China Launches Astronauts To Newly Completed Space Station (nytimes.com) 90
Tall as a 20-story building, a rocket carrying the Shenzhou 15 mission roared into the night sky of the Gobi Desert on Tuesday, carrying three astronauts toward a rendezvous with China's just-completed space station. From a report: The rocket launch was a split-screen event for China, the latest in a long series of technological achievements for the country, even as many of its citizens have been angrily lashing out in the streets against stringent pandemic controls.The air shook as the huge white rocket leaped into a starry, bitterly cold night sky shortly before the setting of a waxing crescent moon. The expedition to the new space station is a milestone for China's rapidly advancing space program. It is the first time a team of three astronauts already aboard the Tiangong outpost will be met by a crew arriving from Earth. The Chinese space station will now be continuously occupied, like the International Space Station, another marker laid down by China in its race to catch up with the United States and surpass it as the dominant power in space.
With a sustained presence in low-Earth orbit aboard Tiangong, Chinese space officials are preparing to put astronauts on the moon, which NASA also intends to revisit before the end of the decade as part of its Artemis program. "It will not take a long time; we can achieve the goal of manned moon landing," Zhou Jianping, chief designer of China's crewed space program, said in an interview at the launch center. China has been developing a lunar lander, he added, without giving a date when it might be used. The launch of Shenzhou 15 comes less than two weeks after NASA finally launched its Artemis I mission following many delays. That flight has put its uncrewed Orion capsule into orbit around the moon.
With a sustained presence in low-Earth orbit aboard Tiangong, Chinese space officials are preparing to put astronauts on the moon, which NASA also intends to revisit before the end of the decade as part of its Artemis program. "It will not take a long time; we can achieve the goal of manned moon landing," Zhou Jianping, chief designer of China's crewed space program, said in an interview at the launch center. China has been developing a lunar lander, he added, without giving a date when it might be used. The launch of Shenzhou 15 comes less than two weeks after NASA finally launched its Artemis I mission following many delays. That flight has put its uncrewed Orion capsule into orbit around the moon.
Pleased (Score:1, Offtopic)
Sadly the space station is now under lockdown (Score:4, Funny)
And their internet posting has been cut by the CPP
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Bigger then Skylab (Score:1)
Not much bigger than Skylab (96 megagram as opposed to 75 megagrams), but bigger.
They'd have been better off continuing to work with the Russian part of the ISS (if only because adding 96 megagrams to ISS have been more useful in general). Assuming, of course the Russians would let them...
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If you're going to insist that SI is the obviously superior system, then why aren't you going to insist on, well, using it? The proper unit is NOT "metric ton", it is megagram. Assuming, of course, that we're NOT talking weight. If we're talking weight (as all too many SI users insist is the only right and proper way of doing things) then we should be talking mega-newtons...
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If we're talking weight (as all too many SI users insist is the only right and proper way of doing things) then we should be talking mega-newtons...
It makes no sense to measure by weight in a micro-g environment.
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If you're going to insist that SI is the obviously superior system, then why aren't you going to insist on, well, using it? The proper unit is NOT "metric ton", it is megagram....
No, actually the SI unit is the kilogram.
Go ahead, look it up. [nist.gov]
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The use of a kilogram is for historic reasons when they had a physical object that was the benchmark from which other reference objects were derived. Nowadays the gram is defined using the Planck constant.
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Not according to encyclopedia britannica [britannica.com]
The gram is now defined as 0.001 kilogram (kg), which is defined in terms of Planck’s constant.
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It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI.
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NASA isn't allowed to cooperate with them, so they couldn't participate in the ISS.
Today they also mentioned 2028 as a goal for a manned moon landing.
And in Other News (Score:5, Funny)
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One astronaut has tested positive for Covid, and the space station has been sealed off until further notice.
The "space station has been sealed off" -- hah. Though, it is warmer with the doors closed.
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Looks like we'll have to modernize that old snark to "That's funnier than a screen door on a Tiangong!".
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A space station would be the one place in the Sol System where its safer to take the mask off *inside* than outside.
Wow, Zero Covid is getting even harsher (Score:5, Funny)
So now, if you test positive, the Central Committee launches you into space??
We need a moon base (Score:2, Insightful)
Orbit is old hat. We need a base on the moon, and Mars .. if Elon decides to stop his right-wing extremism and work on the Starship design again.
Re:We need a moon base (Score:5, Insightful)
It's clear that Apple was ready to move on from Steve Jobs. They needed a details-oriented process guy running the show, and they got a really good one with Tim Cook. Is he a visionary? Obviously not, but Jobs provided enough of that to last Apple for decades.
