China plans three-phase Moon exploration

NewScientist.com ^ | March 03, 2003 | Will Knight

[bert]

For reference see "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" by Robert hainlein. The plot involves just such a strategy.

[bert]

....Seeing as how the US sat on its laurels for the past 30 years.....

From an acativist point of view this might be true but....

We have not exactly been sitting on our hands. There was a recent disaster in space that will be written up to experience. We will have learned something just as we have been learning and researching on a daily basis since the last lunar mission. Experience is costly but when challenging the unknown is valuable thing to have around.

Steven J Gould liked to talk about evolution that had punctuated equilibrium. He meant that there are periods of slow steady change interrupted by sudden surges. This is the way I view the space program. There will be a surge when enough of the various parts and pieces now under slow development advance to reach a new critical mass.

I favor quicker, but politically, quicker is probably not possible. Competition from China might help. China is in transition from totalitarian to some different status and a space exploration program might get lost in the change.

[RightWhale]

I personally boxed up parts of the space program when those parts were cancelled shortly before launch. Those parts were carefully stored and no doubt will never see the light of day again. There is a rate of progress that amounts to zero--similar to having a paycheck of a positive nature that barely covers daily expenses: you never get anywhere but older.

[RightWhale]

Sure, time will tell. At the moment China is making good progress and NASA is making no visible progress in certain high-profile portions of its mission. Not to say that NASA can't make astounding advances anymore because NASA absolutely can --if it is suitably tasked and funded.

NASA needs big projects with big goals. We think of Mars as "been there, done that" but when we actually send men to Mars and build a settlement we will feel the difference at the cellular level. Everything will change.