Chinese Space Station Tiangong-2 Is About To Fall From Space (newscientist.com) 149
The Chinese space station Tiangong-2 is scheduled to drop out of orbit on July 19 and fall into the Pacific Ocean between New Zealand and Chile. New Scientist reports: Tiangong-2 -- which translates as "heavenly palace" -- was launched in September 2016, and it was never intended to be a permanent fixture in orbit. Instead, its purpose was to test technologies for China's larger planned space station, whose main module is scheduled to launch in 2020. That space station is planned to be about one-fifth the size of the International Space Station. Tiangong-2 is far smaller. In 2018, Tiangong-2 began to lower its orbit to prepare for the end of its mission. On 19 July, it will fire its thrusters again to aim its descent toward the Pacific Ocean. Most of the craft will probably burn up as it enters the atmosphere, but any parts that survive should splash into the water harmlessly. Its predecessor, Tiangong-1, lost power in April 2018 and crashed in an uncontrolled fashion.
In other news (Score:3)
In other news: China has a space station.
Re:In other news (Score:5, Informative)
Don't be thick and blase about this. China's space program is progressing at a good pace. It is not the breakneck pace of the original space race, but patient and deliberate. By all accounts, it is well funded and has the full backing of their government and military. Furthermore: China's desire to equal and then surpass everyone else in space (as in many other realms) is widely known and deadly serious.
In short: don't underestimate their ambition and capability.
Re:In other news (Score:5, Insightful)
Don't be thick and blase about this. China's space program is progressing at a good pace.
In short: don't underestimate their ambition and capability.
Sure, I'm just satirizing the fact that it's not in the news very often in the USA.
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Sure, I'm just satirizing the fact that it's not in the news very often in the USA.
That's because America won the space race and space is a "solved" problem. America no more cares about the Chinese space station than it does the International Space Station.
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You won the "Moon" race. You lost every other event.
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and yet you can't even build another one to get you back there - you have lost all the skill sets.
The US hasn't lost the skill sets, it simply lost the will.
At this point, the moon is "been there, done that." Once it is done, what is the actual point of going back? Traveling to the moon is EXTREMELY expensive. You have to justify it somehow, and they don't have "beating the Russians" to fall back on any more. It was never about science or exploration, it was all about being first. Once you're first, you don't care anymore. The Apollo program and its costs were fairly controversial in the 1960s. They wo
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To be fair, there WAS some science done, although the military grandstanding was also a major consideration. It's nice to know, for example, that gravity works the same way on the Moon as it does on the earth, that space dust is nasty and gets everywhere, and people don't go immediately crazy as soon as they leave the earth's magnetosphere. Those are all good, solid pieces of data.
Oh, I do agree, there was a lot of science done, and for, say, the grunts on the ground, the ops folks, and the scientists and engineers involved, it's a huge consideration. But it wasn't the point for the people deciding whether to fund the mission, and to the people deciding whether to do it or not. This of course, was not what 10-year-old me heard, I thought it was all about the science, the exploration. That's certainly what fired my imagination. :-)
I think of it as... say, plenty of people who make it
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in which more than 1,600 Germ
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Pro tip: the Americans in 1957 sure lost their shit over "noise"
Re: In other news (Score:1)
It's not often in Chinese news either. I asked my girlfriend, a native Chinese living in Shenzhen about TianGong. She said, "What's that?"
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It's not often in Chinese news either. I asked my girlfriend, a native Chinese living in Shenzhen about TianGong. She said, "What's that?"
She thought you said Falun Gong, and knowing about that is dangerous in China.
right over the plate! (Score:2)
good grief that story's old enough to be drafted.
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Didn't your second* most famous astronaut use the Chinese space station with the help of George Clooney to get safely back to earth after a missile test gone wrong? I thought I saw a documentary about it.
*The most famous one being the one they keep having to save from Mars.
