China Completes Its First Manned Space Docking 130
This AP story, as carried by the Houston Chronicle, says that the Chinese Shenzhou 9 spacecraft (carrying a crew that includes the country's first female astronaut) has successfully docked with an orbiting module, a first for China's manned space program. However, manned mission or not, the actual docking was actually executed from below: as with previous docking maneuvers, "Monday's docking also was completed by remote control from a ground base in China. A manual docking, to carried out by one of the crew members, is scheduled for later in the mission. Two crew members plan to conduct medical tests and experiments inside the module, while the third will remain in the spacecraft."
Awww good on em (Score:2, Insightful)
The big gap between "want" and "can afford to" (Score:2)
Everyone wants to have billions and trillions that they can spend spend spend, without having to work for it
Every geek wants to have sexy gf with big boobs
Every nation wants to be the King of the World
But can anyone afford to do anything anytime anywhere?
Of course, China wants to be many things
It may even wants to be the first nation establishing a base on the moon
But it doesn't mean China will do it the way other countries (USA and former USSR) had done - China may opt to do it a firm and careful step at a
Significant Milestone (Score:5, Insightful)
Slow but steady progress since initiating this program in 1992.
With a first Chinese moonwalk estimated for 2024 that is 32 years total (with already 50 years of rocket research in the world to leverage off) ... makes you understand just much the US threw at its lunar programme to manage going from the start of the Mercury program to moonwalk in less than 11 years
Re:Significant Milestone (Score:5, Interesting)
Or, to put it another way, how little the Chinese are investing. The space program is clearly not viewed as a high economic priority in China. The period between their first manned flight and now is roughly the same as the period between the first US manned flight and first US lunar landing; and in that time period China has had an economy far in excess of that of the US in the 1960s. They have also had lower costs due to the fact that they don't have to develop all the technology from scratch. They could easily have done a repeat of Apollo on this time scale, but chose not to.
Re:Significant Milestone (Score:5, Insightful)
Maybe they just don't want to rush it and take chances. In the 1960s the US and the USSR were competing to be the first to space and the first to the moon. The Chinese are going to be the third country to reach the moon (second, for manned missions since the Russians didn't bother) whichever way you slice it.
There's no point going at it in a hurry and risking the lives of astronauts any more than they have to. Back when the Apollo missions were flying, the US and the USSR had an attitude of "get someone up there and maybe back down if they survive, and get it done now". The Chinese don't need to do that.
Re:Significant Milestone (Score:5, Informative)
Technically not third to reach the moon
- Japan put up an orbiter (Hiten) in 1993
- ESA put up SMART-1 in 2003
- India crashed their Chandrayaan probe (deliberately an impact mission) a few years ago
And even then, both India and the Europeans are targeting manned landings before China.
Although even Iran has announced for 2025 so clearly some of these need to be taken with some skepticism
Re:Significant Milestone (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Significant Milestone (Score:4, Insightful)
> And they stole all our rocket secrets in the 90's.
Says an American - from a country whose most used rocket is running on a Russian RD-180 engine.
SPACE NAZIS MUST DIE! (Score:3)
> And they stole all our rocket secrets in the 90's.
Says an American - from a country whose most used rocket is running on a Russian RD-180 engine.
Ho Lee Crap, how off Earth did you miss the nearly automatic Goodwin play on that hand?!!!!
Here, it's not hard :
Says an American - from a country whose moon program was built by all the best repatriated NAZI rocket scientists.
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Says an American - from a country whose moon program was built by all the best repatriated NAZI rocket scientists.
Repatriate doesn't mean what you think it means (unless you really-really mean to say that there were american scientists in diaspora, working for the NAZI rockets, which were returned to their country of origin).
Re:Significant Milestone (Score:5, Funny)
doesn't even require involving Andy Griffith! (Score:2)
Iran is going to go up there and knock over the American flag.
Heck, that could be done by a robotic mission. It wouldn't even be that hard (relatively speaking) to burn a American flag on the moon.
