Posted on 11/25/2014 3:44:13 PM PST by Vince Ferrer
“Autonomous spaceport drone ship. Thrusters repurposed from deep sea oil rigs hold position within 3m even in a storm. “ - Elon Musk
What’s interesting about what he said above is that during the second attempted (and first successful) water landing the first stage landed in the middle of a raging Atlantic storm right where they wanted it before the propellant ran out and it crashed into ocean.
China is Now Positioned to Dominate the Moon ......"The lunar phase of Chang’E 2 was completed in nine months, with a departure from lunar orbit in June 2011. What happened next is significant. At the end of August 2011, the Chang’E 2 spacecraft was sent to Sun-Earth L-2, a stable libration point about 1,500,000 km from Earth. At this point, Earth and Sun remain fixed in space (relative to the spacecraft) and minimal fuel is needed to remain here (plans are to park the forthcoming James Webb Space Telescope here). After loitering at L-2 for about 8 months, Chang’E-2 departed in late April 2012 for an intercept and flyby of the asteroid Toutatis in December of that year. High-resolution images of Toutatis were obtained and the Chinese spacecraft entered solar orbit, where it remains to this day.
This mission sequence was highly complex and apparently completely successful. Although it accomplished a great deal scientifically, its operational significance is even greater. The ability to routinely move throughout and work in the volume of space between Earth and Moon (cislunar space) is key to both space permanence and space control. Space permanence means having vehicle assets on call in space for use as needed, as well as being able to position them at strategic spots where they can be reliably stored until required. Space control simply means the ability to provide space assets for national purposes when needed and to deny similar assets to an adversary if necessary. Both permanence and control are demonstrated by positioning satellites in cislunar space, lunar orbit, the L-points, and all parts of space in between."......
Who believes what comes out of a Communist country? Might as well believe the propaganda that North Korea gives its own citizens.
Wasn’t there controversy about China sending people into space because someone saw an air bubble? Was there a trajectory to track from the rocket? Were there satellites watching what was going on?
Yes. They know. Please follow the link - there are other links there and more information out there. I don’t expect you to know the minutiae but please don’t assume and then circulate the notion that Elon Musk is going to begin mining in space, or have extablished a colony on Mars (as he has stated) in 10 years. Repeating that he is ahead of everyone (and dismissing China’s huge space strides and ability) won’t make it so. (Presently he barely makes his scheduled “truck run” to the ISS in LEO.)
extablished = established
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