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Chinese Manned Space Flight Set For Autumn
brandido writes "According to an article at Space.com, "Chinese space officials remain on schedule for the first piloted flight of that nation's Shenzhou spacecraft. Chief designers and mission directors say Shenzhou 5 will be launched in autumn, reported the People's Daily last week." Between this, the X-Prize, and multiple launches of Mars probes in the last few weeks, it looks like the space race may be heating back up?"
it's like my dad always said, "a little competition never hurt anyone."
look at the last time the US had a space race, we achieved what many call the greatest achievement of mankind, we landed on the moon.
Mike
and to think ... they all have accomplished so much even without the support of N*SYNC. Amazing.
KARMA TAG! You're it.
...because the astronauts on the space station have been hungry for delivery for weeks.
and I really hope everything goes perfect for them.
Because it seems that China will be the only hope for real advances in space. The US program will never gear up to what it is supposed to be at.
All I know is the thing that may do it, is china placing a moon base just might get the attention of the tubs of idiocy that sit in the congress and house of represenatives....
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
then I don't know what else could get NASA moving again.
I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
Hopefully the Chinese pushing forward with developing their own space program might give NASA, ESA, and Multi-national Corporations the kick in the ass they need.
:-|
can't wait to be able to say "We live in a world where a Chinaman has walked on the Moon." can you?
Belief that Perspectives matter more than Facts = Mark of the Truly Ignorant
Yes, it definitely is. Only this time, it's the Capitalists vs. the Communists. Oh wait . . .
Let the superpopulation of the moon begin!
Huh huh...
Ash nazg durbatuluk, ash nazg gimbatul Ash nazg thrakatuluk agh burzum-ishi krimpatul
Although the manned space program has been ridiculously successful in terms of preventing accidents, there have been 3 instances where small decisions have led to fatal mishaps. The Apollo launchpad fire, the Challenger, and of course Columbia. The more times we attempt these types of activities, the more accidents we will have. That said...
I'm a space junkie, I love reading about anything exploration related. But national pride is not a good excuse for spending billions to go into space. Should we be celebrating the Chinese, or asking them why they aren't instead working on a way to contribute to the ISS program? Europe is heading for Mars news story, and the US has already been there. How many different times do we need to accomplish the same goal under different flags?
I applaud the Chinese for getting a man into space, this is by no means an easy task. But we have to look at priorities. I'd love to live in a world where competition wasn't the driving reason to succeed!
on spacedaily.com : Arianespace, Boeing and Mitsubishi Heavy Plan alliance. By the way, Arianespace is already planning to work with the russian Proton guys... Looks like this kind of cooperation could be interesting in the long run for bigger projects, if this works out, a multi business way of thinking for e.g. future Mars missions wouldn't be looked upon as farfetched as it used to be (today, that is)
...capability of launching humans into anal orbit and returning...
Oh god no....... not that!
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
A wise man once said "Space should not be a race It should be a journey" :-P
There is a lot to be said for unmanned flight. Just because the Chinese are getting ready to send a manned spacecraft up does not mean that we should assume that this race is good. In reality it costs a LOT more to send a manned flight into space (safety concerns). That's money that might be better spent in other places. I can understand if lots of you are skeptical about it given where Congress chooses to spend money. Still, I would think that it might be worth a pause before deciding this is a race we need to win.
it looks like the space race may be heating back up?
I sure hope not. The space races of the past did little to foster cats(cheap access to space). And this won't either. It will be like the apollo missions to the moon, flag and footprints and never to return. I want space tourism, industry, and sustainable high level of commerce and privatization. The only one of these three items that has a potential of doing that is the X-Prize, because it fosters private industry not just feed the bueracracy that is NASA or ESA (European Space Agency). And now it looks like China is going to do the same thing. You'll have to excuse me if I'm a little underwhelmed.
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I wish them the best of luck.
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The Slashdot community should be ashamed. This story has only been up a short while, and already I'm seeing references to rockets made of bamboo, astronauts eating freeze-dried dog meat, and even the despicable phrase, "runar rander." This sort of bigotry and racism is unbefitting of one of the most respectworthy technical communities on the web today.
You are probably all just jealous because you lost your jobs to better trained immigrants, or because you always strike out with the cute Chinese ladies. Sad.
Boromir, son of Faramir, King of Gondor and Minas Tirith
Spacedaily.com claims sources say it will be later, somewhere in december, also rumours go that there's a big possibility for a 2 man crew, or even a 3 men crew, that would be a first in history: first launch attempt, and a 2 (or 3) men crew... i wish them all the luck they'll need.
Anybody else reminded of 2061? Bring on the monoliths!
My god it's full of stars!
Sometimes I wish the Soviets would have gotten to the Moon first because then Americans wouldn't have had any other choice but to put a man on Mars to save face.
Either that or a nuclear strike against the USSR (I'm not kidding, there were people who seriously suggested that to the US administration if the Soviet Moon program got too far) because otherwise the political situation would have been intolerable. It's all political, science is a third-rate consideration, and noble goals like actual expansion to the space are not even mentioned. But still, I wish them luck, any step forward for whatever reasons is better than our current self-admiring stagnation (like how long can we hype the moon landing?? It is still the main exhibit in all space-related museums after 35 years!)
