"Soon we will land on the moon". Outline of China's Aerospace Development Program.

CPP20011204000017 Beijing Jiefangjun Bao ^ | 03 Dec 2001 | Article by Zuo Saichun

[Doc Savage]

Just in: Bejieng (Peking)AP: China Moon Probe Raunched During Wrong Phase

Wun-Hung-Lo, the top space scientist for China today admitted that they made a serious error in Raunching their first attempted manned mission to the moon. Instead of attempting to Rand on a "Full Moon", they attempted a Randing whiRe the moon was onRy one-quarter fuRR, thereby missing the moon aRtogether.

Wing-Tip-Shoo, the mission commander, immediately radioed that the mission was not a complete faiRure as they are now headed towards Mars and wiRR atReast have something to Rook at as they freeze to death in the darkness of space.

[pabianice]

What a pipe dream! It took the US -- which INVENTED aviation -- a Manhattan Project-sized effort to do it and, in 2002 dollars, approximately half a trillion dollars. The Chinese will not be landing on the Moon anytime in the the lifetime of any adult alive today.

[Major Matt Mason]

This is old news. Quidam was talking about this back in the good ol' impeachment days, or even before that. Wonder what happened to the Q-man?

[Man of the Right]

This great power chauvinism is based entirely on running a massive trade surplus with the U.S. The moment we pull the plug, they go back to starving to death.

[bert]

...when we have none....

Why do you postulate our having none?

If that happens, it will be the least of our worries. We will have rotted from within.

[Man of the Right]

Manned space travel is a total waste of money.

[DWSUWF]

"...dont be mad cause china is making progress, this kind of hating is why the world is not a better place. america has already been to the moon and back so who cares if the chinese do. i dont..."

I don't mind if the chinese live and work in settlements on the moon...

As long as that work consists of doing our laundry.

[LibertarianInExile]

Perhaps, but space tourism will likely be the way average humans get into space for the first time.

How about all y'all who want space exploration put your money where your mouth is and seriously think about why it is that we want to continue the NASA space waste, pushing more tax dollars into a centralized space authority? Funding companies eager to develop private space exploration is the best way to make it happen.

http://www.space-frontier.org/COMMSPACE/

[boris]

"You might want to rethink that jab...Europe provides the most cost-effective solution to commercial payloads. Ariane 5 Heavy Payload Launch Vehicle"

You might want to review the recent launch of the "Ariane 5 Heavy Payload Launch Vehicle." It performed just like most French technology.

I guess you missed the news.

--Boris

[boris]

For example:

Link 1

Link 2

Link 3

[RightWhale]

Manned space travel is a total waste of money.

Manned space travel is . . . our only means to fulfill the mission set for us when we were created. We're supposed to be multiplying our talents and ourselves and going forth to fill the universe. It's our job and not doing it would be doing exactly what the unfaithful servant who buried his one talent did.

[Int]

Unfortunately we're giving the high frontier to the socialists.

I wonder if there will be any socialists left in the country by the time a Chinese craft lands on the moon.

[Man of the Right]

I respect your point of view, which is human beings should do anything they can do. I don't agree with it.

Manned space flight was a Cold War military campaign. The Cold War is over. Time hasn't been kind to the concept. The principal use of space is launching low-orbit and geosynchronous satellites, which are a mature technology. The emergence of miniatured electronics makes it possible to do everything that needs to be done in space robotically. Manned space flight is horrendously expensive. It's pure pork. The assinine functionless space station will cost more than $100 billion by NASA's estimate, which is always orders of magnitude too low. Meanwhile, we can't prevent a WMD attack for lack of functioning intelligence agencies. And the economy is moribund.







(which are a mature technology), 2. the emergence of modern electronics, 3. accordingly, it's always less expensive to utilize robotics, because 4. manned space flight is horrendously expensive, and 5. there are far higher financial priorities on the ground, and 6. as a result there's no support for manned space flight, except among the beneficiaries -- the contractors and participants.

[tallhappy]

ChiComs are incredibly delusional.

[tallhappy]

If the Chinese explorers serve to wake up Americans about the decrepit state of our space program, and get us back to the moon, then GOOD!

I pretty much share your enthusiasm for space exploration and exploitation. (Or at least used to when I thiught it would actually happen in my lifetime).

But, the Chinese communists aren't going to do any of this.

Not even close. This is all nonsense. The write probably hopes it could happen, maybe even believes it.

In China, one is allwoed to write these stories (hopefull as they are, and permeated with propaganda as it is).

They can't write anything critical, though.

Another thing their doing is trying to get invites to go on the shuttle for their communist military "taikonauts".

[XBob]

42-"What a pipe dream! It took the US -- which INVENTED aviation -- a Manhattan Project-sized effort to do it and, in 2002 dollars, approximately half a trillion dollars. The Chinese will not be landing on the Moon anytime in the the lifetime of any adult alive today."

You got it right.

We have been screwing around with the wrong 'target' for NASA. The moon and mars, etc are all show and no go until we develop a decent method of propulsion.

Our focus should be on anti-gravity or some other sort of cost effective propulsion systems. It took a giant rocket, 550 feet tall and I forget how many thousands of tons, just to get the equivalent of a Mazda Miata (tiny sports car) on a one way ticket to the moon, and we couldn't even bring it back.

And today, each shuttle launch/mission costs approximately $500 million.

Until we (humans) develop a more cost efficient method of propulsion we will never be anything more than the equivalent of fleas hopping up and down and on and off our dog (earth). The expense is just too great.

[RightWhale]

human beings should do anything they can do.

Well, no, humans shouldn't do everything they can do. There are a lot of things that can be done that are bad ideas.

But there are things we can do that ought to be done. Studying math and science are a couple of these things. I can think of nothing that can encourage students to study science and math rather than business and education that tops an active space program. A manned space program. A moon base, a settlement on Mars, asteroid mining. That alone is infinitely more than what is being done now, and wouldn't cost any more than the ISS. Asteroid mining will pay its own way if done correctly once the initial investment is made, and more than pay its own way - recovering the initial investment and run a profit as well on a present worth basis.

This is justification - economic benefit. Everybody should of course buy the Sony 3-D screen and new Christmas tree ornaments as usual as well, but only government investment will get space development going. It's too much for any single industrial sector, but a trivial expense for the Fed gov't.

[altair]

The Chinese will not be landing on the Moon anytime in the the lifetime of any adult alive today.

Similar things were said regarding the Soviets and the nuclear bomb. While getting to the moon and back is rocket science, it's well documented rocket science and will be easier to do a second time.

[Man of the Right]

I respect your view. But the programs you advocate would cost trillions of dollars. Technology has moved in other directions. There's no support for and little interest in space exploration.