What are you going to do about that , mr toughguy Great Satan ? !
Obviously we need a crash moonbase program to base space rangers on the moon to oversee and preserve such great Human historical sites.
Re:Significant Milestone (Score:4, Interesting)
My largest complaint about the Chinese space program is the lack of operational tempo. Simply put, they aren't really in the habit of sending stuff into space and they are waiting too long between flights if they want to gain institutional knowledge about how to perform tasks in space. The last previous flight for Chinese astronauts was in 2008, although there was an "unmanned" spaceflight last year which acted as a dress rehearsal for this flight.
All this said, I will admit that this is a significant accomplishment and something which speaks volumes about the technical accomplishments of China. The organizations which have been able to achieve this milestone are rather small, and for manned spaceflight is only NASA, Roscosmos, and now CNSA (Chinese National Space Agency), with just JAXA, ESA, and SpaceX as the only other organizations to perform this task using unmanned spacecraft.
Still, all China has done so far is more or less replicate Gemini 8, avoiding the problems that nearly killed Neil Armstrong and David Scott. They have a long way to go if they want to turn this into any sort of useful experience to get them anywhere else, but they can start to have their astronauts do stuff more elaborate than simply being potty-trained monkeys who know how to wave flags. A huge difference between Gemini 8 and Shenzhou 9 is that Armstrong and Scott were actually piloting their spacecraft where instead the pilots of the Shenzhou spacecraft are sitting at mission control.
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A huge difference between Gemini 8 and Shenzhou 9 is that Armstrong and Scott were actually piloting their spacecraft where instead the pilots of the Shenzhou spacecraft are sitting at mission control.
I am fairly certain that if remote control technology has been sophisticated enough at the time, then NASA would also have done it by remote control.
Re:Significant Milestone (Score:5, Informative)
A huge difference between Gemini 8 and Shenzhou 9 is that Armstrong and Scott were actually piloting their spacecraft where instead the pilots of the Shenzhou spacecraft are sitting at mission control.
I am fairly certain that if remote control technology has been sophisticated enough at the time, then NASA would also have done it by remote control.
Not really. This is basically a difference in attitude towards those who are inside of the spacecraft, where an American philosophy is that those inside of the spacecraft ought to be much more directly in charge of what is going on, while the Chinese/Soviet philosophy was one of paranoia that the spaceflight participants might do something politically embarrassing so that authority was taken away.
The original plan for the Mercury spaceflights was to be largely automated, with the astronauts being largely "spam in a can" and really not doing anything other than being a passenger and enjoying the ride. Considering the Mercury astronauts were all test pilot instructors (qualified not just as test pilots but to teach people how to become those as well), there was a minor revolt within the astronaut corps that insisted some level of actual piloting should take place inside of the spacecraft, where key decisions about the progress of the spacecraft such as abort decisions and proceeding through various milestones rested upon the mission commander... in some cases with the mission commander alone.
Note also that much of the early NASA technology for launching astronauts into space came from the ICBM missile development, where significant automation already took place. The first spaceflights for the Mercury program used Chimpanzees, who obviously weren't rated as pilots or expected to do much other than take in the ride.
I'll note that the attitude of allowing manual control has made a difference in several missions and allowed a successful conclusion to those missions that otherwise might have gone badly. Gemini 8 was one of those situations BTW, where the astronauts weren't able to explain their situation to ground control due to a loss of telemetry and garbled communications until after they had finally resolved the situation. Another was the ability of the astronauts to rework Apollo 13 in order to get them to come home. I'm sure other situations could be brought up where real piloting skill was applied, including John Glenn's decision to not jettison his retro-rockets on the Friendship 7 flight. John Glenn also switched to a manual flight mode due to problems he noticed during the flight, not trusting the automated system that was in place.
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Pilot, not occupant
Spacecraft, not capsule
Window and Escape Hatch with explosive bolts, not 'spam in a can'
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Anyone remember the names of China's first three astronauts? Me, either.
