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China to Land on Moon Around 2017
smooth wombat writes "China has announced that it plans to land on the moon around the year 2017. They also plan to set up a moon-based astronomical telescope, measure the thickness of the moon's soil as well as the amount of helium-3 on the moon. Helium-3 is regarded by some researchers as the perfect non-polluting fuel source. China's first lunar orbiter could blast off as early as 2007, coinciding with its third manned space trip in which possibly three men would orbit Earth in Shenzhou VII and conduct a space walk."
"China has announced that it plans to land on the moon around the year 2017.
10 years to landon the moon?!?!? How many cows do they have tied up to the booster housing?
I could see 3 to 5 years, but this isn't exactly new rocket science, is it? Is there some matter of the Russians and Americans not sharing with them, or are the Chinese just so proud they want to do it all themselves?
The United States unveiled a $104 billion plan in September to return Americans to the moon by 2018.
I fully don't understand that. NASA already knows how to do it. Why the foot dragging? They got to the Moon practically at Warp Speed compared to this mission. It's a sad day to learn all my Sci-Fi books will be further wrong on projections of lunar colonies, etc.
China was designing a rocket that could carry a payload of 25 tons, up from a present limit of eight tons, the Beijing News reported this week, though it would unlikely be ready for another six-and-a-half years.
Time to chuck the abacus and get some computers in those hands.
They should land just in time for the 100th Starbucks opening.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
The correct subject has to be:
2017 the Moon has landed on China.
But since it's a fermion, it can't become a Bose-Einstein Condensate.
:(
Sorry... too much Wikipedia
I am unamerican, and proud of it!
Americans landed on the moon first and put a flag there. How much of it would the government have to cede to China if it also landed there?
Rank my idea: http://www.sinceslicedbread.com/node/531
If China is going to land on the moon, then I call dibs on the land here on earth ...
http://www.southparkstudios.com/downloads/display_ sound.php?ep_number=310&ep_name=Chinpokomon&snd=ht tp://images.southparkstudios.com/media/sounds/310/ VERYBIGPENIS.wav&snd_name=We%20are%20very%20simple %20people...%20with%20very%20small%20penis...&sid= f099c8a62abb4ae468048ac6c1e62bec
Exactly how much better than the usual DT mix would this stuff have to be to make it worth the expense of getting it and bringing it back?
...the Moon lands on you
Wait until they arrive and find out it's just a Hollywood set.
That's gonna take a lot of dynamite...and who's going to light the fuse?
They're taking the long view of becoming a super power.
And leaving their enemies radiation free.
I for one welcome our new pointy-eyed, moonwalking overlords
A space race is more productive than an arms race.
I like the idea of competition. China, the EU, US, or maybe even the UN (just joking), someone will eventually go back to the moon and start new missions from there. And I like the idea of a moon based telescope. Great times!
Let's just mine the moon of it's natural resources. It won't affect the earth in any way or will it... If we take off any sizable chuck of the moon it will affect the tides.
Ooo man the floppy drive is broken. No wait. The computer is just upside down.
...China corners the market on cheap imported green Moon cheese. Mmmm...green Moon cheese...*droool*
Hey, where's the Chinese Tang? It'll probably be Green Tea Tang.
"Helium-3 is regarded by some researchers as the perfect non-polluting fuel source."
We've had this discussion before. It takes MASSIVE amounts of raw material to harvest Helium-3, so much so that we're effectvely talking about strip-mining the moon. Me thinks that a LOT of people are going to be opposed to turning the face of the moon into one huge resource operation. Of course, you could try the darkside and mess it up to your heart's content, but that'll create huge logistics problems beyond just strip mining the moon.
Sorry, but just don't see this as anything more than 'moon propaganda' on the part of whowever brings it, not just China. Of course, i tend to take their claims with a grain of salt anyway, but...
You need a FREE iPod Nano
I like Chinese, I like Chinese, They only come up to your knees, Yet they're always friendly and they're ready to please I like Chinese, I like Chinese, There's nine hundred million of them in the world today, You'd better learn to like them that's what I say.
