Posted on 05/20/2002 10:23:21 AM PDT by RightWhale
China planning moon landing as first step to Mars
BEIJING (AFP) May 20, 2002
China may be planning to go to the moon in the course of the next decade, but an exhibition here Monday suggested it has far more ambitious goals -- Mars.
A model at the exhibition, organized for the country's National Science Week, showed China's vision of a permanent settlement on the red planet, a sci-fi fantasy replete with shiny domes and large greenhouses.
"From a long-term perspective, it is a historical necessity for man to travel into space," a poster at the exhibition proclaimed.
Chinese media reported last month that scientists were developing a new family of rockets that supposedly could send explorers to Mars.
While most Chinese scientists admit that a Mars mission is still a distant prospect, some have argued that the relevant technologies might as well be developed now.
One such device, a six-wheel robotic detector which could become China's first representative on the planet, was unveiled at the exhibition, which opened as China renewed vows to push ahead with its fledgling but ambitious space program.
China has yet to even put a man into orbit but official media claim, amid great official secrecy, that great strides are being made.
Its third successful unmanned test flight, the Shenzhou III, or "Divine Vessel III", traveled 108 times around the earth on a flight that ended April
The Shenzhou IV mission is still only being planned, but the state-run China Daily reported Monday that China had already carried out feasibility studies for traveling to the moon.
"Theoretically speaking, China is ready to explore the moon," Ouyang Ziyuan, chief scientist of China's moon exploration program, said according to the paper.
"China is expected to complete its first exploration of the moon in 2010 and will establish a base on the moon as we did in the South Pole and the North Pole," he said.
Chinese media said over the weekend that the nation's space scientists were planning a lunar base in order to exploit its mineral resources.
The Beijing Morning Post said China had adopted a three-step plan that would eventually make it possible to fly to the moon.
China first wants to put an astronaut in space, then establish a space laboratory, and eventually set up a space station, the paper said.
The paper quoted Wang Zhuangyin, a leading space-program engineer, as saying China would probably be able to achieve manned space flight by 2005.
The push to promote China's space program during National Science Week tallies with observers' claim that the plans are meant to trigger greater interest in technology among the public.
The tone at the exhibition also showed there is a great deal of self-interest involved in China's bid to become the third nation after the United States and the former Soviet Union to put a human in space.
"The development and actual use of technologies for manned space flight have far-reaching significance for our nation in the political, military, economic and technological fields," a poster at the exhibition said.
The Chinese government said in November 2000 that the aims of its space program included meeting growing demands for national security and to "protect China's national interests and build up comprehensive national strength".
Maybe the Chinese found it and reverse engineered the thing.
It would indeed. How's this grab you: build the basic shuttle as an open framework using something like the ISS trusses. Bolt a pre-fab propulsion module (engines and tanks) on one end, crew compartment (if needed) on the other. Bolt shielding around the sensitive areas.
Attitude control provided by control moment gyros, with jet backup. Attitude determination using star-field trackers. Power generated by solar cells bolted onto the "sides" of the trusswork -- possibly on three sides. This also stiffens the structure considerably.
Autonomous orbit determination using TDRS-type GEO satellites, with a standard ground-based backup.
Cargo modules bolt onto the open trusswork. There'd have to be some means for active CG control, but I suspect that's mostly a matter of accounting for mass properties, and a water distribution system for ballast operations.
As an added bonus, never plan to put the moon shuttle into lunar orbit -- just let it complete the figure-8 and stop it back in Earth orbit. Instead, strap a propulsion module onto the cargo unit, and let it put itself into lunar orbit.
(But note -- there's a whole lot of infrastructure going on here....)
That points up a gripe of mine. O'Keefe is referring to the ground facilities of NASA as infrastructure. Fine, but it isn't space infrastructure. NASA has no space infrastructure, it is all surface infrastructure. The moon shuttle would be space infrastructure, and space infrastructure is what will make the lunar base, the Phobos base, the eventual Mars base, the deep orbit base and all the other bases possible.
One way to stop that is to just acknowledge that whomever gets there gets the goods. There will be some Bill Gates type that will fund a way to get up there faster than the Chicoms can say boo. And no matter what, it will be built here in the US, because we have all the technology (so far).
The US became a real coast-to-coast country by building the transcontinental railroad. We built it by loaning the companies money to build it, and by giving them a part of the land they built across. Prior to then, the land had been virtually worthless, there being no transport system. The railroads paid back their loans on time, and with interest. The US got a continent sized country, with a tax base that's still growing. The railroads sold the now-worth-something land, and made money. Everybody won. (don't bring up the indians. They "won" too, but won't acknowledge it)
Why not do the same thing with the moon?
I used to work for NASA. Anybody worth a damn left in the mid 70's, and all that's left are lousy bureaucrats.
Hmmm... Nope we actually did land humans on the moon. (project Apollo) :-)
Don't worry,
Be happy.
We are happy as clams.
Remember who prints money. They don't have the money, they'll buy another barrel of ink.
Hi I am Back!!! Finally. :-)
The prob is getting that barrel ink thru congress. It takes longer to get an interplanetary mission thru congress than the actuall flight time.
One can make an effective counter-argument with a well-placed box of rocks. (I mean that quite literally.)
No more Sputnik surprises. beep . . . beep . . . beep . . .
I really hope so!
While that was true for LBJ's generation, I doubt it is for the current generation. A year or so ago Jay Leno on his "Jay Walking" stint came across a young college graduate from one of California's esteemed state universities, and asked her how many moons Earth has. Her answer? Five.
This only begins to point to the scope of the problem we're dealing with today.
Oh, I agree. There is nothing to indicate that the American people would once again bristle at the thought of a "Communist moon". After all, "we" gave Bill Clinton two terms in the White House, elected Hillary! and came unbelievably close to electing Al Gore. Clearly, much of the electorate is comfortable with Communists.
I also agree that education is so lacking that we could not engage in another real "Space Race". We could sure crank out some whiz-bang "Artist's Conception" computer-generated graphics for the networks to use, though. No more space capsules cut from construction paper wiggling towards a construction paper moon.
Once that happens, the stuff we are scrapping about now won't matter anymore, and it won't matter who won or lost battles no one cares about anymore.
Who cares who has Taiwan, or the West Bank, or Chechnya, once you have planted your boots on Mars, and set your sights on the Asteroid Belt? Who will care who controls which oil fields?
If the Chinese are thinking in these terms, they are right to do so, and if we are not, we will wish we had. We should plan to have private contractors operating on the moon in 7 years, Mars in 12, and the Asteroids in 20, if we plan to matter at all in our grandchildren's time. We are headed down a blind alley, and the only way to save ourselves is to make the big jump, and make it now.
How about this one to get an industry started:
ONE WAY SPACE TOURISM
Do you have six months or less to live? Would you like to do something special with your remaining time? Strap yourself into one of our space capsules, and you'll be sure to go out with a BANG! Free space burial at the end, too. Only $1,000,000.
Maybe I have my service priced too low.
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