I'm starting to conclude that Tesla and SpaceX are in that category. Their path is set, and they just need super-competent leadership to have a solid 20-30 year run. Which would probably be enough time to complete the electrification of cars and maybe the grid as well. If SpaceX can be run competently for that much more time, they'll probably put a person on Mars. God knows that NASA isn't going to be able to do it.
Musk can step away from SpaceX and Tesla and dabble in social media for the rest of his career. I think he'll look back and deeply regret it as a frivolous distraction from what really matters. But he won't be doing any damage to the companies that are actually important (Twitter isn't)
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But I do think you underestimate Musk's engineering skills. I do not know for a fact, but I got the strong impression from interviews, tweets and a couple of books that Musk was more involved in Tesla manufacturing improvements and Spacex rocket design and engineering than you give him credit for.
And it is very good to have a knowledgeable engineer at the top, to take reasoned risks and have the authority to
Re:We need a moon base (Score:4, Interesting)
But I do think you underestimate Musk's engineering skills. I do not know for a fact, but I got the strong impression from interviews, tweets and a couple of books that Musk was more involved in Tesla manufacturing improvements and Spacex rocket design and engineering than you give him credit for.
Thing is, given his bizarro-world requirement when he bought into the existing company Tesla (requiring them contractually to start referring to him as a founder) - how do we know his status as "lead engineer" isn't more of the same sort of self-serving crap?
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( Oh and "it make" In my grandfather comment should be "it became". )
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It's much better than that. The "founders" actually sued each other over being allowed to be called founder. https://www.cnet.com/culture/t... [cnet.com]
While I agree in principle that you shouldn't be called a founder if you buy into an existing company, it was hardly fair to call Tesla and existing company. At the time Musk threw his money at it they were little more than an idea with no funding and no product having been around for less than a year, and only had 3 employees.
It is also 100% fair to say that Musk had
Re:We need a moon base (Score:4, Interesting)
But I do think you underestimate Musk's engineering skills. I do not know for a fact, but I got the strong impression from interviews, tweets and a couple of books that Musk was more involved in Tesla manufacturing improvements and Spacex rocket design and engineering than you give him credit for.
I'm not so sure about that. I think he knows enough to talk a good game, stay on top of what the engineers are doing and provide some direction of where to go, but he's not really vital to the process. Let's not forget that his physics degree turned out to be fake.
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There's a bunch of stuff on it. Apparently it actually came up when he was sued by the founder of Tesla back in 2009. There's a bunch of info collected here. [twitter.com] Like a lot of information available on the Internet, it may not be true. On the other hand, the claim that Musk had a physics degree is also just a claim on the Internet.
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That's hardly proof of anything. There's no reason you would expect a University paper to seriously fact-check the actual degree status of well-known degree holders.
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Why do conspiracy theories turn people into such idiots?
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How does that logic work? Here in the real world people fake academic qualifications all the time. Why would you assume that a bunch of family or friends would even know if he actually got a physics degree or, even f they did, that they would come forward and tell the world? The statements of Musk and others over the years about his degree actually seem pretty fishy and don't completely add up.
Also, Musk is not exactly known for honesty. Consider another "conspiracy theory" that his father owned an emerald
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What Musk statements about the mine or anything else about his past are *proven* false?
So far you got nothing but nonsense.
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They would know because they taught him or studied with him, duh!
Which completely fails to address why they would say anything about it or why anyone would listen. Your argument boils down to: "No one can lie because the truth would come out". That does not resemble the world we live in at all.
What Musk statements about the mine or anything else about his past are *proven* false?
That's the thing with types like Musk. While they do tell outright lies, they also have a tendency to dissemble without actually making concrete statements. For example, when Robert Reich wrote "Elon Musk came from a family that owned an emerald mine in Apartheid South Africa", Elo
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Insane conspiracy theorists like you and Qanon are listening so hard you desperately believe any old made up shit thrown your way.
Even when it is obvious to sane normal people that YOU GOT NOTHING BUT NONSENSE.
And to answer my question because you did not:
What Musk statements about the mine or anything else about his past are *proven* false?
You have none.
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Insane conspiracy theorists like you and Qanon are listening so hard you desperately believe any old made up shit thrown your way.
This is not some insane conspiracy theory like some wacky Qanon stuff. It seems to have reasonable evidentiary report and it's not exactly far-fetched. What's crazy about a kid out of college who took physics classes, but didn't finish his B.S. in physics pretending to in order to sound smarter? Comparing that to: "DEMOCRATS ARE LIZARD PEOPLE WHO SEXUALLY MOLEST AND DRINK THE BLOOD OF CHILDREN IN PIZZA RESTAURANT BASEMENTS!" seems a little hyperbolic. I'm not a credulous person. Musk, however, is not a very
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Pathetic and deluded.
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That's it? That's what you have on Musk?
Pathetic and deluded.
