Red Moon. Dark Moon.

The Space Review ^ | 10/11/05 | Dwayne A. Day

[Walkenfree]

Question here. Didn't Russia just launch a space ship a few days ago?
This article says, "China is planning to launch one in a few days."
Doesn't it seems strange they would simultaneously orbit Earth ?

[UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide]

Funny thing is, the kind of "Chinese food" we eat here in the US barely resembles the food that the Chinese actually eat.

In China, Chinese food is called "food" :-)

[vannrox]

You are right. I'll tell you, they will eat just about anything. But I really like some of it, and actually think that it is great. Some of the other stuff, well, it is abit too alien to my american taste buds. I like China and I like the Chinese.

I think that they are serious about space travel, and will beat the US in the colonization of the moon. Certainly. Why? Because the odds are too great that there will be a Democrat controlled branch of government before we land on the moon again.

[hopespringseternal]

I am a little puzzled why Day insists a lunar program can only be done with a large rocket. Docking spacecraft is done so routinely the only reason to develop a large rocket is because you want to develop a large rocket.

Saturn V launched a lunar transfer stage, lunar lander, and command and service modules all in one launch. By using separate launches you avoid big rocket development and can make each one much more robust.

NASA's plans are protracted because they envision a jobs program for the shuttle army much more than a lunar program.

[Zuben Elgenubi]

It must be difficult for the Chinese to pronounce "Loral". The "l's" and "r" probably make it impossible:

"Thank you, Rolar."

"Crinton" is so much more easy.

[KevinDavis]

lol!!!!

[KevinDavis]

lol!!!!

[SauronOfMordor]

We'd know more if we'd explored more than three football fields of a real estate parcel as big as the continent of Africa. Future explorers may stumble across Diamond Ridge and Gold Valley. Or perhaps they may discover something unexpected.

A viable permanent base on the moon would have great military value. From earth, it's hard to launch a strike against a moon base, but fairly easy for the moon to launch a strike against the Earth. The energy needed to toss a given mass to lunar escape velocity is 5% of the energy needed to achieve earth escape velocity. Since there is no atmosphere to complicate things, you can accelerate the mass using a magnetic catapult

Now visualize a large chunk of rock being steered by a cheap electronics package arriving on earth at 7 miles/sec. Then visualize a series of them

[Doc On The Bay]

I Guess you're right; Let's us Stay Here, Devote our Efforts to the "Sick & the Poor, & Forget Mankind's Dreams of Exploring Space!

After All, we have SO MANY EARTHLY PROBLEMS of Poverty & Cultural Displacement!!

Let's get our "Earthly House 'In Order'" before we "Look to the Stars.

Despite the Fact that we "Have the Technology" to Colonize the Moon--& On to Mars,--we should attempt to "Minister to our Poor," & "Give ALMS to our Less Fortunate Brothers" before we EVER THINK to "Go Back to the Moon!"

There are a few of us, however, who believe that UNLESS we CONTINUE to "GO TO THE STARS," our Species will Perish!

Some of us Believe that our "Destiny" REQUIRES us to "GO FOR IT!!"

An Interesting Dichotomy!!

Doc

[Moonman62]

Then why doesn't our military already have a base there?

[SunkenCiv]

Nevertheless, Congressman Ken Calvert, chairman of the House Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee, recently raised the prospect of a Moon race between the United States and China. Noting that NASA’s plans are to land a human on the Moon by 2018, Calvert told a reporter for Aerospace Daily & Defense Report: "I’ve been talking to a number of people that are much more knowledgeable about that than I am, [about] some things that maybe are still classified, but they believe that the Chinese are probably on the mark to get there sooner."

Hadn't the Chinese already stated their target date, like, three years ago?

Nope, sorry, no moon race. It's more important to balance the budget, raise taxes, bring the troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan (but not Europe), and get Israel to withdraw from the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Oh yeah, and make amnesty for illegal immigrants and gay marriage the law of the land. ;') Hope I didn't forget anything.

I'm reminded again of a warning years ago by a scientist, who equated the US' approach to space with that of Portugal's exploration of the globe. I think that's a bit paranoid, because the technology for space travel hasn't improved a great deal since Von Braun, and so it remains challenging at best to maintain off-world colonies.

To stoke paranoia a bit more, however, Portuguese expansion was derailed by defeat at the hands of Moslems in 1578. ;')

[SunkenCiv]

"We can discover all those things with robotics."

Wholeheartedly agree. The way to build public support for a return to the Moon is to land a bunch of rover vehicles all over the place (on both sides of the Moon; that would require a satellite relay system in orbit around the Moon of course) which all of us web surfers could access via the web. Control of the rovers would of course be distributed to various academic and commercial organizations, not given over to anyone with a browser. :')

[RightWhale]

land a bunch of rover vehicles all over the place

That part of the program should begin about '08. Robotics will be a substantial part of the return to the moon, a continuation of the Surveyor program but much enhanced, including rovers.

Has anybody heard how the current Chinese mission orbital adjustment went?

[SunkenCiv]

Nope.

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=chinese+space+mission&sa=N&tab=wn

[SunkenCiv]

This is interesting...

http://www.asianews.it/view.php?l=en&art=4350

"China's two-men, five-day space mission is generating national price but also criticism over the 'waste' of money. Shenzhou VI might even land in the Gobi deposit only three days into its mission."

[RightWhale]

spaceflightnow.com

Now veterans of over three days in space, the two astronauts aboard China's Shenzhou 6 capsule are more than halfway through their anticipated five-day mission after already completing several experiments and key tests of the performance of their spacecraft, which continues to function well.

---

Of several alternate landing sites, one is in the US.

[SunkenCiv]

landed:
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/world/stories/101705dnintchinaspace.7c2a0b6.html

[RightWhale]

Landed, and forgotten. Hardly noticed at all. The program is a space station next and then the moon. The moon before NASA gets their next act off the ground. Clinton's fault, of course.

[G8 Diplomat]

China claims they're going to the moon in 2012. I don't believe they'll make it. Only recently (a few years ago) did they even send a man into orbit, and that was only for 23 hours. They're a little behind. Men were sent into orbit FORTY YEARS AGO.