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China Mars Space

China Plans To Reach Mars by 2020 and Eventually Build a Moon Base (techinsider.io) 105

Rebecca Harrington, writing for Tech Insider: China has plans to orbit the moon, land people on it, and eventually settle a moon colony. But that's just part of the nation's vision for space exploration: China intends to get a spacecraft to Mars by 2020. "Our long-term goal is to explore, land, and settle [on the moon]," Wu Weiren, chief designer of China's moon and Mars missions, told the BBC. "We want a manned lunar landing to stay for longer periods and establish a research base." Weiren didn't specify when the country plans to accomplish these goals, but he did say they will "check out" the far side of the moon before attempting to land astronauts there. This mission already has concrete plans. He also said China wants to reach Mars by 2020, and implied that the country has finally settled on a mission to send a rover to the Red Planet. "We will orbit Mars, land and deploy a rover -- all in one mission," Weiren told the BBC.
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China Plans To Reach Mars by 2020 and Eventually Build a Moon Base

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  • Then stop talking (Score:4, Informative)

    by NotDrWho ( 3543773 ) on Thursday April 21, 2016 @02:02PM (#51957899)

    Then go do it.

    Talk is cheap, bitches.

  • this is what you get (Score:5, Interesting)

    by yodleboy ( 982200 ) on Thursday April 21, 2016 @02:03PM (#51957919)
    This is what you get when your manned space program is driven by actually having achievable goals than by nostalgia and keeping the government pork flowing. Oh I have no doubt there will be a lot of flag waving and such, but I'll take my hat off to them when they pull off a sustainable colony on the moon. Which event will come long before NASA even manages its publicity stunt manned flight to Mars. Manned space flight is still risky, and you will lose people eventually. NASA has largely decided that the risk of losing people is unacceptable to Americans and they will keep manned projects in design indefinitely to avoid it. Just wait and see. One thing the Chinese have going for them, they won't let loss of life knock their program on its ass. Those lost will be rightly called heroes and will inspire, not terrify, others to follow.
    • Well the NASA sort of lost its point after it has successfully been used to show the russians who the boss is. Perhaps the Chinese manage to make enough competition that the American pride gets hurt. If that happens, there will be an US flag waving on Mars faster than the senate requires to pass an average budget legislation.

    • by tnk1 ( 899206 ) on Thursday April 21, 2016 @02:21PM (#51958117)

      Sadly, the loss of life we have suffered did not used to terrify us, and I don't think it terrifies most people in the USA today either. It's those people who are always looking for some sort of outrage or some sort of event to make themselves seem important or to grab a headline. And then the damage control starts and the politicians run away so that they don't end up on the Evening News.

      I don't think America as a nation has run away from a space program or space exploration, but I do think our *government* considers it either a joke or a pork barrel. And that is why I hope commercial exploration keeps moving forward.

      If they succeed, which I think they are quite capable of, China will prove that we are held back less by the difficulty of the task of the Moon, or a Moon base, or going to Mars, but rather by the difficulty of getting our politicians to pull their heads out of their asses to commit to it.

    • What makes you think China doesn't also want to keep "the government pork flowing"? I read an interview from a Chinese engineer after they had put someone in orbit. It was basically this guy lamenting how they could do so much more if they didn't have to hire so many people. He said they had seven times as many people as they needed and it got in the way of dong things. Same goes with companies and empire building [wikipedia.org]
      • by yodleboy ( 982200 ) on Thursday April 21, 2016 @02:52PM (#51958455)
        "What makes you think China doesn't also want to keep "the government pork flowing"

        Nothing at all. I have no doubt there's government pork involved. However, as the Chinese are relatively new to this manned spaceflight thing, the distribution of that pork is still up for grabs. Here in the US, it's been set for decades and there is probably no way to overcome the inertia associated with it (as far as NASA *** is concerned). Also, the Chinese government won't hesitate to take a heavy handed approach and squash anyone that gets in the way of the ultimate goal. In the US we'll let the NIMBY's and special interests add so many requirements and caveats to a government project that it drowns under the weight.

        Don't get me wrong, I'm not really advocating the Chinese way of doing things. I'm just pointing out that it's silly to dismiss their plan as BS, since they don't have to attempt to please everyone. I think 4 years is probably optimistic, but 8 years? yeah, they could do that. Meanwhile, NASA will probably still be running tests of new hardware in LEO and revising the "why we're behind schedule" paperwork again.

        ***I mean NASA the organization here, I have much respect for NASA the people.
    • by Yunzil ( 181064 )

      I'll take my hat off to them when they pull off a sustainable colony on the moon.

      Hope you like wearing your hat.

      • by rtb61 ( 674572 )

        Cheaper launch methods are on the drawing board for quite a few players, much cheaper than current systems. Rockets are on the way out and launch tubes are in, and not circular but elliptical to ensure the correct lifting body shape and fuel should be used for guidance and landing only (a fuel less take off, as far as the flying body is concerned, using the last bit of atmosphere to adjust vector and speed). So once you shoot that flying body in space, landing it becomes a matter of effective breaking, the

  • If they have more moon-base space than we do, they could breed more, and possibly take over when they come out. They might even try a quick, sneak attack, so they can take over our moon base space. They might even try to knock over a couple of other countries and take their moon-base space.
    • by tnk1 ( 899206 )

      Gentlemen! Please! You don't have to crowd so close together, this is the Space Room!

  • Sorry, the free nations of the Earth must forbid dictatorship from spreading off world.

  • by firesyde424 ( 1127527 ) on Thursday April 21, 2016 @02:23PM (#51958145)

    Honestly, it's my personal opinion that the US needs someone else to beat us to a major milestone in space. We've fallen into a bit of a winners dilemma. We've beaten everyone else, why do we need to keep trying? I think if China beats the US to Mars, you'll see the political will materialize around the space program again.

    • by chihowa ( 366380 ) on Thursday April 21, 2016 @06:23PM (#51960643)

      Honestly, it's my personal opinion that the US needs someone else to beat us to a major milestone in space. We've fallen into a bit of a winners dilemma. We've beaten everyone else, why do we need to keep trying? I think if China beats the US to Mars, you'll see the political will materialize around the space program again.

      For the most part, the US got whomped by the USSR in major milestones in space. Besides landing a human on the moon and some amazing unmanned planetary and outer system probes, they beat us at nearly every early milestone: ICBM, probe to orbit, animal in space, human in space, spacewalk, woman in space, probe to moon (orbit, impact, and soft landing), image of dark side of moon, return of moon sample to earth, space station, ...

      Your last sentence is spot on, though. Getting beat by the Russians was the perfect motivator for our space program.

  • If you want to actually be on Mars by 2020 then you need to be in flight for 6 to 8 months before you touch down and that's not mentioning all the planning that takes place.

    Where are the publicity shots of your rover prototypes if not the real rovers themselves?

    Where are the publicity shots of the orbiter and deployment bus for the rover?

    What rocket platform have you validated for Martian transit?

  • When they build the moon base, please let them call it Hong Kong Luna [wikipedia.org]
  • And I hope it lights a fire under President Hillary Clinton (odds are 1/3 in her favor) to start Space Race 2: Mars or Bust!

  • Score Board.
  • The glorious leader Kim Jong-un has already established a very successful moon research base, and has single handedly colonised mars in his spare time. He announced it at Christmas and said it would be done by the end of the year.

    Got to love the Chinese (or any communist) propaganda train

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