...that they can see the Great Firewall from space.
Modest doubt is called the beacon of the wise. - William Shakespeare
Since the days of US vs CCCP space race has passed and nobody seems to be interested in our very convenient stepping stone for some real exploration. We have become so much accustomed to satisfied with the warp drives and photon sails and whatever in the space opera shows we like so much, many people (perhaps excluding most /.ers) are overlooking the fact they are waiting to be invented and implemented. Since the Soviet Union is no more, the battlefield has shifted somewhere else, space exploration has served its temporary political purpose now the russkies are defeated (though it was very useful for technological advances as a side effect). We are living the days of land and resource grab (WMD anyone?), when nobody wishes to look ahead.
China has been a world power for -let me see- all known history, and is chinese first and anything else a distant second. They are a pragmatic people, move with slow but sure steps. I certainly hope this move of theirs will have more real tangible benefit to humankind, and not just for political bravado.
And, NASA was mostly all engineers -- good ones. Now it's mostly PhDs. This is a big difference when it comes to actually accomplishing something. An engineer solves several problems a week, and writes reports about them -- all in the same week. A PhD has solved one problem, took a few years, then took another few years to write the report. And oh yeah, his solution doesn't have to work outside the lab. As a result of working with ex-NASA employees (the good engineers who got chased out by the academic snobbery) I found the corporate culture to be pretty sick in recent (some years ago) days. Gosh, this IS rocket science, and some of it is dangerous (work out how many horsepower hours it takes to put a car into orbit, with 100% efficiency -- it's one heck of a bomb those guys ride), but they are too timid to admit that surely some folks will die playing with it. It seems China has a more healthy outlook here, and might go somewhere with it. Of course, if the academics weren't eating every last dime of the appropriations to "study stuff that can't be checked or proved", there might be money to get the job done, as there was last time. It's profitable to remember that these super smart academics missed Mars by failing to know the difference between metric and English units. Of course they are scared to attempt something most perceive as "simple". They'll want to study it for the rest of their careers and pass the problem to the next guys.
We will operate under the same belief that served us well against the Soviet Union. We will build so many nukes and aim them at China that we will be able to destroy their entire country if they should ever attack us.
The problem is that, this time, we'll be playing the part of the Soviet Union and go bankrupt trying to support an Earth-bound force when they can drop rocks on us all night. All of our satelites will be useless. All of our production facilities will be useless. But we'll still spend money on them.
What exactly is the point? It was already done over 30 years ago, why waste time and money doing it again? Note: This comment is assuming, of course, that the moon landings were actually real, which they weren't.
Ooo man the floppy drive is broken. No wait. The computer is just upside down.
I bought many of acres of moon land through the "Lunar Registry". I assume that China will check with me before picking a landing spot? I don't want any of my prime real estate damaged by their rockets.
I didn't pay $32/acre just to let anyone use it. That would be stupid!
Free Allegiance
... it seems like same ol, same ol, same old diatribes on going back to the moon.
My Rant for the Week:
1. Saturn V plans still exists, it's the infrastructure that needs to be rebuilt.
2. NASA speaks mostly of contracts and budgets, I wonder how many badged employees (civil servant and contractor) understand the rocket equation.
3. To get money to build the CEV and CLV, they have to cancel other programs and layoff people (not a good way to build consensus).
4. A "light year" is a unit of distance, NOT time!!!!
Mike
...want to go to our moon. We had it first.
Using helium! Any chance of sending Richard Branson up with them? In fact, I think he may have tried it already. Virgin Moon Landing
Karmady is the best medicine.
NASA is out-sourcing as well?
Never mind that Dick Cheney said that increased insurgent activity is characteristic of kicks of a dying horse! This he said almost a year ago! Take a look http://icasualties.org/oif/. The picture looks ugly.