Somehow, I get the feeling that you would have written the above no matter what. If I had a link to a verified video of him eating a baby while saying "I don't eat babies." you would still say "That's it? That's what you have on Musk?" I'm not deluded. The kind of hero worship where people raise other human beings to superhuman status is what's pathetic and deluded. Musk is just human. He has accomplished a lot, but he has flaws. A whole boatload of them and they did not all start with the mid-life crisis
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True.
But you don't have to make up stuff about him or support silly conspiracy theories - his flaws are out in the open.
His Pelosi post was unforgiveable.
It was in support of a false conspiracy theory. Ahem.
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Well, we agree on him being flawed. Time may tell on the degree. Or it may not. It doesn't really matter much if he has a physics degree or not. The real question is his overall credibility, and he seems to love squandering his credibility.
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Musk has a degree in Physics.
https://www.thedp.com/article/2020/05/penn-elon-musk-space-x-rocket-launch
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Apparently that's actually in doubt. The founder of Tesla sued him back in 2009 and one of the claims was that Musk's claim to have a physics degree was a untrue. Musk didn't back up his degree claim in court and he settled in the end. It's looking like he actually dropped out to go into business and falsely claimed for years to have a physics degree (although, apparently he changed his story about the exact degree several times). Now, it's not as if you have to have a degree to be a successful businesspers
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His alma mater backs him up, so you silly conspiracy theorists need better material or to STFU.
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You don't settle when you can back up claims.
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While he was not being sued exclusively over that, he was being sued for misrepresenting himself in business and one of the ways that he was being accused of misrepresenting himself was by claiming a degree that he did not have.
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And this is your evidence proving he does not have a degree ?!
FFS
You are deluded, laughable and sad.
Get some facts, get a life.
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So you agree: He wasn't being sued over whether he had a degree, duh.
I'm not sure how you come to that impression. Specifically, one of the claims in the lawsuit was that he faked a BS in physics. I was not the _only_ thing he was being sued for, but it was obviously part of what he was being sued for. It should be obvious that there is no legal issue with lying about having a qualification you don't have... unless you use that lie to obtain a position or benefit you would not have gotten otherwise. For example if you claim to have a degree to get a job, or you convince some
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Pay attention to the facts, ignore the nonsense.
Most people have that filter, a crazy minority do not. And they are a danger to society.
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I've seen B.S. in physics claimed a number of times by various people. B.A. seems more realistic. Still, no explanation there of why that did not come up in court, but we don't have all the details. His business partners had some reason to make the claim in court. I doubt it would have been done frivolously.
Trust me, I'm aware that a crazy minority (I worry that they're not really in the minority) are something of a danger. Here though, I'm trying to follow the facts. Musk's low credibility level and the fa
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His alma mater backs him up, so you silly conspiracy theorists need better material or to STFU.
Does his alma mater back him up? I've been trying to get to the truth of his physics degree and what is interesting is how many of the deeper biographical articles on Musk don't actually specifically say outright that he got his physics degree. On casual reading they seem to say that, but if you read them critically a lot of them actually talk about him being "in pursuit of" a physics degree, etc. There's a lot of language that seems like it's hedging some of the details. Almost like the author got to write
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I'm not so sure about that. I think he knows enough to talk a good game, stay on top of what the engineers are doing and provide some direction of where to go, but he's not really vital to the process.
I think he is vital to the process. He pushes the engineers to accomplish what others would write off as infeasible. He sets unreasonable timeframes, and they do their best to achieve what he asked for.
The push to achieve and the faith required to put all the money behind achieving those unrealistic goals is not something that competent management would do. Making all-or-nothing bets on the companies future is something that won't happen without him.
I hope his faffing around with his new toy (Twitter) do
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I think he is vital to the process. He pushes the engineers to accomplish what others would write off as infeasible. He sets unreasonable timeframes, and they do their best to achieve what he asked for.
There's the important consideration of whether all that is sustainable, however. Right now, the goals for Starship are pretty much set. New ideas that people might write off as infeasible don't really need to be added to the mix. The engineers know their jobs and where to go. Also, I'm not so sure that setting unreasonable timeframes is much of an actual skill. It may be more of a pathology. Now, when you have a bunch of people, enthusiastic about a common goal - get to Mars - that sort of thing can work. I
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Musk did nothing for Tesla (other than force out a co-founder) and SpaceX (which was already going nicely with government grants) All Musk re
Re:We need a moon base (Score:5, Insightful)
As much as I despise Musk as a person, he's been a lot more closely involved with SpaceX---at least Starship---than you seem to think. I heard several interviews with him at the Texas Starship facility with Tim Dodd. While it's true Musk is no rocket scientist, he does have an understanding of engineering, and he is pretty hands on with their rocket engine design, at least some of the time. Even if it might be limited to simply challenging the conventional assumptions of the rocket scientists. He does seem to have a good understanding of where their engines are now and where they need to go. As he said in the interview, the goal is to simplify and delete as many moving parts as possible, and his rocket scientists have done very well implementing that. So I don't think SpaceX depends on Musk in any way other than his money, but they have benefited from spurts of personal involvement.
