'Nuff said!
Posted on 08/24/2007 10:35:03 AM PDT by Abathar
TOKYO - Japan claims its project is the biggest since Apollo. China says it is readying its probes to study the lunar surface to plan a landing.
With Asia's biggest powers set to launch their first unmanned lunar missions — possibly as early as next month — the countdown has begun in the hottest space race since the United States beat the Soviet Union to the moon nearly four decades ago.
Japan's space agency said last week that its SELENE lunar satellite is on track for a Sept. 13 launch, following years of delay as engineers struggled to fix mechanical problems.
China, meanwhile, is rumored to be planning a September blastoff for its Chang'e 1 probe, but is coy as to the date.
The Chinese satellite and its Changzheng 3 rocket have passed all tests, and construction of the launch pad is finished, according to the National Space Administration's Web site. Last month, China's minister of defense technology told CCTV that all was ready for a launch "by the end of the year."
Officials have tried to play down the importance of beating each other off the pad, but their regional rivalry is never far below the surface.
"I don't want to make this an issue of win or lose. But I believe whoever launches first, Japan's mission is technologically superior," said Yasunori Motogawa, an executive at JAXA, Japan's space agency. "We'll see which mission leads to the scientific breakthroughs."
China's military-run space program has taken a great leap forward in recent years, and the country sent shock waves through the region in 2003, when it became the first Asian country to put its own astronauts into space.
China also blasted an old satellite into oblivion with a land-based anti-satellite missile, the first such test ever conducted by any nation, including the United States and Russia.
But Japan is right behind China.
After a decade of work, Tokyo in February completed a network of four spy satellites that can monitor any spot on the globe, every day — a program spurred by the 1998 North Korean test of a Taepodong ballistic missile, which flew over Japan's main island and into the Pacific.
One of the spy satellites has since failed, however, throwing the network's effectiveness into doubt. Tokyo spends about $500 million a year on the program.
Regional powers India, South Korea, Malaysia and Taiwan all have satellites in orbit. North Korea says it sent one up with its 1998 ballistic missile launch and to have used it to broadcast hymns about its leader, Kim Jong Il, although the claim has never been substantiated.
The planned lunar missions by China and Japan are among the most ambitious space programs yet.
Japanese space officials have said their $276 million SELENE project is the largest lunar mission since the Apollo program in terms of overall scope and ambition, outpacing the former Soviet Union's Luna program and NASA's Clementine and Lunar Prospector projects.
SELENE involves placing a main satellite in orbit around the moon and deploying two smaller satellites in polar orbits to study the moon's origin and evolution. Japan launched a lunar probe in 1990, but that was a flyby mission, unlike SELENE, which is intended to orbit the moon.
China's Chang'e 1 orbiter will use stereo cameras and X-ray spectrometers to map three-dimensional images of the lunar surface and study its dust. The country has already spent $185 million on it, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.
Beijing hopes to retrieve samples from the moon in later missions, according to the project's Web page, and Xinhua has reported that a manned probe could come within 15 years. Japan is also considering a manned mission by 2025.
"It's the race for the South Pole all over again," said Hideo Nagasu, former research head of JAXA's predecessor organization, the National Aerospace Laboratory.
"In the interest of furthering Asia's space technology, cooperating would be the best option. But I don't think either side wants to do that just yet."
Are you saying moon base Alpha wasn't real? Then where did they film that TV show? I thought Hollywood always filmed on location /s
I hope they concentrate on mining the moon... We should focus on mining the oceans. More minerals and 1000 times easier - and cheaper - to get. Considering the difficulties inherent in space travel - including gravity wells and the lack of any atmosphere - we should really focus on resources that are readily available here.
Let Russia, China, and Japan fight over the moon. We’ll just take the entire Eastern half of the Pacific...
Couldn’t agree more. Mars is a pointless excersie right now. The focus of the US space program should be a quick return to the moon with the establishment of a permanent manned settlement as soon as possible thereafter.
And yes can we all accept that the Moon Treaty is worthless. As soon as any country gets a permanent foothold they’re going to toss the treaty and claim the land.
My money’s on Japan. I hear the food given to the Chinese astronauts can kill ya! And an hour later, it kills you again! [rimshot]
And Chinese space food???? Rat poison and bird flu FTL...
My money is on Japan...twice before China gets there once...
Been there ... abandoned that ... signed USA
True enough.
But if you want to fabricate big, really big structures in space, you have to fabricate them off of the Earth’s surface. The Moon has titanium and unfiltered sunlight, two prime resources for microdeposition manufacturing. (Think of it as 3d lithography with a microwelding torch.)
Send the manufacturing machines to the Moon, combine them with freely available energy and raw materials to manufacture the parts. Cuts down tremendously from what you would have to haul up from Earth’s gravity well.
You just can't hand a backward country technology and expect that they will have the good sense and morals to use it wisely!
Can the Reds even get that thing off the ground....with all the lead paint, who knows?
A question is the direction the next Admin will take. They could cut the manned return to the moon and the manned trip to Mars. They might leave robotics in the budget while cutting manned spaceflight altogether.
The 1967 UN Outer Space Treaty rules. The 1984 Moon Treaty also rules most countries if not the USA, but claiming space resources is definitely out of the question.
The USA did not sign the Moon Treaty, but it doesn’t matter since it signed (and sponsored) the 1967 UN Outer Space Treaty. It’s over, Buck Rogers.
Those are two separate issues.
Money to be made was in the world of the possible 30 years ago.
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