Posted on 10/09/2001 9:31:41 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
BEIJING (AP) _ China plans to send a probe to the moon, the official Xinhua News Agency said Tuesday.
The probe will be launched on a Chinese-made Long March rocket, Xinhua said, quoting a report by Chinese National Space Administration chief Luan Enjie at a recent conference. It did not say whether firm plans had been drawn up or give other details.
China's space program regularly launches satellites, and has set a goal of a manned launch by the end of this decade. However, few details are available of new developments in the military-linked program.
Lunar exploration allows China to ``struggle for a more important place in the world space science field and raise our deep space exploration technology to a higher standard,'' Xinhua quoted Luan saying.
Luan said the lunar probe program was complemented by a recent agreement with the European Space Agency to jointly study the magnetosphere _ the magnetic field that surrounds Earth.
The ``Double Star'' program calls for China to build, launch and operate a pair of satellites carrying European and Chinese experiments, according to Xinhua.
China's communist government has poured huge resources into making the nation a force in space.
In addition to its scientific benefits, lunar exploration has an ``immeasurable usefulness to raising national prestige and inspiring the nationalistic spirit,'' Xinhua said.
Pentagon Report Calls for the United States Control of Space-- U.S. Armed Forces are dedicated to protect and advance American interests, on a national and global basis, and if necessary, to decisively defeat threats to those interests. The QDR notes that "enduring national interests" include protection of critical U.S. infrastructure. Furthermore, part of the country's economic well being includes "security of international sea, air, and space, and information lines of communication."
We seem to have stupidly not built an outpost.
I think it's time we went back and held the high ground.
It should be a few hundred armed American colonists.
It's time to wake up and see that this is a national security risk and we have no more time to waste.
Pentagon Report Calls for the United States Control of Space---Arguably, one of the more straightforward parts of the QDR concerns the capability and survivability of space systems. "Because many activities conducted in space are critical to America's national security and economic well being, the ability of the United States to access and utilize space is a vital national security interest," the QDR says. "During crisis or conflict, potential adversaries may target U.S., allied, and commercial space assets as an asymmetric means of countering or reducing U.S. military operational effectiveness, intelligence capabilities, economic and societal stability, and national will."
For those who accept that premise, it is vital that we get the space shuttle flying again as safely and as quickly as possible. Our very future may depend on it.
To not understand or acknowledge that Earth is but a stepping stone for humankind is to ignore history, reality and Manifest Destiny. Through age, natural catastrophe or by our own hand, life on Earth has a finite amount of time left. For the human species to go on, we must go out into the far and promising reaches of space. We will do this, or we will eventually perish on the stepping stone adjacent to endless possibilities and salvation.
....Human space flight is not a luxury, and the People's Republic of China, above all others, seems to recognize that. The PRC is poised to launch its first astronauts, and with them launch potentially the most ambitious plan ever for humans in space.
They have their eyes on the moon, Mars and beyond. The question for our country is: Do we cede the future of human space flight, and the future in general, to them or another nation?***
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