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And what''s your standing to complain? Unless you're up there in their political elite, they aren't beholden to you in any way.
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And what''s your standing to complain? Unless you're up there in their political elite, they aren't beholden to you in any way.
I didn't say that they owe me anything. I was merely implying that China doesn't appear to be interested in really establishing anything other than a flag waving presence in space and doesn't seem to want to learn how to do much once they get up there. People forget stuff over time and really complex things like going into space requires practice and experimentation.
My point is that China is going to hit a brick wall technologically if they don't start to ramp up their flight rate and do something more th
Re:Significant Milestone (Score:5, Insightful)
"... economy far in excess... "
is only a relative figure. Per capita (which along with total economy MUST be included), their economy was nowhere near the U.S. during that time, as measured in U.S. dollars. The total "GDP" (if there is such a think in a socialist country -- definitions must be clarified) might have been greater, but it was for a far larger population.
The fact is that during most of that period, China could not even feed itself, "large" economy or not.
Re:Significant Milestone (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Significant Milestone (Score:4, Interesting)
I think the total size of the economy is more important in attempting to measure a country's ability to maintain a national space program. Otherwise some small but rich European or oil-producing country would have also launched humans into space a long time ago. The Soviet Union was clearly poorer than the US in per capita terms, but managed to beat the US to several early space milestones.
I suppose that is where these crazy nerds [copenhagen...bitals.com] come along and try to prove your notion could work all along. I'll admit their goal is more to duplicate Alan Shepard's flight rather than John Glenn's, but it is none the less showing that more countries and people are coming together and trying to get into space.
Russia might get a little nervous if Denmark starts to attempt orbital spaceflight though. These guys are using a launch site in the Baltic Sea, and extra nerd points are earned because the "ground crew" for the launch site works out of a submarine on launch day.
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Per capita (which along with total economy MUST be included)
Well, we can't keep you from inserting it into the discussion, but it's not significant for large public projects like those of this story.
The fact is that during most of that period, China could not even feed itself, "large" economy or not.
It hasn't been starving in the past decade which is the period under consideration.
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"Well, we can't keep you from inserting it into the discussion..."
The error was due to my mis-reading of what the commenter was saying. I thought he was comparing the Chinese economy of the 60s to the US economy of the 60s. But I see now that is not what he meant.
Nevertheless, you could have corrected me without being snide about it.
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The error was due to my mis-reading of what the commenter was saying. I thought he was comparing the Chinese economy of the 60s to the US economy of the 60s. But I see now that is not what he meant.
While China had a starvation problem in the 60s, it still remains that per capita GDP isn't relevant for large societal projects.
Nevertheless, you could have corrected me without being snide about it.
No worries. I was just paying in kind.
Re:Significant Milestone (Score:4, Funny)
(if there is such a think in a socialist country -- definitions must be clarified)
I live in a socialist country and I think we have a GDP here.
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The total "GDP" (if there is such a think in a socialist country -- definitions must be clarified)
Haha, you must be a Foxnews viewer (or maybe even editor)? Why would a socialist country not have a GDP??? Do they not produce things of value? Do they not trade with other countries?
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"Or, to put it another way, how little the Chinese are investing. The space program is clearly not viewed as a high economic priority in China."
It's just to demonstrate their capability. Now the US will outsource their spaceflights to them too, just like all the rest already.
"They're starving in China" (Score:5, Interesting)
It's said (by who I don't recall) that China has dragged more people out of poverty in the last 4 decades than the rest of the world combined by simply raising the standard of living for their own people. Having wittnessed (from afar) the scale of the change since the gang of four were booted out in the 70's, I'm inclined to believe that claim.
Que paranoid rants about governments from 20-somethings with cheeto filled stomachs, in...3...2....1
Re:"They're starving in China" (Score:4, Interesting)
People complain about the UK giving aid to India which has its own space programme while millions live in terrible poverty, but the simple fact is they need one. Modern technology requires satellites, advanced materials and cutting edge research. They need it to bring the economies up to western levels and lift everyone out of poverty at once, rather than fire fighting individual disasters.
