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China Accelerates Mars Program
securitas writes "You read it correctly - Mars. China has announced it intends to accelerate its Mars program, using experience and expertise from its fledgling lunar program. Following China's proposed Moon missions, the first phase would send a Mars orbiter to examine and survey the Red Planet; the second phase will involve wheeled robotic probes like China's Mars Explorer roving vehicle prototype, used to collect and analyze rock samples; and the third phase will involve returning spacecraft from the planet and establishing a permanent automated base on Mars. This puts the China-India space race and the China-USA space race in a very different light and clearly indicates that China plans to play with the big boys of Mars exploration."
Before NASA's budget sees a major increase?
This is the best news we've heard for NASA in a couple of decades. There's nothing like a little compeition with one of the 'evil empires' of the world to get our Congressmen in a spending mood.
We went to the Moon so that the USSR couldn't get there first, ne?
I'm not so sure this is just about getting to Mars and the Moon. I think China is actually attempting to do what we did to the soviet union and trying to get us to escalate in spending in order to quicken an economic collapse. I don't think we're ready for another "cold war" just yet.
_ _ _ Go for the eyes Boo! GO FOR THE EYES!
This puts the China-India space race and the China-USA space race in a very different light and clearly indicates that China plans to play with the big boys of Mars exploration.
It's not a race in any meaningful sense right now - China has only said it intends to do something that the US has already done, after all. It will become considerably more interesting if a non-NASA space agency - the Chinese, the Indians, the Europeans - announces that it fully intends to land and recover a manned Mars mission before NASA can. My money's on the Chinese - they're the ones with the most to prove, Europe is too apathetic and India cannot devote the resources to it that China's command economy can. As to whether they beat NASA... well that really boils down to the man in the White House. The US/Soviet Empire space race was all about trying to convince the nonaligned nations which political system was the best... it wasn't about scientists competing purely for prestige, it was a battle of national Will. If the US decides that it is going to be impressive enough to take the lead in getting to Mars, then the Chinese would face some stiff competition. Maybe if Russia had more money it could partner with ESA, make it a 3-way race, maybe Japan could join that consortium.
I hope China will work with NASA and ESO in a co-operative level instead of with a competitive nature. It will be a shameful waste of Earth's, humans' and economic resources to duplicate what NASA has done (i.e. those that have true scientific value) rather than a I-can-do-it-too. Also, with China's wages problems (mainly those in the agricultural industry) yet seeing results, why is it spending such insane sums of money in an area that will not bring tangible benefits to its people ans standard of living?
www.rexguo.com - Technologist + Designer
One baseball team without any one to play with would get pretty boring. Same with Science, exploration, etc. The fact that China is trying to get to Mars is the best thing that can happen to space exploration.
If China beats US, then US will really wakeup, smell the coffee, and decide how to take the lead back.
If US beats China, it would mean a revitalized space program, and a much better chance for some real space technology. Solar Power Satellites may become a reallty, for example.
And if US and China ties in the race, it would be the time to raise the bar. How about a permanently manned Mars/Moon Station, extracting what we need from local resources. It just means that we would be that much closer to getting off this small rock in the unfashionable western spiral arm of the Mily Way. man kind gets closer to move off this hunk of rock permanently,
True, but I think some competition is only good. I do agree that we should be able to work together. But most people doesn't think like that, and never will.
I'd like to see a mission before I believe any of it.. seems like China is just preparing for a cold war
...etc). China still depends a lot on other countries, and the officials understand that.
Conspiracy theory put aside, I think this is a little bit exagerated.
The Chinese government (most high level officials who can make major governmental decisions, at least) are mostly practical. You can't really find anyone who is ultra-conservative and xenophobic right now, not those who are in the position to make decisions.
The major concerns right now to push the economic development as fast as we can (I say we, as I'm Chinese and living in Shanghai), unless there's concern about uncontrollable inflation.
