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China Plans 5-day Manned Space Mission

Posted by timothy on from the remember-the-board-games dept.

rune writes "Both the BBC and The Register have articles on China's next manned space mission. This time two taikonauts are planned to be on board the Shenzou VI spacecraft sometime during 2005 for about five days. There is also a brief mention of the plans of the Chinese Space Agency for lunar exploration." hrld1,kon adds a link to this article on Chinaview, the official English-language news source for the People's Republic of China.

21 of 245 comments (clear)

  1. This is way cool... by ajiva · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'm hoping that with China, and maybe India getting involved in exploring space, maybe the US might get involved too. A three or four way (with Russia) space race, could easily see humans "out there" in the next 50 years. At the current rate, I don't think we'd ever make it.

    1. Re:This is way cool... by AndyChrist · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Five way, if you count private enterprise separately. Six if you count the ESA separately as well.

      I wonder if the current partners will try and bring China on board the space station project? It would probably be comforting to know there was another party that could reach it if the US and Russia (at the same time) were rendered unable to.

      Well, so long as no one is trying to render anyone else unable to, it's comforting.

  2. Made in China... by Dzimas · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I'm getting scared. TVs, computers, LCD displays, mp3 players, and nearly every other kind of high tech device is made in China. Now they're leading the "new wave" into space.

    Meanwhile in North America, we've perfected manufacture of the double bacon cheeseburger. Gulp.

    1. Re:Made in China... by divide+overflow · · Score: 4, Interesting

      > They should pay Bill Clinton a royalty. His administration made their recent progress possible.

      Hardly. Credit or blame goes to 1) Hughes Electronics Corp. and Boeing Satellite Systems for unlawfully transferring rocket and satellite data to China and 2) Richard Nixon for agreeing to expand political and economic ties with China back in 1972.

    2. Re:Made in China... by killjoe · · Score: 4, Funny

      I noticed today that it's very cold. I am also blaming Bill Clinton for the coming of winter. While I am at it I think I should also blame Bill Clinton for the darkness. Oh yea also for the rain and that itching in my left butcheek. That's Clinton's fault too.

      --
      evil is as evil does
  3. life support by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    they will remain in orbit for five days, although their craft could support them for up to one week.

    wow, IMO that's a pretty a small buffer! i would add more to accomodate for any miscalculations or if they must stay up for londer for whatever reason.

  4. LOL by DarkMantle · · Score: 5, Insightful

    From the Article.. "In order to create a craft capable of orbiting in space for five days, scientists say they have been trying to reduce weight and improve the performance of onboad instrumentation."

    The funny part is... the US sent men to the moon in the late 60's and the entire spacecraft had less computer power then a 486 computer... And they need to improve current technology???

    Just goes to show, with todays technology, we sometimes forget we can simplify things.

    --
    DarkMantle I been bored, so I started a blog.
    1. Re:LOL by nels_tomlinson · · Score: 4, Informative
      ... the US sent men to the moon in the late 60's and the entire spacecraft had less computer power then a 486 computer... And they need to improve current technology?

      Well, there's always room for improvement. I'm sure they'd like to send more men up with less rocket booster than we could do 40 years ago. I bet they've already caught up to where we were in the '60s; after all, they've been making ICBMs for a long time now, they claim.

      As for the instrumentation, they make a lot of chips in China, but I think they're all consumer-grade, not radiation-hardened. Nowadays they should be able to collect a lot more data on the ship and its performance than we could get during the Apollo era.

      --
      See what I've been reading.
    2. Re:LOL by Waffle+Iron · · Score: 4, Informative
      the US sent men to the moon in the late 60's and the entire spacecraft had less computer power then a 486 computer

      Actually, far less power than a 486. It was a 15-bit CPU (8K RAM, 64K ROM) with a memory cycle frequency of only 83 kHz.

  5. NERVA-like designs by rbanffy · · Score: 4, Funny

    Maybe they could develop (or copy) a NERVA-like design such as the one Pratt & Whitney has shown about a week ago.

    If I remember correctly, the Chinese government never signed anything that forbids them putting fission reactors in orbit.

    --
    http://www.dieblinkenlights.com
  6. China needs to join the ISS by Ryu2 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Currently, the International Space Station consists of pretty much every spacefaring nation on Earth, with the exception of China... due to US uncertainty over its motives. So China is planning to go its own way, build its own station, etc.