It does suck that money spent putting a man in orbit is money that can't be spent educating poor kids, but you have to look at it as the individual need vs. the greater good and having a mix of both.
Re:"They're starving in China" (Score:5, Interesting)
"They're starving back in China, so finish what you got." is a line from a John Lennon song, when I was a kid that's what mother's told their children when trying to persuade them to eat thier veggies.
Funny thing is that I saw an interview not long ago with a Chinese writer who said that when he was growing up in the 50's and 60's, the Chinese were told the same thing about the U.S. They were shown Depression-era footage of soup kitchen lines and told that was typical of life in the U.S. They would even encourage schoolchildren to give to charity to help out the starving Americans.
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They would even encourage schoolchildren to give to charity to help out the starving Americans.
I wonder where that money actually went
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Soviet books for children had all the same stuff.
More recently, in a twist of irony, some Ukrainian guys have taken photos from the Great Depression, and presented them as photographic evidence of the horrors of Holodomor. Go figure...
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When I was a child, my mother said to me, "Clean the plate, because children are starving in China." So I would clean the plate, four, five, six times a day. Because somehow I felt that that would keep the children from starving in China.
But I was wrong. They kept starving. And I got fat.
So I would like to say to every one of you who is either skinny--or in some other way normal--When you walk out on the street, and you see a fat person, Do not scoff at that fat person. Oh no!
Take off your hat. Hold it ov
Re:Significant Milestone (Score:4, Insightful)
The space program is clearly not viewed as a high economic priority in China.
That's because China isn't in a space race with anyone. This is just their way of saying "We've arrived." There is no particular hurry and no pissing contest to win here, especially with the U.S. bowing out of the whole manned spaceflight game.
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Wow. You just don't quite grasp this, do you.
China can put a large object into orbit, keep it there for as long as they want, remotely control it to do whatever they want, send people up to service it and bring them back down alive.
Oh, and China is a Thermo-nuke power.
Do you get it now?
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Since it tough to get blood to that area in zero gravity, I guess Viagra would be on the top of the list.
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Re:"Medical experiments" (Score:4, Interesting)
Exactly what I was going to post.
In all fairness, it probably has already been done by the Americans and Russians, whether as a secret experiment or a "side experiment" done by the scientists themselves.
I mean, how many people would go all the way to space and not do it given the chance, it would be like doubling what is already the most amazing experience of your life.
I hope an adult entertainment company buys a couple of tickets on a private space flight, for the enjoyment of the rest of us who will never get the chance but are curious to see.
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I don't know if Americans would've risked it. Imagine the bad publicity if the American public were to find out that their hard-earned tax dollars were spent to send Astronauts f*ing in space.
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If I recall correctly, there has been experiments done using mouse embryos that show that fetuses can't develop properly in microgravity. Also as already mentioned, maintaining..ahem..readiness in space would be problematic as well.
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The experiments that you are talking about were done in "simulated microgravity" using magnetic fields to try and neutralize gravitational influences and other techniques, and not actually flying to experiments in space. The sad fact is that in spite of the fact that there have been several mice sent into space including a couple long-term studies done on the ISS, procreation has not been one of the aspects studied nor has any multi-generational studies been done or even attempted in terms of what might ha
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They already made a zero g porn. It was filmed 20 seconds at a time on an airplane flying parabolic arcs. Don't recall the name.
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Playing doctor?
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I wonder what kind of "medical tests and experiments" a mixed-gender crew might undergo in microgravity.
You mean... testing one-child policy [wikipedia.org] in zero-G?
China completes its first womanned space docking. (Score:1)
There, I fixed that for /.
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Re:In Space... (Score:5, Insightful)
Look... I apologize already for the insult, okay? But it isn't entirely undeserved.
Making extensive use of, well, let's say "borrowed" technology -- not to mention the outright theft of some of it -- is hardly equivalent to doing this stuff on your own.
If it's a success, I will be somewhat surprised, and not very inclined to credit them for it.