Most officials now just try to play nice, especially with the US (remember the plan crash incident? Bush was amazingly arrogant at the time, but China kinda backed down not to get the sino-us relation into bad water). A lot of people think the government is spineless. But I think the government made a lot of decisions that are right, given the current situations here (economic, political, scientific,
And this is a good thing.
Sure, China tries to develop other areas of expertise too, so what? What does that have to do with Cold War? Why do we have to think that all scientific research must have anything to do with military conspiracy, especially when it is done in China, India, or Russia?
Do you think only people in the US love peace? We all do too. Just give us a chance and I believe we can contribute a lot to the progress of humanity too, just we have done in the past.
"They are having trouble with the Steam Catapults and they want to play around in outerspace? Have they even put a man in orbit yet? "
They can always get some help from the Russians. After all, they seem to have mastered military planes..uh, i mean submarines...domestic cars..nope, sorry, i meant potato crops...doh!
What HAVE they mastered? You know, i`m sure all this east/west cold war stuff was just bullshit dreamt up by the Pentagon to get more taxpayers money! Where, exactly was the threat from these backwards fuckers?
Sure, and just how do the Chinese people make their leaders "ought to" do that? You're stating the blindingly obvious, with no solutions. Do you seriously think that the money going into space exploration would be used for the people? It'd be used for weapons research & other military expenditure - of which I'm sure their space programme is anyway.
Make sure you study a bit of Chinese politics too....
The Washington Times is a non-state run paper that is usually full of articles about how much everyone and their dog love the government and how Islam is a dangerous cult.
Always check your source; just because it is the People Daily or the Washington Post, they're all as biased as each other.
The government should have a program that helps and directs corporations getting into space directly, and showing them how a profit could be made... that's where the real ticket is
I think you might like Robert Zubrin's books. He's an engineer by profession who advocates colonization of Mars, and as an engineer he has some pretty realistic ideas about how to do it. But one of his other proposals is mining He3 on the moon. We know it's there. A fusion reactor running on He3 would be far more efficient than one running on D-T, because you could extract the power by inductance directly into electricity rather than by heating steam to turn a generator. He does some calculations of how much the substance is worth at current electricity prices (I don't have my copy here son I can't quote the numbers, but they are large), and once fusion is demonstrated as being usable with D-T, it should be straightforward enough to raise capital for mining He3 on the moon commercially.
Let us compare this to one of China's other big projects...The Three Gorges Dam.
"The president imposed a moratorium on reporting four aspects of the project: alluvial sediment buildup, the more than 100 cracks that have already appeared in the dam, pollution/environmental damage and the return of those who were displaced from the area by the project. The first three issues are not allowed because with the passage of time, China's science and technology will improve, so they can be solved. The last taboo is forbidden because of the threat that it poses to social unity and stability."
Ah yes, the damn is starting to have problems. Solution? The media is not allowed to mention these problems, and is 'encouraged' to only mention the good stuff.
This attitude worked somewhat for the Soviets, I'm not sure if it will work for China.
Democrats or Republicans. They are both taking us to the same place and they are not afraid of us anymore.
The russians had a good excuse, the first car was made by a guy called Benz, a German, the first jet powered military planes were made my the Luftwaffa in WWII, and the first effective submarines were the U boats used by Germans Navy in WWI, and we all know that Russians and Germans didn't get along, so it was an act of patriotism to screw up in everything German.
But seriously, the MIG 29s had the USAF pissing in their pants until they developed the F22, the Typhoon class submarines, although having one unfortunate accedent were generally good ships that could match any Ammerican offering, and anyway, at least they don't come up under civilian boats to show off. The Lada may suck, but they can be made very cheap, and the potato screwup was not as bad as the one the Irish had a while back.
Seriously, the Russians were very good at what they did, they just had a few mistakes experimenting to try and make the world better, something the American government has never had the balls to do.
When Argumentum ad Hominem falls short, try Argumentum ad Matrem
If you want more information about the research sql*kitten mentions, check out the Focus Fusion Society. Their goal is raise funding for additional R&D in this subject, but they also have a good description of how focus fusion is achieved.