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Yeah, but it wasn't really a missile test, that was the public story told to hide the fact that they were blowing up a malfunctioning spy satellite. I'm not really sure why the satellite was in the same orbit as the space station, or how the debris moved so much faster than everything else in the orbit while staying in the same orbit, though. Definitely some weird physics going on there.
Re:In other news (Score:5, Insightful)
China's desire to equal and then surpass everyone else in space (as in many other realms) is widely known and deadly serious. In short: don't underestimate their ambition and capability.
I am absolutely impressed at their ability, precision and efficiency at creating Orwellian totalitarian police states and "re-education camps" for Muslims. They are awesome! Brilliant use of technological innovation!
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Wernher von Braun, the guy most instrumental in the US space programme, was a paid up member of the Nazi party. He fought against the Allies during the war, and the weapons he built killed many people.
Of course no-one is suggesting that he believed in their fascist ideology or did anything more than what appeared to many Germans at the time to be their patriotic duty. In fact his promotion of rocket technology may have helped shorten the war, as Hitler wasted resources them.
So we can appreciate what Chinese
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I'm guessing you applaud the Nazi's ingenuity of the gas chambers
Wow. That escalated quickly.
Don't be such a dick, obviously I don't applaud genocide. Do you blame von Braun for his part in the war? Do you criticise the US for welcoming him and giving him citizenship after what he did? I don't.
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INTJ much?
Nice, Myers-Briggs-ism...
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I still have no idea what INTJ is. Can you explain it to me?
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A woman and her daughter came up with the 40s equivalent of a Cosmo quiz, published in a magazine, and originally designed to help women know their babies better by supposedly analyzing the child's personality type. Then they realized there was a bigger market in helping women know *themselves*, so they republished as an adult personality assessment, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.
Over the years the MTBI has turned into a big business, and there's a certain amount of shadiness around it, with nondisclosure
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Thanks, that was informative... Worry that they were apparently being serious when they called me an "INTJ".
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A woman and her daughter came up with the 40s equivalent of a Cosmo quiz, published in a magazine, and originally designed to help women know their babies better by supposedly analyzing the child's personality type. Then they realized there was a bigger market in helping women know *themselves*, so they republished as an adult personality assessment, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.
Over the years the MTBI has turned into a big business, and there's a certain amount of shadiness around it, with nondisclosure agreements you have to sign when you go to one of their training courses.
The test itself is regarded as pseudoscience, even by the standards of psychological testing, with poor validity and reproducibility, among other things. It's also got a large cult following among business managers, who regard it as having some sort of meaning.
The four personality components identified by the test (which correlate somewhat with four of the more accepted "Big Five" personality traits) are indicated by four letters. INTJ is introverted, intuitive, thinking, judging. I'd give you the descriptions of what that's supposed to mean, but if you just make up your own story it will be pretty much as valid.
The tv show Adam Ruins Everything did a real nice break down in one episode of the origins, and lack of science involved in, the Myers-Briggs test.
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I imagine they were, though I'm not sure why it's an insult. I imagine most of the Slashdot population would probably test as INTJs. At least some of the time... Myers Briggs has low reliability after all.
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I am aware you have zero respect for me, that was pretty clear. I try to afford everyone a basic level of respect.
That's why I didn't call you a "sick fuck" and accuse you of supporting the holocaust, with the most disingenuous possible interpretation of your comment.
Thanks for dragging down the level of discourse around here.
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"Ha. You think you triggered me? INTJ much?"
Then on you go and have a little hissy fit with foot stomping. Yeah, he triggered you.
"You have ZERO clue what goes on in my mind"
I think its safe to say no one gives a fuck.
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"I am absolutely impressed at their ability, precision and efficiency at creating Orwellian totalitarian police states and "re-education camps" for Muslims"
They crossed out "Christian" and wrote in "Muslim". Done and done.
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All Americans are psychopath freedom thugs who blow people up with nukes, and worse, they generalize.
List all dates Americans blew "people up with nukes". There was ONE time. It was a mistake and it was never repeated. Now list all times say, for example, Islamic Terrorists used chemical weapons. I'm pretty sure the United States, while certainly no saint, is not the majority source of evil and corruption in the world.