I know. American scientists were able to get to the Moon without using any technology from any other cultures. Every other country should have to do the same. The Chinese shouldn't even be able to use those rockets we invented thousands of years ago.
(For the sarcastically disabled, I know who invented the rocket)
Re:In Space... (Score:5, Funny)
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Wrong. American rocket technology was based on Nazi technology. Project paperclip.
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It would be more accurate to say that Saturn technology was based on Nazi technology. But the German technology was based on American technology, specifically Goddard's.
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"know. American scientists were able to get to the Moon without using any technology from any other cultures. Every other country should have to do the same."
And for those of you who are understatement challenged: that's not quite the same thing.
The Nazis didn't get their liquid-fuel rocket technology from the Chinese. They got it from the United States. And we didn't get it from China either. We invented it.
In fact, up until the moon landings and for quite some time after, the US and Russia invented just about every bit of technology that went into manned space exploration, with -- just fact -- very little help from other countries.
And all the while (a
Re:In Space... (Score:5, Interesting)
Hmm... Well...
You mean "borrowed" in the sense like the USA did when using the techniques developed in Nazi Germany?
And why should you develop something yourself when the knowledge is available? Most techniques used by the NASA are not especially top-secret as far as I know. So - why spend an big budget on something that's freely available?
I think there is a good chance the first man on Mars will be Chinese. Not because they are that good, but because they slowly bit steadily keep pushing forward, while the USA is stepping down. Anyway by the time of those first manned mars landing, I estimate the biggest budget in the USA will be spend on thousands of lawyers fighting the (around that time completely out-of-control) software patent wars (inside the USA, because outside the USA people are not that stupid).
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There really wasn't all that much in V2 rocket technology to "borrow", except for some somewhat-improved engines over what the US already had.
Fun fact: V2 rockets did not work worth a damn. Many of them exploded, too, and half of them or more missed their targets.
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The US didn't just used techniques developed in Nazi Germany. They had Nazis from Nazi Germany built the rockets for them. Basically, americans just provided the money and sat back while the Nazis built their freedom rockets.
This is so patently false that I simply must say you are full of it.
Yes, there were many of the rocket engineers who worked on the V-2 rockets of Nazi Germany which were hired by the U.S. Army Ordinance Command at the conclusion of World War II (through something called Operational Paperclip [wikipedia.org]). Their contribution and experience was vital for developing the early ICBMs and rockets that later were developed by NASA as well as the U.S. Air Force.
All this said, it is ignoring the contribution and hard work by t
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Heck yah!
Don't forget the Canadians that got laid off from the Avro Arrow project and went on to work for NASA and build the Lunar Landing Module.
Re:In Space... (Score:4, Insightful)
Making extensive use of, well, let's say "borrowed" technology
Yes, China borrowed from the US space program, which borrowed from the German V2 program, which borrowed from fireworks, which were invented by guess who? That's how civilizations progress, a failure to comprehend that basic fact of life is a failure to comprehend all of human history.
[I'm] not very inclined to credit them for it
That's just sour grapes.
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Making extensive use of, well, let's say "borrowed" technology
Yes, China borrowed from the US space program,
Do you really think so?
The Chinese stuff looks much more like a copy of the Soviet/Russian stuff to me.
After all, why copy something that you know didn't work?
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Do you really think so?
I have no idea, that was the OP's claim I just extraploated it to the point where the absurdity of her logic was obvious. That method of reasoning is called ad-absurdium for obvious reason.
we need to get Congress out the loop (Score:2)
I presume the STS only partially existed in your universe?
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Making extensive use of, well, let's say "borrowed" technology -- not to mention the outright theft of some of it -- is hardly equivalent to doing this stuff on your own.
How dare you criticize the US Space Program like this. Admittedly the spoils of war go to the victor and the Nazi Germans can't really complain now about the "theft" of their technology by Americans and Russians now since they were overthrown, but still this is hardly the equivalent of doing stuff on your own. Oh wait - what?
