Slashdot Mirror
China Outlines Moon Project Goals
Kulic writes "SpaceDaily.com is reporting that China has announced 4 scientific goals for their Moon project. There are three general goals - orbiting the Moon, docking spacecraft with one another in lunar orbit, and returning moon rock samples to Earth. Each step is outlined, with a detailed description of what they hope to accomplish during the orbiting stage. It looks like China is serious about their space program, and is taking an incremental approach."
RTFA. Their scientific goals clearly indicate some interest in commercial exploitation in the form of mining... They are taking an approach that is quite different from the US one.
can somebody tell me how this is incremental? here were the steps listed in order: 1)orbiting the Moon 2)docking spacecraft with one another in lunar orbit 3)and returning moon rock samples to Earth. they just got into space and they already want to tackle the moon? and they have more than one spacecraft to dock in lunar orbit? IMO, that's like me saying i'm going to create an operating system, gain 80% of the market, and run gates out of the OS business... but it's all going to happen in increments...
1. It's incremental because they have a series of goals, each more complex than the previous one, and aim to acheive each one in order.
Really, is that so hard to understand? Has the meaning of the word "incremental" changed or something?
2. The goals aren't only acheivable, they've already been acheived once.
NASA did all this back in the 60's, in the same order - lunar orbits, lunar docking, then finally lunar landing and return. If NASA can do it, then so can the Chinese. All it takes is manpower and resources, which won't be an issue for China.
Remember, JFK announced the US's intention to go to the moon and back just a few years after the first American was launched into space. At the time of that announcement, the US had as much experience, perhaps less, of space exploration, rocketry, etc than China has today. Again, if the US could make such a bold claim then and deliver then there is no reason to dismiss China's claim so flippantly.
Is China in a position to put men on the moon today? No. Will China be in a position to put men on the moon 10 years from now? You better believe it.
Space exploration is all about small steps of steady progress and giant leaps of vision. If Neil Armstrong could recognise that standing on the surface of the moon 34 years ago then why can't you today?
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
Essentially zip. Even if there were huge deposits of anything interesting (there are some higher levels of rare earth elements in the lunar soil), the costs of getting there and back far exceed the costs of mining reserves back on Earth.
Some people have postulated that since the Moon has no atmosphere, the very fine regolith has been soaking up the solar wind for billenia. Part of the solar wind is helium 3 (light(er) helium) which is essentially absent from Earth. He3 *might* be useful in the future if we ever get fusion working and commercially viable.
Best wishes,
Mike.
No, he meant Nuclear arsenal. Those scientists with those theories are not taken seriously within the geological community.
Think careful about earthquakes : they are the build up and release of energy many MANY orders of magnitude greater than the largest atomic bomb, and they happen..... right between the joins of tectonic plates.
This alone should be enough to show that having a nuclear explosion in the crust affect the core or the tectonic is a ludicrous idea, but then consider that below the crust much of the material has properties and behaviours that more closely approximately liquids than solids - and that the impact of an explosion or otherwise would dissipate in many directions, rather than focusing in one.
www.users.wineasy.se/dg/treaties.htm.............. ..6. The Moon Treaty
What is normally refereed to as the Moon Treaty actually has the name "Agreement Governing the Activities of States on the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies"19.
This treaty came into force in 1984, five years after it was unanimously adopted by the U.N. General Assembly and opened for signature. Many countries have, however, decided not to be parties to the Moon Treaty. Sweden is one of them.
The Treaty declares that the Moon and all its natural resources are the "Common Heritage of Mankind", Art. 11 item 1, and that these resources shall be exploited according to an international regime, Art. 11 item 5.20 The idea of a Common Heritage of Mankind was that it would include the fair distribution between all states of the natural resources of the Moon, with particular consideration for the interests of the developing countries. It had even been proposed that the right of ownership of the specimens of minerals and other substances of the Moon should be vested in the United Nations, though a rule of this kind was not included in the Treaty.21
The United States could never agree to rules of this kind and have thus never ratified the Treaty. Since the U.S.A. declared that it would not ratify the Treaty, many other states have also decided not to ratify it, and Sweden is one of those.
The Moon Treaty is only binding for the few countries which have ratified it. Nevertheless, it must be considered binding on others to some extent, especially as to those rules of the Treaty which no one has made any objections about. These can perhaps be said to be part of space law due to consensus in COPUOS and the fact, that the Treaty has entered into force. When drafting new treaties on space law, COPUOS cannot make up rules in conflict with the Moon Treaty, unless the participating states agree, in consensus, that the conflicting rules in the Moon Treaty will be abolished.
I eat my grapes at room temperature, cuz the cold ones hurt my teeth