China - 2017
USA - 2018
not of course counting: Hollywood - 1969
It notice that is 1 year before the first planned landing for NASA's new lunar lander. For China to land on the moon by 2017 Apollo style they would have to have at least a 100 ton class booster and a huge, visible effort. The planned Long March 5 booster is only 25 ton class (like Arianne V or Atlas V). Development isn't even approaved yet and it will take 7 years to develop. I doubt if the Russians will be helping them. If you ask me I'd say the Chinese spokesman was smoking crack.
an ill wind that blows no good
They don't even know how to drive a car, and they're going to land on the moon? Good Luck... Hopefully they don't dent up the ISS while en route =P
doesnt the moon help keep us as a planet in orbit? if so, what happens when they mine it to a crumb?
I have Slashdot and The Onion right next to each other on my RSS feeds... I clicked this article thinking it was from The Onion...
"I do not believe that this generation of Americans is willing to resign itself to going to bed each night by the light of a Communist moon".
Maybe LBJ's words still ring true to the current generation...
Fundamental limitations on plasma fusion systems not in thermodynamic equilibrium.
Keep fucking dreaming kids.
Travelling to the moon ain't like dusting crops, boy! Without precise calculations they could fly right through a star or bounce too close to a supernova, and that would end their trip real quick, wouldn't it!
Everyone knows that moon cheese is yellow.
China has NEVER signed either the Outer Space Treaty of 1967 OR the updated Moon Treaty of 1979.
If they want to claim it there is no international legal mumbo jumbo to say it's not theirs.
I would think that, when the time comes, when there are enough people, then it would be those folks living on the Moon who would want to create their government. And they're not likely to be asking us for any advice.
For some reason everytime there is a story about China in space the hairs on the back of my neck stick up.
What are we (the West) doing to maintain (let alone expand) our presence in space? It seems like we're falling back to Earth. If it weren't for Russia (which really isn't part of 'the West') we couldn't even get back up to our little tincan spacestation.
I hate to see the democratic nations losing any advantage to China; if they treat their own people with such little respect, we need every edge we can get to keep them respecting us. But when the advantage is space I'm even more concerned; maybe this thought is too Jurasic, but to whatever capacity the despots have a certain technology, the free world better be at least as capable, and probably more so.
To many bright minds are in Western society are going into business and marketing; too little respect is paid to scientists and engineers (unless they build something that is immediately good for business and/or marketable).
Luckily, we have a biosphere that continually turns sunlight into fuel. It's mostly just a question of processing, you know. It's convenient to have the hydrocarbons reduced to an easily pumpable fluid, but it isn't strictly necessary. When the time comes, it will be easy enough to grow plants and convert them to various forms of chemical fuel.
Well said.
"That's one small step for a man one giant leap for mankind."
The fundamental irony in this statement is that it was not a small step for a man, it was a 250,000 mile step for the individual man. And the entire moon-landing program didn't really amount to much for the vast majority of people on earth. It wasn't a 'giant leap'.
This 'Armstrong Irony' is mentioned in the 1986 book Nature's End by Whitley Streiber and James Kuneka. A wonderful sci-fi book, highly recommended, and still probably available at your local library.
The Chinese...are on their way to becoming a Superpower....
Wait a minute....didn't the Chinese start out as a superpower, say about 800 years ago or so? I'm always hearing that the Chinese were civilized and inventing paper and fire and logic and stuff when my ancestors were grunting around a campfire eating raw antelope with their fingers.
tsk tsk
Heinlein's grave moved a bit I think.
Mode (3) smart-aleck mode. Press * to return to main menu.
Technology has changed so much. I never knew they can move a whole country to the moon!
Well, the reason you can do heart, liver, kidney et cetera transplants successfully is because of the anti-rejection drugs developed in the United States.
The reason you can tell whether your child will have Down's syndrome in time to abort and try again is because of genetic analysis developed in the United States.
The reason you solve certain crimes is because of DNA analysis invented by an American scientist.
The reason people with diabetes can have more normal lives is because of recombinant human insulin produced in bacteria colonies, a method developed in the United States.
The reason AIDS is not automatically a death sentence anymore is because of powerful antiviral therapies developed in the United States.
The reason breast cancer survival rates are far higher than they were 20 years ago is because of new chemotherapies, including tamoxifen and herceptin, developed in the US.