On a more serious note - most progress is nothing but a series of incremental improvements on existing technology. Unless you happen to be an expert on both the US and Chinese space p
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"Admittedly the spoils of war go to the victor and the Nazi Germans can't really complain now about the "theft" of their technology"
Almost everybody who keeps mentioning "Nazi" technology here has missed a couple of very large points:
(A) The V2 rocket was a failure. Yes, some of them hit England and caused havoc. But more than half of them didn't. Many exploded en route, and less than half actually hit near their targets.
(B) We did not "steal" that Nazi technology, we bought it, after the war. Von Braun was in the U.S., and other German engineers were contracted. They were neither enslaved, or robbed.
(C) The Germans got most of
Re:In Space... (Score:4, Interesting)
So the same argument can be used for China then. They sent their kids over her to be educated and what do you know, they paid attention in class and the asian kid always got the good grades in Engineering and Physics and now they have their own universities and departments and can build their own stuff. They "bought" the technology too. Or is it just so easy to sneak into NASA and start copying everything verbatim? But wait, how would a spy in NASA explain the advances in Chinese heavy industry? Did the NASA spies also steal plans to build high speed railroads, like the ones in use all over the US? How about the Chinese semiconductor industry? Did they get that from NASA too? Or are you trying to say there are Chinese spies everywhere?
Or maybe, just maybe, the Chinese aren't as dumb as you think they are by refusing to give them any credit. After all it's much easier to throw R&D dollars towards something you already know is possible especially when those R&D dollars go much further thanks to wage differences and (lack of) environmental laws. And when you have an economy the size of China's, growing at the rate which China's is, you have plenty of money to spend.
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"They sent their kids over her to be educated and what do you know, they paid attention in class and the asian kid always got the good grades in Engineering and Physics and now they have their own universities and departments and can build their own stuff. They "bought" the technology too"
I felt it was pretty clear that it wasn't the HONEST part I was referring to. I don't deny there was plenty of that as well.
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The V2 rocket was a failure. Yes, some of them hit England and caused havoc. But more than half of them didn't. Many exploded en route, and less than half actually hit near their targets.
V2 was a failure in military terms, sure, much like most German wunderwaffen. But it was certainly a major and quite successful "first" in rocket technology, and further advances in rocketry for both Americans and Soviets were directly based on V2.
We did not "steal" that Nazi technology, we bought it, after the war. Von Braun was in the U.S., and other German engineers were contracted. They were neither enslaved, or robbed.
German scientists were rounded up and shipped over to US at the gunpoint - look up Operation Paperclip. They were paid for their work, sure, and I guess that many if not most were quite happy to leave the war-torn Germany, but they couldn't really refuse either wa
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"German scientists were rounded up and shipped over to US at the gunpoint - look up Operation Paperclip."
They were nothing of the sort. Look it up yourself.
JOIA went so far as to expunge some of their records as Nazis before bringing them over... not at gunpoint at all, but through negotiatons and lucrative offers.
Sheesh. Talk about twisting the truth.
"How much von Braun really took from Goddard is debatable..."
No it isn't. Liquid fuel rocketry did not exist before Goddard. Sheesh again.
"... but it's beside the point of OP"
It might have been beside the point of OP, but it wasn't beside the comment I made, or the many other comments in response to it.
"Goddard did not develop his work from scratch in a vacuum, either."
Actually, yes, he pretty much did. Nothing even rem
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JOIA went so far as to expunge some of their records as Nazis before bringing them over... not at gunpoint at all, but through negotiatons and lucrative offers.
Sheesh. Talk about twisting the truth.
Do you understand that the threat of not expunging the records is effectively the "gunpoint" - since otherwise quite a few of them would likely get hefty sentences as part of denazification, and particularly von Braun himself (who was an SS officer).
No it isn't. Liquid fuel rocketry did not exist before Goddard. Sheesh again.
Logic, you lack it. Just because Goddard was the first to experiment with liquid fuel rockets doesn't mean that von Braun took his work wholesale without adding anything significant of his own.