    I don't know about you, but as a Chinese living in the USA, I would really like for China to join the ISS -- we don't need another Cold War style space race, and cooperation with the world will, I believe, lead to greater transparency and scrutiny of China's space program anyhow.

    Indeed, it's absurd that China is currently one of only two nations with a operational manned spaceflight capability, but isn't allowed to join the ISS -- when the ISS is suffering from major logistical resupply problems due to the grounding of the shuttle.

    China has, for years, been on a path from isolation back in the 1950s and 1960s, to being a part of the world community in many ways. The US needs to ditch its outdated paranoia, or else the other nations (Russia, EU, etc) need to grow some balls and admit China into the consortium for the benefit of all sides concerned.

    --
    There's 10 types of people in this world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
    1. Re:China needs to join the ISS by cosmo7 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I think one thing that sets China's space program apart from those of the US and Russia is the Chinese' ability to dedicate themselves to long-term programs that do not produce results for decades. Look at the Three Gorges Dam; no western nation would commit themselves to a project that economically makes the ISS look like a summer camp project.

  7. Re:I'm sorry... by dwgranth · · Score: 4, Interesting

    fair enough... seeing that the US is thinking of shutting down the shuttle missions soon, and it sending astronauts by way of the Russian rockets.. maybe china will come out on top after all in the next round of the space race (Man on mars??)

  8. Re:I'm sorry... by Cali+Thalen · · Score: 5, Insightful

    POTENTIAL superpower?!? You'd better hope they don't decide to provide proof of it...

    Someone post some stats about China's military numbers and their nuclear arsenal...I'm too lazy to google...

    No I'm not...2.5 million in the military, first successful nuclear test, 1964, hydrogen in 1967....OK they're #5 among the main nuclear powers, but that's still ~120 nuclear missles can do enough damage to consider them pretty powerful.

    --
    Chaos, panic, disorder...my work here is done.
  9. At least somebody is doing something by Taco+Cowboy · · Score: 4, Insightful



    Something is always better than nothing.

    Ever since the space shuttle disaster, and the bankrupt of Russia, both the Americans and Russians are stuck with the ultra-expensive ISS.

    The Chinese are doing something, and they ought to be congratulated.

    If the Indians can do it earlier than the Chinese, so much the better. I also heard that Brazil also has something under development.

    How about the Europeans ?

    --
    Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
    1. Re:At least somebody is doing something by cosmo7 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The ISS doesn't have to be ultra-expensive. The space program has become the pork barrel smorgasbord of American politics. If completion and operation of the ISS was opened to independent contractors costs would plummet.

      Think about it: DC. Huge contracts. Political oversight. Do you really think that money is being spent in the most cost-effective way?

    2. Re:At least somebody is doing something by luvirini · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Unfortunately ISS has to be expensive for the reasons you say and a few more, like the safety requirement. Any new technology is dangerous and people die when making them better. In order for things to get better you that needs to happen. The total number of people who died in the early years of aviation was huge, but again for political reasons that cannot be allowed in the space programs.

  10. Well ya by Sycraft-fu · · Score: 5, Funny
    There certianly aren't any US companies that make high technology.

    And I'm also certian that the US didn't just complete the first non-government manned space flight and doesn't have billions of dollars going to develop private space flight.

    Give me a break.

    China is emerging as an ecenomic powerhouse, and it looks like it will continue down that path, provided their government doesn't screw up. However please don't pretend like all good things come from China. I gave just a small list of the US companies that produce advanced hardware, including what drives almost all the devices you listed. Your MP3 player may be built in China but it's usually using TI DSPs and AD opamps.

    You know it's perfectly possible for China AND the US to be economic powers, and for both to benefit from trade with each other.

  11. Re:Please, no more "taikonauts"! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    The word taikonaut is not used in Chinese. The Chinese word for astronaut is yuhangyuan, and the official English term used in Chinese media is "Chinese astronaut".

  12. 486 by vlad_petric · · Score: 4, Interesting
    It was actually much less than that (probably comparable to a Z80). 486 would have been PFM (pure magik) for those times.

    FYI: even today, you can't send more than a 486 in orbit, mostly because of feature sizes. The smaller the feature size, the easier for cosmic radiation to screw things up.

    --

    The Raven

  13. So now that China has money to put men in space... by character_assassin · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ... does this mean that we can stop sending them economic aid? (http://www.tibet.ca/en/wtnarchive/2004/4/6_5.html )

    --

    If you mod me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.