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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."
This mission would be titled Shenzhou 5 being the fifth mission with the Chinese made Shenzhou space capsule.
..." that apparently up until yesterday were flowing through the relay.
Among other instruments onboard, they will be deploying the world's first open relay SMTP satellite, usable with a directv or primestar dish and a common 802.11a/b/g bridge.
Later 2005:
In other news, a Chinese satellite exploded over asia yeasterday. Authorites are investigating, but an unnamed internal source indicated that the "... server couldn't handle the 3 billion emails per second
Next day:
Microsoft is claiming victory as hundreds of US Spammers declare bankruptcy.
-Adam
"...hey, I can see the Great Wall from here!"
Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
The US's time as primary space-capable superpower is growing short. We need to kick it into high gear and get cracking if we want to keep the honor.
Time to get moving, and fund Nasa appropriately. Heaven knows that the payoffs from the R & D alone will be worth the money spent. The materials tech from the first space race is still filtering down to civilian life.
Regardless, It is 1957, and shenzou 5 is China's sputnik.
Cuchullain
"If sharing a thing in no way diminishes it, it is not rightly owned if it is not shared." -St. Augustine
According to one source, the Chinese aren't to blame for this, but the imperialistic press.
"Between strong and weak, between rich and poor [...], it is freedom which oppresses and the law which sets free"
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.
An interesting read is the 1967 "Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies:"
Article IV
States Parties to the Treaty undertake not to place in orbit around the earth any objects carrying nuclear weapons or any other kinds of weapons of mass destruction, install such weapons on celestial bodies, or station such weapons in outer space in any other manner.
The moon and other celestial bodies shall be used by all States Parties to the Treaty exclusively for peaceful purposes. The establishment of military bases, installations and fortifications, the testing of any type of weapons and the conduct of military manoeuvres on celestial bodies shall be forbidden. The use of military personnel for scientific research or for any other peaceful purposes shall not be prohibited. The use of any equipment or facility necessary for peaceful exploration of the moon and other celestial bodies shall also not be prohibited.
Article VII
Each State Party to the Treaty that launches or procures the launching of an object into outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, and each State Party from whose territory or facility an object is launched, is internationally liable for damage to another State Party to the Treaty or to its natural or juridical persons by such object or its component parts on the Earth, in air or in outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies.
Yes, China has ratified it.
1. China is laying down lots of money on its carbon nanotube research - they were mentioned as the 2nd most serious research after CNI.
2. They're beefing up their space program. Collecting the knowhow. Launching their own vehicles. Tackling the being-in-space problems on their own.
3. A little prophecy from the Space Elevator's Phase I NIAC paper:
"Let's consider two roughly equal entities (governments, private enterprise etc.). At year zero, entity one begins building a space elevator behind closed doors. The second is looking at building a space elevator and thinks it is important but has not begun building it yet. At year five the news gets out that the first entity is building the space elevator. The second now jumps into its program and starts building. At year ten the first entity has its first elevator operating and the second entity is 18 months from launch of its initial spacecraft. At year fifteen the first entity has six cables up including two 106 kg cables, has a manned station at geosynchronous, has recouped much of the construction cost through selling two cables and through hundreds of launches on its eight cables, and is beginning construction of a Mars cable. The second entity has up its first cable. Note that two additional entities also have cables now because of entity one's sales. At year twenty, entity one is making billions from the tens of cables it has produced, has a manned station on Mars, has a hotel at Geo station which now has a permanent population of over one hundred. Entities two, three, four, five,E each own a handful of cables and are trying to compete with entity one."
Is anyone adding this up?
Here's some ideas for future slashdot headlines:
2004: NASA announces new-and-improved winged-spacetruck candidate.
2009: NASA launches first new winged spacetruck
2015: NASA announces last shuttle of their new shuttle fleet has been delivered.
2015: NASA disassembles shuttle, sends it to space in pieces using chinese elevators to save up on launch costs.
We can all safely assume that one sixth the population of our planet would very much like it to happen _just like that_.
I'd be amused.
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