Un-manned Moon landing in 2013
Posted on 09/05/2012 12:39:10 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
The passing of Neil Armstrong on Saturday appears to be coinciding with a decline in American manned space exploration, as Asian countries develop plans to expand their footprint on the moon and in outer space.
China, Japan, and India have all unveiled aggressive space initiatives in the recent months and years. New Delhi has said it plans to launch the first manned mission by 2016 and a Mars orbiter in the coming years. The Japanese already participate in the International Space Station program and have discussed studying asteroids for potential mineral extraction.
But China has emerged as the most likely successor to the United States and its decades-long dominance in space exploration. The Chinese manned space program began in earnest in 1999 and sent the country’s first astronaut into space in 2003. In, 2008 a Chinese astronaut completed the nation’s first space walk.
Beijing also has lofty plans for the future of its aeronautics program. One of the government’s most recent press releases said they were working towards landing a man on the moon. In a potential precursor to landing a Chinese citizen on the moon, the country will attempt to land a craft on the moon in the second half of 2013. The moon lander is also expected to perform a survey of the lunar surface.
“Nobody knows where the next astronauts on the moon will come from. But I expect there is a good chance that they will be Chinese,” said Morris Jones, an Australian space expert.
“China’s space program is moving steadily forward. If they continue at this pace, they will develop the capability to reach the moon around 2030,” he said.
China’s space agency has also begun taking steps toward the country’s very own space station. A state news agency reported in July that a next-generation rocket engine powered by liquid oxygen was successfully tested.
However, fears of Chinese space dominance may be misplaced—at least for now. The Communist country’s first space docking that was performed this year was perfected by the U.S. in the 1960s.
For their part, the Americans are still making progress in the space race, albeit not as fast as some might like. The SUV-sized Curiosity Rover stands on the Martian surface partially as a testament to NASA’s on-going ability to achieve groundbreaking feats.
NASA is also developing a new ‘megarocket’ that the agency expects to become the backbone of American space exploration for the next few decades. Budget constraints have kept the project to a meager $18 billion, but when completed the rocket is designed to lift 70 metric tons into orbit, three times the weight of today’s most powerful rockets.
By comparison, Beijing has spent a total of $6.1 billion on its manned space program, according to state media reports. Seen as a symbol of Communist Party’s success in turning around the nation’s economy, some experts say that the Chinese space program also has more practical goals.
“Trips to the moon have always involved prestige, but there is also science,” said Jones. “A new trend could involve mining the moon for nuclear fuel. China has made no secret of their interest in this possibility.”
I’ll believe it when I see it.
I vote we volunteer Obama as their man and send along Biden, but only under one condition. That they leave them there.
There are virtually no democrats with the math and science ability to be considered for the task. Obama and Biden are at base lawyers and that means they are grossly ignorant of technical matters
As long as we name the newly-formed crater after them.
They do realize there is no green cheese up there, right?
Ping.
Yeah, but then they’ll leave him there.
You know China.
Sounds like a bullet train in space. I’d be cross training out of the Chinese astronaut program.
The week that the first Taikonaut orbited the Earth. All the American Press reported on was Rush Limbaugh’s drug problem.
The Chinese just landed that Curiosity rover on Mars.
Oh wait. That was not them was it. LOL!
To do so would have to be a very open display.
If they do it, congrats.
If not it is for the world to see for a change
Im thinking un-manned moon landing by 2016 first . . .
How big would their version of our Lunar Module be? With the legs folded, our LM was a sizable spacecraft. It filled the SLA on top of the Saturn V S-IVB. Currently, China doesn’t have a launch vehicle that could lift a similar spacecraft. Even a scaled down LM would be puching the booster capability. They would then need a seperate launch for the crew. Seems that they have a long way to go before they can even think of traipsing out where we’ve already been.
To heck with that. It has already been done.
Pull on the Big-Boy Superpower britches and put in a permanent base!
Heck with that. I bet they use a multi-vehicle launch. One carries the command module, the other the lunar module. With a little planning, you can bring more mass and more fuel and land a bigger team.
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