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China Sending Two People Into Space
henrypijames writes "As reported widely in Chinese media, China has began production of and launch preparations for it's new Shenzhou ("divine ship") 6 spaceship. While being roughly equal in design to Shenzhou 5 which sent the first Chinese into space last year (although having capacity for three persons), Shenzhou 6 is supposed to carry two "Taikonaut" next year."
snippet from Wikipedia's listing for the Shenzhou - lots more in the link!
Design
Like the Soyuz, the Shenzhou consists of three modules; a forward "orbital" module, a reentry capsule in the middle, and an aft service module. This division is based on the principle of minimizing the amount of material to be returned to Earth. Anything placed in the orbital or service modules does not require heat shielding, and this greatly increases the space available to the spacecraft without increasing weight as much as it would if those modules were also able to withstand reentry.
The orbital module contains space for experiments, crew-serviced or operated equipment, and in-orbit habitation. The reentry capsule contains seating for the crew, and is the only portion of the Shenzhou which returns to Earth's surface. The aft service module contains life support and other equipment required for the functioning of the Shenzhou. Two pairs of solar panels, one pair on the service module and the other pair on the orbital module, have a total area of over 40 square metres, indicating average electrical power over 1.5 kW (three times that of Soyuz and greater than that of the original Mir base module).
Unlike the Soyuz, the orbital module was equipped with its own propulsion, solar power, and control systems, allowing autonomous flight. In the future the orbital modules could also be left behind on a Chinese space station as additional station modules. In the unmanned test flights launched so far, the orbital module of each Shenzhou was left functioning in orbit for several days after the reentry capsule's return.
In case you were wondering like me ...
"Taikong" is a Chinese word that means space or cosmos. The resulted prefix "taiko-" is similar to "astro-" and "cosmo-" that makes three words perfectly symmetric, both in meaning and in form. Removing "g" from "taikong" is to make the word short and easy to pronounce. On the other side, its pronounciation is also close to "taikong ren", the Chinese words "space men".
Xbox reviews.. We think they're funny.
... as space is the ultimate high ground on military thinking and United States is publicly touting to build space-based weaponry to maintain supremecy.
This is just the beginning of next arms race, even India is building nuclear attack platform in space.
Arms control is dead, welcome new instability.
In fact there 2 type of Nuclear propulsion : Without fallout (Nuclear Termal Rocket (NTR) - basically just flying reactor) and with fallout ( Orion - nuclear bomp explosion pushed ship, Nuclear salt water rocket NSWR). AFAIK there is still no usable "build now" NTR design, and overall NTR probably couldn't make one stage to orbit and back reusable trip. NSWR is a radioactive disaster, usable only in space. Orion - battleship sized spaceship on the pushing plate, pushed by nuke explosion probaly most realistic nuclear design, and probaly could be built now. If launched in the Antarctica, radioactive pollution wouldn't be quite disastrous, but still costing one cancer death per launch (for all the world), by some estimation. So until the progress with NTR nuclear propulsion is better used in space (and there is no electromagnetic pulse in space for nuke too)
Except that it *does* mention bringing them back.
He said astronauts would stay aboard the orbiting lab for short periods, with spacecraft ferrying them back and forth.
The USA is less rich than it appears. A lot of the high lifestyle that even the lowest classes live is all financed on consumer debt. People are already reaching their credit limits. Once people can no longer finance new things, they can't purchase new things, and you know where that leads. Like any venture financed with debt, it must return enough to more than compensate for the cost of servicing the debt. As consumer tend to only buy things which don't make money, they're taken on huge amounts of debt that will reduce their buying power for many years to come.
The only difference between the USSR and the USA is that the debt is riding more on the individual consumers in the US. Either way, the people owe lots. The US hasn't provided a decent standard of living for its quater billion citizens.
He who laughs last is stuck in a time dilation bubble.
"Maybe the European Union can focus on treating less developed countries, that were formally colonized by them, would treat them fairly and give them preferential treatment on imports."
Funny you should mention this. I believe the EU tried to do this with bananas imported from poor countries in the caribbean. The USA, prompted by large american banana companies, took them to the WTO to prevent it.
Link here.
That said, the EU is still too much like a rich man's club.