By the way, if you're so keen on priorities, Tsiolkovskiy has designe
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"Do you understand that the threat of not expunging the records is effectively the "gunpoint" - since otherwise quite a few of them would likely get hefty sentences as part of denazification, and particularly von Braun himself (who was an SS officer)."
Absolute nonsense. If you have committed a felony, and I say to you, "We will drop the charges and pay you handsomely if you come to work for us," that is NOT coercion at the point of a gun. It is incentive. There is a huge difference between positive incentive and threats.
"Just because Goddard was the first to experiment with liquid fuel rockets doesn't mean that von Braun took his work wholesale without adding anything significant of his own."
I didn't say he did. What I said was: Goddard invented it pretty much independently, and Von Braun borrowed a great deal from his accomplishments. I made no claim beyond that. So look to your own logic, fella.
"Tsiolkovskiy has designed (not built - but it was a solid engineered design, not just a vague idea) a multistage liquid fueled rocket in 1903."
So what? Da Vinci drew well-e
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Look... I apologize already for the insult, okay? But it isn't entirely undeserved.
Making extensive use of, well, let's say "borrowed" technology -- not to mention the outright theft of some of it -- is hardly equivalent to doing this stuff on your own.
If it's a success, I will be somewhat surprised, and not very inclined to credit them for it.
So I guess the credit for the the successful american space program in the 60's goes to the germans. ;).
Especially given that the man instrumental in the US space program back then was actually a german the US recruited at the end of the war.
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Sorry in advance... (Score:5, Funny)
...carrying a crew that includes the country's first female astronaut... A manual docking, to carried out by one of the crew members, is scheduled... Two crew members plan to conduct medical tests and experiments...
...giggity.
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Re:Sorry in advance... (Score:5, Funny)
There's the "Han Solo" method. Just a question of who shoots first.
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Re:Face (Score:5, Insightful)
She isn't hot by any standard of the word. Well, at least by classical Chinese measures of beauty she's quite ugly. And if the pictures are photoshopped, whoever did it should be sacked. I think it's you who's insecure, and you seem to have a bit of a case of yellow fever, too if you think she's hot.
I guess if chicks in diapers is your thang... (Score:2)
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I have no comment on the attractiveness of this particular woman, but when you put a person in zero-g fluids that normally accumulate in the lower body go to the head and produce a flabby bloated look. You're not going to see a "Miss Zero-G" contest any time soon.
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Well if he meant "hottest" as in most competent, then what did photoshopping have to do with it, and how is it any different from what the US did with Sally Ride? I fail to see how what China is doing is any more of a dickwaving exercise than the US/Soviet space race. In fact, it's probably less of a dickwaving exercise since no matter how fast or slow they go, they aren't aiming for any firsts anyway.
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And simultaneously the ugliest woman in outer space! Whoa, that's deep, I think I need to get my bong...
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The more the merrier? or engineering vs. science? (Score:2)
The more people working on manned space flight, the more likely we'll solve the problems and make interplanetary and even interstellar travel a realistic possibility. I'm all for this. Having more groups with space capacity also means more chances of helping each other in case of emergencies. Plus to be selfish it's more likely I might get to have a go sometime in the next few decades :-)
Perhaps there's a split between engineering fields and pure science fields? In pure science, everybody seems really happy
Re: (Score:1)
Because science is often done and shared among scientists, often relatively small scale, often inconsequential to international power hierarchies.
Space is nationalist because of the status implied, the technology implied which has direct military corollaries and extensions. People doing materials research for anti-radar and other stealth technologies don't tell the world either, are you as surprised by that?
Well, congratulations (Score:2)
Link to article (Score:1)
http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/special/shenzhou9/index.htm [xinhuanet.com]
(a bit surprised the Slashdot article was refering to a Houston newspaper not Xinhua net).
Appropriate Response (Score:1)
controlled from ground (Score:1)
American astronauts wouldn't put up with being spam in a can [wikipedia.org] while everything was controlled from the ground.