That said, I get the impression Musk is a bit ADD when it comes to leadership. Camping on the floor of Tesla, staying for weeks at SpaceX in Texas, and then going off somewhere to play with movie stars for a while, then Twitter, etc. Twitter employees can only hope he'll lose interest there soon, and go back to Texas and leave Twitter to the people hired to run it.
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And that is going to be a huge liability for Tesla as Musk's antics are actually turning people off from buying a Tesla. Sadly,I don't think the people attracted to Musk are the kind of people who are heavily into EVs.
People buy Tesla the brand not the EV.
Musk did nothing for Tesla (other than force out a co-founder) and SpaceX (which was already going nicely with government grants) All Musk really did was apply a little extra investor funding to the mix.
This isn't true. SpaceX is all Musk's doing. He's pushing technology in an attempt to achieve a presently unobtainable goal and kicking everyone else's ass in the process.
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I've got enormous respect for Musk, so I've w
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While Tesla existed already and Musk bought it, he actually did bring together SpaceX from scratch. He went after experts already versed in rocketry of course, but he still gets actual founder credit for SpaceX, unlike Tesla where he simply demanded to be called "founder".
Nope, U R wrong, SpaceX needs Musk (Score:3)
wait for it...
here it comes
There is NO PROFIT IN GOING TO MARS
the meme: https://www.genolve.com/design... [genolve.com]
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It's clear that Apple was ready to move on from Steve Jobs.
Yeah. It was clear the moment we found out he was dead. They needed to move on from him. Sad but true.
You don't know what Apple would have created with Jobs still around.
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Yeah. It was clear the moment we found out he was dead. They needed to move on from him. Sad but true.
You don't know what Apple would have created with Jobs still around.
Probably something like Lenin's tomb where people come to pose for selfies next to a turtleneck-clad wax dummy of Steve Jobs that's just a full on dummy half the time and, the other half, is a wax dummy built _around_ a formaldehyde-soaked corpse. I could picture quite a few Apple fans visiting.
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I might visit, sounds spooky
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It could be branded as iTomb maybe.
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"AppleTomb" or I riot. And it better have bluetooth.
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This is the common sense logic from say my very valuable course in high tech startups and the general VC model of running things.
The illogic of what you're saying is very subtle, but it is there: a true winner breaks all common sense rules and simply has to be ridden as far as it (or he) can be ridden.
Tim Cook and Pichar and the others like them essentially inject evil into the process. By doing so, they ensure those stable 20 year runs at profit, but destroy the atmosphere of creativity that actually mad
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Orbit is old hat. We need a base on the moon
Problem is then they'll probably start having to store nuclear waste on the far side of the moon, it'll explode, and... well, we know what happens from there.
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That won't happen now. It's been safe to store nuclear waste on the moon for ~23 years now.
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China has said they want a moon base of some kind by 2028. Ambitious but not impossible.
Wouldn't it be nice if everyone could work together on it. China, ESA, JAXA, NASA... Maybe not Roscosmos though.
Over 20 comments so far... (Score:4, Funny)
... and not a single one is an interesting, informative, insightful, or even funny statement about the topic.
Maybe very few Slashdotters know enough about Chinese activities in space to be able to comment?
In which case I recommend Wittgenstein's advice:
When you cannot say anything, be silent.
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Well, you're not new here, or not the original owner of that account, so i'm not sure why you're expecting better from slashdot, it's pretty much been this way for years...
Also, being forced to shut up may work in your country, but this is the free internet (for now, anyway).
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Also, being forced to shut up may work in your country, but this is the free internet (for now, anyway).
I didn't say anything about anyone being forced to shut up. I merely quoted some wise advice.
As it happens, "being forced to shut up" has been working very well (for the enforcers) in my country - the UK. Just as in the USA, where anyone wishing to express certain perfectly legal and moral thoughts in public has been effectively gagged for years.
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or even funny statement
Go to a doctor, you have a broken humerus. The first 3 comments were all funny, and are now even modded as such.
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I wrote:
"... and not a single one is an interesting, informative, insightful, or even funny statement about the topic".
The comments you cite may or not be funny. They were not on topic.
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First Thing They Do (Score:2)
Get their suits back on and visit the ISS for some GOOD Take-Away food
After all, you can only eat so much Chinese food for so long before it all tastes the same.
CCP start an active progam of humans on moon... (Score:2)
I'm confused again (Score:1)