And, finally, the reason you can ask this question and get an answer is because of a nifty idea called the Internet, invented in...well, you get the idea.
This is EXACTLY the sort of analysis I've been trying to google. None of the usual fusion sites have anything close to solid math about He3 fusion.
Its not 1969 anymore...
Great new book on Evolution: The Greatest Show on Earth by Richard Dawkins
That's a trick question, no one owns the Moon, much like Antarctica isn't owned by any country either.
It's more than a trick question. It's also an ethical/philosophical question:
What gives someone the right to a piece of ground that was there long before them and long after them, and is in no way theirs any more than they can muster violence to hold it? Do we have a right to deprive others from that which isn't even ours? Since land is not property --even in the loosest sense-- until you can put up a fence, then it seems like if China goes to the moon, and founds bases there uncontested, the moon is de facto theirs. What would be a coup is if they could get the Americans to call it Yueqiu or something (sorry if that's wrong, I've never seriously studied Chinese).
Often quoted: "Men did not make the [Moon]... It is the value of the improvements only, and not the [Moon] itself, that is individual property... Every proprietor owes to the community a ground rent for the land which he holds." (apologies and attribution to that radical Thomas Paine (Agrarian Justice, 1795-6))
(and here is the context:)
Read Heinlein's 1953 Revolt in 2100, now more than ever.
wowooo! get the popcorn, we got a spacerace.
Me chinese, me play joke. Me put He-three in your Coke.
Fizzle Fizzle long time baby!
Talk is cheap, especially big talk.
Actually, a "green" American 2 x 4 is 40 x 90 mm. Dried they end up a little smaller. Measure one some time if you don't believe me.
For China to land on the moon by 2017 Apollo style they would have to have at least a 100 ton class booster and a huge, visible effort.
What was the name of the US 100 ton booster launched in 1957?
I for one welcome our new Chinese overlords.
Putting people on the moon is easier in some respects than sending a probe to Jupiter. I say China try something unique, how about a race to the nether regions of our solar system? Lets explore these Kuiper belt objects, that seems way more interesting to me than the friggin MOON!
I'm curious as to where the He is being stored on the moon. He is inert, so it's not bound in molecules. It's also really light, so it escapes the earth's gravitational pull (meaning it'll fly away even quicker from the moon). Are there a lot of radioactive materials undergoing beta decay leaving pockets of He?
-Bucky
I'm sick of this 2015/2020/2025 BS! Will someone just go there already afterall we did it with very limited technology in the 60's in a very short amount of time WHY the hell can't we do it in a shorter amount of time with less money, has society stopped progressing since the 70's?
Wait until they build the base, then let them know you ow the land - your moonland is going to be worth quite a bit more than $32/acre once someone puts the sewer lines in for you! What are they going to do, tear all the plumbing out and start going outside?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Your account of Nasa being all air and no space doesn't really seem to fit to well with the pretty stellar track record they have enjoyed, not just with the landers of course but also with the Cassini probe.
If the PHd's don't know how to get things done, someone at NASA sure does.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Last year it was India and China as the 2 largest competitors in the space race. Now India seems to have dropped out. Both countries have over a billion people. Both have the highest educated population in the world.
He wrote about the Chinese being the first to one of Jupiter's moons in a short story that I think was the inspiration for 2001: A Space Odyssey. I'm not sure why Clarke saw the Chinese as being trailblazers into space from way back in the 50s but he did.
"sweet dreams are made of this..."
In 1968 there was one country which controlled 90% of the world's
resources and 100 other countries recovering from WWII. Today all the
world's countries are competing for the world's resources, each making
sacrifices to share with the others. It would take an equally
unanimous sacrifice of hundreds of countries and a desire of each country to survive a
war of technology to repeat the 60's.
30 minutes after lift off? How much Chinese food can you take to the Moon? They dont have Teng? ( Orange Drink?) This will give new meaning to the words: Rice Burner... After Rice Burner? Edgar Rice Burner?
