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

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?

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