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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."
So will most consumer products soon start bearing the label: "Made in Space" ?
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
Reminds me of the Cold War that stimulated our space program. There's nothing that can stimulate a space program better than a military advantage. Perhaps this little bit of competition will encourage Congress to give NASA the funding they need to do more than just crash probes into distant planets.
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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?
If you have the source, you have the whole world...
It seems to me that China really has no other reason to do this other than to say that they have done it, and they are spending giant amounts of money in the process. Think of what else that could be used for! Even if they succeed, that does not take care of their other problems such as hunger, poverty, etc. This whole plan is reminiscent of Orwell's 1984; It's all just to boost military morale.
They just want to get their feet wet, for now.
New Scientist has a good story on this. And there is this page with links on the chinese space program from U.S. Embassy Beijing Environment, Science and Technology Section.
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
How well does this translate into Mandarin?:
"We choose to go to the moon, and to do these other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard."
Cynical old bastard that I am, those words actually choke me up every time I hear them. Space exploration (not arsing about in low earth orbit) exemplifies everything that is great about the human spirit. Our reach should exceed our grasp.
We in the west have forgotten that, and now it's all about the bottom line. Sounds like China still gets it. Good luck to them, I reckon.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
From the article: A monkey, a dog, a rabbit and snails were sent into orbit aboard the second Shenzou launch but scientists say that more unmanned tests will be necessary.
Translation: The monkey, dog and rabbit died together or one of the animals died. China isn't ready to go to space.
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.
/. 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.
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
Knunov
Why do users with IDs under 100,000 or over 700,000 usually have the most worthwhile comments?