[Willie Green]

Related thread: Missile Technology Plant Moved to China

[ChicagoRepublican]

Come on Bush! Reassert American primacy over the solar system. If China succeeds, then America will go the way medievel China went. We will become an insular nation burdened by a socialist bureacracy, only to be owned by foreigners in some future day.

[DoughtyOne]

I realize this is somewhat premature, but I can't believe we are financing the entrance into so many fields for a brutal regime that places so little value on human life and human rights. The last thing I want is a China type nation entering the high ground. This is utter madness.

[RightWhale]

some sort of permanent, most likely unmanned, base could be established on the Moon's surface by 2010.

Looks like robotics will be getting a big boost.

[UncleSamUSA]

If -- and thats a BIG BIG BIG if -- the Chinese do get to the moon the first thing they are going to do is set up a Take-Out Restaurant with Egg Foo Young, Chow Mein, and all sorts of Hunan and Cantonese specials.

The second thing they are going to do is build a great big old wall.

Then the biggest Chinese astronaut is going to club the smallest Chinese astronaut over the head and beat him senseless and tell him to tow the party line next time or else.

After all, you gotta do what you do best, even on the moon.

[b4its2late]

Must be cheese up there.......

[Publius6961]

I think that's wonderful.
Good luck to them.

[Illbay]

I applaud this. It might be just the thing that kick-starts our own space exploration.

Oh, and I believe that space exploration ought to be primarily undertaken by private enterprise with a profit motive. That's the only way that it can be done properly, with minimal impact according to who is in Congress, etc.

[Wavyhill]

Why do I get the funny feeling that, once Bush tries to get back into the space race against the Chinese, that the Democrats are going to filibuster him?

"We're patriotic Americans, but we are concerned that this might blow a hole in the deficit. We should be worrying about important issues, like the Patients' Bill of Rights."

[Enemy Of The State]

hell, they have to get a man in space first.

[Pablo64]

So is this the same China that can't get a misile off the launch pad (or did the traitor Klintoon fix that when he sold out our nation's rocket technology for some campaign loot?). Never mind, I know the answer.

[asneditor]

I hope the Moon People eat em!

[Atlas Sneezed]

Chinese Moon Cake

This recipe for Mooncakes comes from Shanghai. Originally made in moon cake molds with imprints such as chrysanthemum pattern or other traditional Chinese characters. They should be about three inches (seven centimeters) in diameter. Before baking - invent and draw your own "traditional patterns"!

4 cups flour

4 tbsp. brown sugar

half tsp. salt

4oz (11Og) margarine

1 egg

1 tsp. sesame oil

For the filling:

2 tbsp. peanuts

2 tbsp. sesame seeds

2 tbsp. walnuts or pine nuts

2 tbsp. chestnuts, boiled until tender, or blanched almonds

2 tbsp. sultanas or other dried fruit, chopped

2 tbsp. chopped dried apricots

4 tbsp. brown sugar

2 tbsp. Margarine

2 tbsp. rice flour or poppy seeds

Preheat oven to 400F or 200C - Recipe makes about 15 cakes.

Sift the flout, sugar and salt together.

Chop the margarine into pieces and rub into the flour until crumbs form.

Add enough hot water (about half a cup) to make a pastry dough.

Cover with a cloth.

Roast the peanuts in a hot pan for two minutes.

Add the sesame seeds, then put a lid on to stop them from jumping out of the pan.

Roast for a further two minutes.

Put the peanuts and seeds in a food processor or blender and grind with the other nuts.

Add to the rest of the filling ingredients and mix together.

Roll out the pastry on a floured board.

Cut rounds with a pastry cutter to fill the mold - if you have one - or make little pie cases.

Rub the mold with margarine and spread pastry over the bottom and sides of the mold.

Put in a tablespoon of filling. Press down gently.

Wet the edges of the pastry and cover with another round to make a lid.

Seal together, and remove from the mold if you are using one.

Put all the cakes on a greased baking sheet. Beat the eggs and sesame oil together and brush each cake with this mixture.

Bake about thirty minutes until the cakes are golden brown.

[Theophilus]

Ziyuan said exploring the Moon "probably holds the key to humanity's future subsistence and development".

Well, if China maintains it's "one child (a boy) policy", the last PRC citizen (a lonely and horny man) can blast off for the moon in about 20 shrinking generations. The fact is, people are China's greatest asset but their idiot government thinks it needs more rock. At least they're not spending those billions on more communist education.

[Enemy Of The State]

"For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use."

Willy, what they heck does this mean?

[Verginius Rufus]

China plans three-phase moon exploration? I assume that means first quarter, full moon, and last quarter.

[DoctorMichael]

........They also hinted that the motivation for the missions is to mine the Moon's resources........

I refer anyone to Robert Zubrin's ENTERING SPACE (Chapter 5): The moon has very little marketable resources. In fact, the moon lacks sufficient resources for true colonization. The moon is a place to 'do' science and could serve as a stepping stone to the other solar system's bodies...............its worthless, otherwise.

[chesty_puller]

Why does anyone give a rat's butt if China goes to the moon?

[anymouse]

Let me see a socialist leaning 'science' publication does a puff piece on Chinese space aspirations. Why don't I believe this is more than opportunistic propaganda?

[chilepepper]

This is absolutely the *BEST* news about space I have heard in a long time.

It is a certainty that as long as the US has a monopoly on getting to the moon, the sclerotic NASA which is paterned after a 1960's style socialist bureaucracy would sit on its duff and do virtually NOTHING. We got to the moon because the RUSSIANS scared us into it, and we will only get to Mars if the CHINESE scare us into it.