When men used to be men
Gutenberg was a wuss who would have frozen to death if it hadn't been for the inventions of Ogg, Bringer of Flame.
Start a rumour about WMD being stashed on Mars. I guarantee you, a manned Mars program gets major funding! But that would be handled through the Father-errr...Homeland Security Agency, not NASA. _Nothing_ is going to get NASA moving again.
:)
:)
What else would get the US gummint on the space train: Oil on Mars! I can't see environmentalists being able to make a big dent in a drilling-on-Mars project.
Why is China interested in space? No SARS there. No student protestors, either.
Still, it'll be good to be able to get good Chinese food while in space. They should open up some restaurants at the LaGrange points and the Moon & Mars. General Tso's Space Chicken!
The Shenzhou spacecraft looks just like Russia's Soyuz space vehicle - bummer.
When are we going to get some new space vehicles, damnit?
Zzzzz.....
Your hybrid is not saving the environment. Its purpose is to make you feel good about buying something.
(reuters)-BEIJING-The Chinese government today announced rumors that a manned spaceflight is to take place sometime during the next long while.
"Yes, the rumors exist. Sometime in the next long while we will start to seriously think about the possibility of putting a Chinese man somewhere above the trophosphere," an undisclosed official with possible ties to the Chinese government presumably stated.
It remains to be seen if China can make good on its possible intentions to consider manned spaceflight. Only two other countries have done so, the USA and Russia.
Consider: Space Shuttle: concieved around 70's, built 80's Soyuz: 60's, minor upgrades, still based on old model. Shendzou: 90's, 00's? Granted, it seems to be based on the soyuz, but Chinese say they built it themselves, and this seems to be the case: it's considerably bigger, more modern electronics et.c. Who would ever have thought that the Chinese would be flying the most up to date spacethingy, it seems absurd, but it's a fact. How the world has changed since the 80's...
Definitely penicillin. Thank God, no more clap!
-Looking for a job as a materials chemist or multivariat
Actually their spacecraft are far more advanced than the Apollo era craft were, simply because there is newer tech today. Have you seen their space control center yet?
It's awesome! There is a ton of information about their space program here.
Also, you might want to note that the U.S. is currently incapable of landing on the moon. All the equipment used to do it in the 60's and 70's is too old and most of it can only be found in museums now. The rest is rusting in NASA hangars. If we want to go back, we would be better off developing updated versions of the Apollo craft. So in a way, China has a bit of an edge right now if there was a sudden race to put a base on the moon.
--Won't that be grand? Computers and the programs will start thinking and the people will stop. - Dr. Walter Gibbs
The reason why Americans suck at space is cause you are too busy being a racist worldwide, you just don't have time for science.
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Nice generalization. A few points:
"putting a Chinese man somewhere above the trophosphere"
A hate to break it to the undisclosed Chinese official, but a Chinese man has already been above the troposphere. We sent him up in the Space Shuttle. He is my former boss, and all around great guy Taylor Wang. http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/wang-t.html
He is now a prof. at Vanderbilt University, where I worked for his dept. as a student worker for several years.
Well, since everyone believes they Nasa havent been to the moon maybe we can have a new Spacerace!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Once manned heavier-than-air flight was demonstrated, going to the moon was pretty inevitable
Um, no.
Flight through the atmosphere with heavy craft and launching something into space are almost completely unrelated problems.
For the first, you need to figure out how airfoils work to produce lift (helicopter blades count in this category), and figure out how to move the air that surrounds your craft to produce thrust. Then there's materials engineering to get the performance to weight ratio nice enough.
For the second, you have to figure out celestial mechanics, and you have to figure out how to build reaction drives that _don't_ use the surrounding medium to move (as you won't have air around you for much of your trip, and it's more of a hindrance than a help at significant speed). Then you have the herculean task of materials engineering and clever craft design required to get an impulse-to-weight ratio large enough to escape the gravity well (or at least have enough delta-v for orbit). If the gravity well was even a little deeper, we wouldn't have been able to do it with chemical rockets at all (though aircraft would still be easy to build).
There's a world of difference between a jet engine and a rocket engine. There's a world of difference between something light and strong enough to glide and something light and strong enough to have a 40:1 wet:dry weight and make orbit. It's not a difference of scale - it's a difference of fundamental type of device.
In summary, please do more research about exactly what's involved in each task before proclaiming that one follows from the other. What actually precipitated _both_ was the industrial revolution, which gave a drastic increase in technology and in materials science.
"Between this, the X-Prize, and multiple launches of Mars probes in the last few weeks, it looks like the space race may be heating back up?"
Stephen Baxter's wonderful book Titan starts out with the first Chinese manned spacecraft orbit of earth, which does in fact spark a new military build up comparable to the American/Russian era.
I can't recommend this book highly enough, it is remarkable to me how time and again how close Sci-Fi authors come in their visions of the future of our race.
1) Your analysis is based on bad assumptions so your result is way off. 2) You're a sick bastard for fucking a horse.
My girlfriend is Chinese (not a citizen of US yet), and she has never eaten dog and never will. If it's fair to make fun of some Chinese people for this practice then it's just as applicable for them to make fun of Americans for storing too many appliances in the front lawn of the double-wide trailer.