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Two.
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On August 6, 1945, during World War II (1939-45), an American B-29 bomber dropped the worldâ(TM)s first deployed atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The explosion wiped out 90 percent of the city and immediately killed 80,000 people; tens of thousands more would later die of radiation exposure. Three days later, a second B-29 dropped another A-bomb on Nagasaki, killing an estimated 40,000 people. Japanâ(TM)s Emperor Hirohito announced his countryâ(T
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Re:In other news (Score:5, Informative)
It was not a mistake. It ended the war almost immediately, taking a tiny fraction (around 300 thousand) of the lives that'd be lost in case of a land invasion (possibly over 10 million, estimated by William Shockley, assuming heavy civilian participation in the resistance).
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Before the 2 nukes, the US was firebombing Japanese cities. They could have easily continued that practice, and caused more deaths https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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Germany started the war, everyone else picked a side. And America was already in the war, supplying arms and supplies to the enemy is considered a hostile act. Just because you didn't want to actually FIGHT in the war until Pearl Harbor does not mean you were not in the war. Just means you were pansies and came in towards the end.
Russia was already giving the Germans a hiding (at tremendous cost of Russian lives).
Way to simply dismiss all
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No. The war in Asia started way before than (about a decade) the European war. It is just that no one(in the west) cared very much until Japan attacked Pearl Harbor.
Japan only attacked Pearl Harbor because the US was applying sanctions due to its invasions in Asia
Japanese invasion of Manchuria(1931-1932) [wikipedia.org]
Second Sino-Japanese War(1937-1945) [wikipedia.org]
Events leading to the attack on Pearl Harbor [wikipedia.org]
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Two times. Nagasaki and Hiroshima. And, as evidenced by the replies you've already gotten, many people would argue that it was not a mistake.
A lot of shitty stuff was done during that war by both sides, but some of the principles involved in the nukings have stated that they were almost certainly unnecessary, particularly the second one. Japan's surrender was likely a result of fear of a Soviet invasion and occupation, rather than American bombing.
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Two times. The first mistake was indeed repeated a week later.
Followed by some other mistakes that ended up damaging the environment and a smaller number of people. The Americans weren't the only ones doing it either.
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It was a mistake and it was never repeated.
No. It was a purposeful and very calculated strike. The result of which was deemed so successful a display of military might it started an arms race to stock up as many and ever larger nukes always ready to use should the need arise. That is still the situation to this day.
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The result of which was deemed so successful a display of military might it started an arms race
Even without the two strikes, a nuclear arms race was only a matter of time.
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They surrendered because the Soviet Union invaded, ending any chance for a negotiated peace.
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He said that to save face. The Russians were literally days away from invading Japan, the Japanese were already discussing how best to surrender BEFORE the first nuke was dropped. So please, a citation about this captured pilot would be interesting. They used the nukes as an excuse to surrender and still save some pride, most of their cities had already been destroyed by conventional weapons, the only significan
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It's a little hard to compare milestones because they're not really in order, but China went from putting an astronaut into space to a manned space station in eight years. The USSR took ten, and the US 18 years. China started out slowly (first launch in the 50s, then a long break) but they're now going pretty much as fast as the peak of the space race.
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It's a lot easier now, with better materials, better tools, and better computers.
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Sure. And also knowing that space won't instantly kill you, and moon dust won't spontaneously ignite when exposed to oxygen. It's still breakneck progress for a country that was considered part of the third world not that long ago, and it's likely going to give the old superpowers a kick in the pants soon.
Which is all good. We need some technological progress that doesn't involve social media.
Let me know (Score:2)
When it happens, someone... ;)
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Ms. Tree to the rescue!
ocean junk (Score:2)
great, even more junk waste dumped into the ocean.
then again, probably won't be too bad as most of it will have burned up.
leaving it up is space is no solution either, so what else to do?
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A few small parts may fall down to Earth, but most of it will burn in the atmosphere.
