Chinese Taikonauts Arrive at Launch Facility

CylonSlave writes "It seems the recent rumors about China's first manned flight occuring in the next couple of weeks may be for real. Spacedaily.com reports (courtesy of AFP) 14 Chinese trained taikonauts have arrived at the launch facility in Gansu province in Northwest China. Earlier space.com and one of the Chinese state's news organs, the People's Daily, reported on the possibility of a manned flight next month. Note that this Wednesday, October 1, is China's National Day. This mission would be titled Shenzhou 5 being the fifth mission with the Chinese made Shenzhou space capsule. Personally, I hope the competition will jolt the US space program back into more visionary ideas such as the manned Mars mission. Two sites about China's space program can be seen here & here."

Comments

Who cares if China beat us?

[bluGill]

I'm not against it, but what is the point of Space exploration today? We can do it, we have proven that. It is very expensive though. Satalites yes, but they are self funded, and profitable for private industry. Very little scientific research needs to be done in space.

Sure it is neat to say you went into space, for the small group of people who have done it, but otherwise what value is there in it? Sit in a small space for a few days with nothing to do but look at the earth. I hope you can get some good books/movies, because once the novilty of seeing the earth from above is over with you need something to do.

Scientific research sounds good, but most of it can be done on earth. Few scientific research projects going on in space now even have value to science. If you can come up with a good space research project, good. Except it is so expensive to get into space, you better be sure that you can't get results any other way. Even then, a unmaded probe would be better.

ISS has value, but only because it gets a few russian scientists a job so they don't have develop mistles for evil dictators just to survive. A worthy cause to be sure, but otherwise of no important use.

I say let the chinese get to Mars first. We have enough probes there to be pretty sure that there is no value in sending people there. If a probe discovers something of value that we need people to check out, fine, but until then why have a highly trained person waste months on the trip?

That isn't to say we should stand still. Lets develope something of use here. We can catch up to the Chinese anytime. (if only because the spys mean they can't keep the technology secert for very long...)

I have other things to spend my money on. I hear many retired folks complaining about socal security, I always respond that my parents were not old enough to vote when they sent their socal security money to the moon, so don't blame me for the mess we are in. (Yes that situation is complex than that) I'd like to keep my tax money. Selfish perhaps, but if you won't let me keep it, at least spend it on something that is of use, not waste it on space.

Re:Who cares if China beat us?

[andrewski]

The point of deep space research is simple. Humans are going to all die someday if we keep hanging around on this rock. Space awaits us - we have a much better chance of surviving as a species if we can spread out a little. Aside from that, the earth is taken. Divided up. We have the technology, and could certainly improve on the whole 'big rocket, little spacecraft' paradigm that has dominated for the last 50 years.

Space travel and exploration is a long-term investment the effects of which we can't begin to comprehend. Social Security is a mismanaged money pit.

Re:Who cares if China beat us?

[barawn]

I have other things to spend my money on. I hear many retired folks complaining about socal security, I always respond that my parents were not old enough to vote when they sent their socal security money to the moon, so don't blame me for the mess we are in. (Yes that situation is complex than that) I'd like to keep my tax money. Selfish perhaps, but if you won't let me keep it, at least spend it on something that is of use, not waste it on space.

Here's the hint: humans are all selfish - it's in our nature. However, humanity can't afford humans being selfish - and thankfully, people in our government managed to realize that.

The problem is that humans are lazy . You all want flying cars, and cures for cancer, and a cure for aging, but you don't really have a damned clue how to get there.

The destination doesn't have to be the goal - it's the trip that matters . This is the real reason for "pure science" research. Pure science is more valuable than anything else you can possibly spend your money on. Anything.

That isn't to say we should stand still. Lets develope something of use here. We can catch up to the Chinese anytime. (if only because the spys mean they can't keep the technology secert for very long...)

If we don't keep pushing the envelope of what we can do, we might as well roll over and die as a country - at least as a technology leader. We pretty much already are as far as space goes - in five to ten years, I think people'll be talking about the "heyday of the US", and talking about the amazing new fighter and spy plane designs coming out of Europe, Russia, and China.

Very little scientific research needs to be done in space.

Ah, the voice of ignorance. You mean, very little research like, oh, astronomy (SNAP: Supernova Acceleration Probe, which requires the IR, which you can't see through the atmosphere), basic physics (Gravity Probe B), solar flare monitoring (SOHO), searches for terrestrial planets (the Terrestrial Planet Finder), etc.? Good call. No scientific research needs to be done in space. Sure. Can you do us a favor and let scientists decide what needs to be done in space? Most of us think that there's a metric crapload left to do.

And then if you've just got objections to human space exploration, the point, as always, is that the technology required to have human space exploration massively increases your ability to do things in space. It makes you far better at doing things, and more importantly, it means that you have more flexibility, more capability, and more possibilities than if it's purely robotic.

Hubble'd be half-blind without human intervention. What, you want us to stick around on the Earth until the need arises to leave? Infrastructure can't be built out of nothing. The smart man plans for contingencies.

I mean seriously - where to start. Fusion, alternate propulsion mechanisms, pure material generation, exotic material searches, and then in time, asteroid mining and resource searching.

Look at it this way. If you're one of those nutballs that thinks that Earth has enough of everything it needs from now till eternity, get a clue. Do a Web search on how much helium we have - by the end of this century, it's likely to be gone . Yah. Helium. You know. The stuff they put in balloons. No kidding. Gone.

That's not to say anything of the more exotic heavy metals. We will run out , eventually, and want more. Now, the smart man says: does he look for more materials before he runs out, or after? What you're suggesting is "let's wait a bit, we've got plenty of time!"

The problem with that argument is that it's always valid. Until, of course, we run out of time. And then, we're screwed.

Re:Who cares if China beat us?

[bluGill]

Who said anything about standing still, or not doing pure research? I said that Space based reserach is for the most part not worth it. When the US only has the shuttle (for all practical purposes) which isn't even able to get far out of the atmosphere for 20 years, you know that research in space isn't being done anyway. If real science has a need for science I don't object. Most of the science we are doing in space now is not science, but rather science fair. That is neat, but not advanceing science very far.

There is plenty of research that can be done a lot cheaper on earth. It isn't like we do an expiriment in space, or all science stops. Instead it is we do this neat expiriment in space (which may significantly advance science, don't get me wrong, some space based science does), or do something different on earth and advance science that way.

Let the chinese get a few wins in space. They are wins not worth obtaining at this point. Someday I hope going to Mars is a routine thing, just like going to Europe (from North America) is today. Someday it will be worth while to mine asteriods. That day isn't today, or in the near enough future that we will behind if we don't start building those rockets now. That day is far enough in the future that we are better off a) figgureing out how to make do with what we have on earth until that day, and b) advancing science in all directions until it is advanced enoguh that we can engineer ships cheap enough to make the trip worthwhile.