I am saying don't laugh since the last laugh might be on us!
Re:China's First Mars Probe Ready To Launch (Score:3, Insightful)
You are looking at this all wrong and you have to look at it from their POV. Since the recent "updates" to Slashcode are ready for launch even though everything is fucked up, by that logic, so is the Chinese probe.
Re:China's First Mars Probe Ready To Launch (Score:4, Insightful)
I'd guess (having no real experience with international space missions) that as far as the Chinese government is concerned it's ready, but the Russians probably want to check it themselves before launch since its riding with their own probe. Hate to have it fall apart at Max Q and destroy everything on board.
Assuming the Chinese agency developing the probe was competent and the Russian group has no axe to grind, then it probably is really ready, in the same way a manuscript is "done" before a final proofreading.
But, again, I have no actual experience with this kind of thing, thats just my instinct.
Re:Sounds fine to me (Score:2, Insightful)
And of course, there are no "jokes like these" in China or Russia. Why? Because they are not "inferior".
The fact that the GP feels obligated to define himself as "Western" suggests to me that he is, in fact, NOT.
Re:China's First Mars Probe Ready To Launch (Score:5, Insightful)
the Russians probably want to check it themselves before launch since its riding with their own probe. Hate to have it fall apart at Max Q and destroy everything on board.
The probe will be integrated with the rest of the payload in Moscow, and then tested again. And then shipped to the launch site. And then tested again. Then it will be installed onto the rocket and tested again. Tests will only stop for a while when the rocket lifts off. Nobody in rocket business is insane enough to say "Well, they tested it in China 6 months ago, so we just assume that the batteries are good and all cables are hooked up right, and nobody damaged anything, so just launch as it is!"
Re:Sounds fine to me (Score:4, Insightful)
Excuse me? You are saying that I am not a Westerner?
Give me a freaken break! Want to see my passports? Want to see where I have lived? (Canada, US, Germany, Switzerland, France, UK, and Austria)! I am a Westerner!
Want to know why I am pissed about the joke and your attitude? Because my brother who is a born Canadian is living in Russia! My sister who is a German Canadian is living in Ecuador! And they live pretty good lives...
The jokes are actually an insult because they have a better functioning cellular network than most places in North America!
Here is a joke on the Westerners! My brother bought his iPhone legally in Kazakstan and he complains about the lack of reception in the US, and Canada. He tells me he can be in butt-ass Kazakstan and still surf. YET be about 100KM from any civilization in North America and nothing works!
This is why people better smarten up because he is laughing at how bad things are in North America!