It's much better to burn space trash when it reenters the atmosphere, than leave it in orbit where it can create a chain reaction of debris. Then again, space stations are in LEO where sooner or later their orbits will naturally decay.
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The Chinese are Atheists.
Only in the sense that Stalinists were all Atheists.
Why are they talking about heaven?
But... I assume the station was named by the government so it's a fair question.
I guess it's a cultural thing that can't be understood by roundeyes.
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Only in the sense that Stalinists were all Atheists.
Too bad in countries that have relately large population demographic share of Atheists have the lowest crime rates like Scandinavian countries. There is a correlation with non-religious countries having lower crime rates and fundamentalists having higher crime rates. Check your data, in particular the OECD.
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I can't speak for the PP, but I just like screaming "Atheism!!!" myself.
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Ha. Stalin himself was a seminarist, almost became a priest and he, in fact, supported the orthodox church later in his life.
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How are they incompatible?
I know Jesus talks about giving to the poor and doing good, but He also said "The poor you will always have with you.." and "Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's " (i.e. pay your taxes) so I don't think Jesus had an issue with capitalism. Further, Paul says "If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat" which sure sounds like a capitalist principle of self reliance and working for a living.
So, why do you think Jesus would be anti-capitalist? IMHO I don't think He would hav
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As I recall, Paul worked for his living too as a tentmaker. So while he said "don't worry" he did make an effort to support himself and didn't sit at home waiting for God to drop stuff in his lap. God is not some material blessing machine, where if you have enough faith He dumps stuff in your lap, but He's also not going to leave you flapping in the breeze if you are doing what He asked of you.
The point of the above is that people of faith don't need to worry about God providing for them if they are about
just one minor error (Score:1)
In the co-ordinates and you kill the yellow-haired, baby poo coloured, tub of lard (sorry I meant slim for you Americans).
Oh, the temptation to get it wrong.
Where it lands.... (Score:2)
Will they claim where it lands as sovereign Chinese territory [wikipedia.org]?
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Deorbited! (Score:3)
The proper word is "deorbited", not "fall", as the station is scheduled to be deorbited.
The previous did fall because they lost contact with it, thus control, however the Tiangong-2 is operational, the contact is maintained and the deorbiting is planned to be deliberate and safe.
It's getting worse and worse with regard to /. headlines clickbaite-ness, even the very following summary doesn't mention falling - to be fair though, this one is not the best example to complain about.
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Nah, guess what? "Deorbited" things do indeed fall. It will fall. The proper word is "fall".
Nothing worse than a pendant that makes shit up between their ears.
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A plane below stall velocity.
A satellite with insufficient velocity to orbit falls.
You are a low watt bulb, no wonder you post AC.
Harmlessly? (Score:2)
Right on top of R'lyeh. Some [wordpress.com] might not be amused.
Scheduled? Not even! (Score:2)
"Scheduled" is certainly the wrong word, since we have only a general range of when this MIGHT happen. "Expected" or "anticipated" would be better alternatives.
Between New Zealand and Chile? (Score:2)
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many people are saying war with china and iran is a good idea
I don't hear many people advocating that war is a GOOD thing.. But I do hear many saying that it's inevitable and we'd better be ready. Some are further saying that we might want to choose the circumstances and timing to our advantage if it's truly going to happen anyway, but even those folks are not saying it's going to be a good thing for anybody when it happens.
IMHO - Barring any serious changes in attitude or local conditions changing in China and Iran, I do think that a war with one or both is likel
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perhaps if some of the wars were fought in you cities and population you wouldn't be so quick \ keen to start them.
Believing that war is coming is NOT the same as wanting to start one. Or did you purposely misread my post? Believing a war is imitate is not wishing for one, but acknowledging the reality that someone else may choose the path that causes one you cannot avoid.
This is why I carry (legally) a handgun. Not because I want to go around shooting folks or starting a conflict, but because I am choosing to be prepared just in case. In fact, I actively try to AVOID situations and places where conflict may occur