China Plans Manned Space Launch By 2005

cosyne writes: "CNN.COM has this article on China's space program planning to send a man to the moon. 'The mission is part of Beijing's plans to create a space industry and earn the prestige of joining the United States and Russia as the only nations to have sent humans into space.' I wonder if they'll make it before the recently mentioned amateurs."

Comments

monkeys!

[TheM0cktor]

lets see...

China: billions of dollars, no need to get licenses to launch rockets (they own their own damn country), infinite supply of monkeys to test rockets on.
Amateurs: finite (comparatively tiny) supply of money, have to jump through dozens of hoops to launch anything at all, no monkeys.

What do you think?

Exciting but...

[pigeonhk]

How much resource and money would be spent on sending people onto the moon? Should they be spending on something else to solve other problems in China?

Re:Spending

[InnovativeCX]

Even so, that still does not solve a major problem. I honestly won't look at China as a modern nation until I see some real, uh, modernization in their social structures. Sending a man into space is a novelty anymore, it's been done. Morale can only take a nation so far, it may help their people for a little while, but it will catch up with them. What I am saying is that their money could be much better spent.

Very Cool

[DiSKiLLeR]

This is extremely cool, and a good thing for all of us.

Hopefully it will kick start another space race, and get the americans off their butts. Bush has done nothing but slowly kill NASA with its budget cuts.

In 2005, Russia may become the only country with access to the ISS. (find the story on space.com somewhere -- With all the budget cuts the US no longer has a HAB module or Crew Return Vehicle. Russia's obligations supplying Soyuz Rockets ENDS in 2005 leaving the USA totally stranded.)

With China sending men and women into space on its own, and making plans to build its own Space Station and sending men to the moon, EVEN if it doesn't wake up the US govt. and inject more money into NASA, at least we are making progress and reaching for the stars.

Communist regimes are very good at certain things. The Soviet Union was a powerful military country, and built 9 space stations. (Salyut 1-7, Mir, and now the ISS).

Hopefully China can also achieve some amazing things.

I want to live on Mars someday. I don't care how it happens, or who gets me there, i just want to be there.

D.

Slashdot Hypocrisy

[Knunov]

If any post mentions the U.S. govt's plan to build a missle defense system, it gets modded down into oblivion, usually with associated comments dismissing the threat as being unlikely or impossible.

But China is getting ready to put men in space, and it is widely cheered as a Good Thing.

How so many people miss the correlation is beyond me.

A rocket is far more complicated than a missle, and the technologies are remarkably parallel.

You see a country that doesn't like the U.S. developing technology that can easily be used to deliver a nuclear payload and you cheer, while simultaneously objecting to the very plan that can protect us from the developing threat.

If the idea of another cold war appeals to you, by all means, cheer on.

Now, go ahead and mod me into oblivion as 'Flamebait' or 'Offtopic'. What /. really needs is a 'Doesn't Buy Into Liberal Utopian Ideologies' or 'I Don't Like The Way You Think' negative mod option. It would be closer to the truth.

Knunov

Re:Slashdot Hypocrisy

[Knunov]

I'll respond in reverse.

"Human Rights have been proven to be a Good Thing for Western cultures. What makes us so sure they work for cultures which are not in any way comparable to ours?"

I've thought about this, as well. What I always come up with is this: Why doesn't China have an immigration problem?

Ask Asians in America if they want to move to China. You'll get a resounding "no". Ask Asians living in China if they want to live in the U.S. I suspect the answer will be different.

Another experiment would be to temporarily transplant people into the opposite culture. This is done already in the form of exchange students. The people visiting the U.S. and living like an American will probably want to stay. The people visiting China and living like the average Chinese citizen will be counting the days to get home.

I think if people are exposed both to cultures that grant or restrict human rights, they will choose overwhelmingly to live in the culture that promotes individual freedom.

"I don't think China wants to actually attack the U.S."

I don't either, actually. But it's still a better feeling to be the only kid on the block with a gun. It's nice to not worry. I'd rather see no one have nukes than see everyone have them.

This being said, the same argument won't hold up for all countries. If Iraq had ICBMs, I don't doubt for a second they would use them.

Knunov

Re:Slashdot Hypocrisy

[AiX2]

Exactly.

1) The parent misses the point. I applaud the spirit of achievement for any nation making it to space. Setting sights on the moon is only incrases the laudability.

However, the conservative militant FUD tied to NMD enrages me. NMD is a brain dead idea, that as Trent Lott put it, is the most expensive solution to the least likely scenario. 9/11 tells me that hostilities towards the US aren't likely to be enacted in a grand war that would inevitably result from launching missiles at the US. Rather confrontation will come with guerilla terrorist acts. No nation in the world has the rescources to win a 1 on 1 war with the US and they recognize this.

2)NMD doesn't extend from a defense necessity. Bush would be touting NMD as a panacea for our purported defensive ills no matter the situtation. The pro-militant agressive rhetoric scored points with special interest groups (read: military, christians preparing for armegeddeon, et al) and he needs to please them with a major increase in the defense budget. Should NMD come in under budget by half, another half baked defensive spending plan would come up.

Re:A new world instability

[perlyking]

I think that I speak for many when I voice my concerns over China in space. This is the same country that constantly threatens to invade Taiwan and is very militaristic in general.

Hm, is America jealous that someone may become more violent and invade more countries than they do.

:-)

Re:Mindless Bush-Bashing...

[Peter Dyck]

is reintroducing the concepts of fiscal responsibility and sensible management.

Let me, as a scientist doing basic research, to interpret this for you. What you mean is:

"smothering the skill and imagination of skilled scientists and engineers by chaining them with red tape and oppressing them with fiscal goals set by people who have no clue as to what the research concerns and how long it will take to get meaningful results"

Science is art. Fiscal responsibility and sensible management, taken to the extreme form the bureaucratic rats want it, kills the creative mindset.