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Another Taikonaut Launch This Week
JPThorne writes "BBC Online is reporting that China will launch a manned space mission sometime between Wednesday and Sunday of this week. Two as yet unnamed Chinese Astronauts will undertake the mission." From the article: "The launch comes almost exactly two years after China's first manned space flight, which made astronaut Yang Liwei a national hero. Unlike the last mission, Xinhua said a live broadcast of the launch would be provided to foreign media. Analysts say the fact the authorities are being more open about this launch may indicate that they are more confident of its success. "
Meanwhile, back in the US, the Republicans claim they want to take us back to space but aren't willing to put their money where their mouth is (though they're quite happy to cut funding for robotic exploration in order to free up the funds!), the Democrats seem to be opposing space exploration on the grounds that the Republicans are for it, and NASA's manned space division doesn't seem to be able to get its act together enough to actually give us a safer orbiter, never mind something that can take us to the Moon or Mars.
Dontcha love partisan politics?
Here is one thing I don't understand. Why doesn't NASA cooperate with other countries in exploration, technology etc? Why not get Russia, China and even India involved in design a new space orbiter? When they share costs and brain power wouldn't it be cheaper and faster? What will Democrats have to complain at that point. This lone ranger philosophy has got to stop. It is only hindering us.
Can we please decide on a single term for those persons who travel into space? Must we have a unique term for every national space program? Cosmonaut, Astronaut, Taikonaut. Its one thing for speakers of a language to refer to an equivalent English term by their own unique word, but why must we (we being English speakers) adopt a different term? Its silly. We generally do not do this for any other nouns. We don't call a Russian sailor by the Anglicized Russian term for sailer, do we? Sorry. Pet peeve.
Trolls: The high-tech version of those morons that scrawl obscenities in public bathrooms.
their confidence should come from the superior technology they are able to use in all phases of preparation, testing, creation, and launch. Imagine the balls it took to do this in the 60s with the very new rocket technology and very little computing power.
The problematic word is "share". It probably sounds a bit too socialist, if not downright communist, for many American politicians to accept.
Besides, such cooperation is quite easily shot down with accusations of such activities being "dangerous to national security".
Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
From a technical aspect China is in somewhere between Gemini and Apollo. An individual with enough money could do the same thing. The reality of this endeavor does not really justify any fears of space/technology domination by China.
It good, however, for the general public to see this kind of headline. It reminds them that space exists and that the U.S. doesn't run the show up there anymore. Hopefully this leads to funding...
Thank you Dave Raggett
Actually its the US that owes China. Currently I believe US owes China close to $250 billion and a similar amount to Japan.
I bet that China will land man on the moon a few times and never go back. Basically, it's pure politics and not science. ...been there, done that.
Just like the US...
If we'd been interested in going to the moon for the sake of exploration and science instead of just getting there before the Russians did, we'd probably still be there.
Going to the Moon may be just a PR stunt (it pretty much was when the US did it), but the technologies and expertise gained from that are enormous, and China is taking its rightful place as the third space power. It's a few decades behind, but moving fast, and say what you like, the Kremlin and the White House will very much be watching when a Taikonaut steps off the land on to the surface of the Moon.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
But what saddens me most out of your post is that it shows a lack of vision. The universe is a place of nearly unlimited promise. Our solar system alone holds innumerable wonders. Why shouldn't we allocate the resources to go to the Moon, Mars and beyond? The side benefits that have come out of the space program in material technologies, medicine, computers and hell, even cookware, have been enormous. That's the brilliance of such a massive R&D program, all sorts of benefits accrue. Develop some new material that can protect astronauts from months in interplanetary space from radiation, and by golly, maybe you've got a way of making smaller, safer nuclear reactors. The data processing requirements may lead to better encryption algorithms, more reliable communications protocols and smaller, faster and more intelligent computers.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Q: Why the secrecy?
A: It's China.
Really, what more information do you need?
The differences are with the ideologies. But ask yourself this: Do you own your ideology, or does it own you?
An alien visitor to earth would probably say "take me to your leading meme".
Absolute GDP values are worthless (although if you want to compare, the EU was at 11.65 trillion in 2004). Per capita is better, but doesn't account for wealth distribution. Median income is the most meaningful number income-wise, but still doesn't factor in cost of living, and ignores how bad those who suffer the most (the poor) compare across nations. Happiness would seem a pretty good method to look at, although you get some unexpected results (such as, of all places, Nigeria being the top of the list, followed by a number of Latin American countries) because people value different things in their life differently. You can also look at economic growth, or free time.
GDP: US and EU are about on par
Growth: Very similar, although both are growing rather slowly compared to the "up and comers" (Europe had been catching up since the end of WWII, where it was left in shambles, but has slowed in recent years). China, for example, is taking off like there's no tomorrow.
Per-Capita (average) income: US is about 40% higher on average than western Europe (heavily skewed by our extremely wealthy upper class); most western European nations have average incomes similar to Arkansas and Mississippi.
Median income: US is about 10-20% higher on average than western Europe
Bottom 10% income: Western europe is about 10-20% higher on average
Free time: Essentially all of Europe works significantly less hours than the US
Overall, I'd say it's pretty close; it depends on what your priorities as an individual are.
But this Rottweiler not only is snarling and frothing at the mouth; it also went to Harvard.