I think you're wrong. Because of the test, parents have a choice. Parents who choose not to abort believe they have taken a deeply meaningful step, made a profound act of affirmation of life and hope for the future. They have freely chosen to accept the child as he is, knowing his handicaps. Their act would be less meaningful, less an act of grace, if it were not the free choice which the genetic test makes it.
So if China is doing so well that they can start a space exploration program, I guess they wont be need 50billion dollars a year form Japan in aid money any more then will they?
Oh wait, no, see, that money they're supposed to use to feed their people is what's feeding their space program. Japan threatened to pull the aid, and the people ran to the streets destroying anything Japanese they can find.
Somehow I think the people that are actually paying for China's space program will soon be pulling the plug, and China will collapse on-top of itself when the fact that it's been spending other people's money for the last 60 years catches up with them.
Quoting Wikipedia on Helium:
"On Earth it is created by the radioactive decay of much heavier elements (alpha particles are helium nuclei produced by the decay of uranium). After its creation, part of it is trapped with natural gas in concentrations up to 7% by volume. It is extracted from the natural gas by a low temperature separation process called fractional distillation."
Perhaps the Helium in Moon is trapped similarly in natural gas. OTHO, if there is natural gas in the moon, wouldn't that be a better source of fuel (with current technology)?
Quoting Wikipedia on Moon:
"The lunar crust is composed of a variety of primary elements, including uranium, thorium, potassium, oxygen, silicon, magnesium, iron, titanium, calcium, aluminum and hydrogen. When bombarded by cosmic rays, each element bounces back into space its own radiation, in the form of gamma rays. Some elements, such as uranium, thorium and potassium, are radioactive and emit gamma rays on their own. However, regardless of what causes them, gamma rays for each element are all different from one another -- each produces a unique spectral "signature", detectable by a spectrometer.
A complete global mapping of the Moon for the abundance of these elements has never been performed. However, some spacecraft have done so for portions of the Moon; Galileo did so when it flew by the Moon in 1992. [3] The overall composition of the Moon is believed to be similar to that of the Earth other than a depletion of volatile elements and of iron."
Wikipedia does not even mention Helium, but it mentions hydrogen. Is Wikipedia's Moon article up to date?
According to the Finnish Wikipedia on Moon, 25% of the Moon's athmosphere consists of Helium gas. I do not see how this gas could be "mined". Perhaps they could just somehow collect it?
It's worth pointing out that what you call "standard" units are actually "Imperial" units. That's "Imperial" as in "British Empire". You know, the guys you fought a war to escape from, a little while back?
And here you are, still following their old units, while most of the rest of the world has moved on to more rational SI/metric units.
Could that be one of the reasons the US is falling behind technically and scientifically these days?
Wrong answer. Sure, if it came to an all-out war, the US might have a chance against China. But that isn't likely to happen. Sheer military power is the one remaining area where the US still remains dominant in the world, but it's the one area that's becoming less and less relevant in world affairs.
The US won the Cold War against the USSR without launching a single nuclear missile or dropping a single nuclear bomb in anger. It won simply by outgrowing the Soviet economy, to the point where the USSR could no longer keep up.
And guess what? The US is no longer the dominant economy in the world that it once was. Other areas are growing faster, and showing more prospects for long-term growth. Even US culture is no longer as dominant in the world as it once was (the world's biggest and fastest-growing movie industry is based, not in Hollywood, but in Mumbai). And we all know where science and technology is going...
My prediction is, China and India will become dominant in the world without a single shot being fired.
Even if the value of the US currency would go down, it'd just make it more attractive for the Chinese to buy up US-based assets considered strategic to their objectives. Unlike the cash-rich Japanese in the 80's, the Chinese wouldn't care much about the largely symbolic real estate but would go for targets which would allow them to gain control of the US economy and production.
All in all, it's strange how the ruling classes of America (large corporations and their political friends) seem to doing everything in their considerable power to help an expansionist and aggressive dictatorship to grow into an uncontrollable behemoth. Tibetans, Uighurs and ("Inner", huh) Mongolians are left to their own devices to cope with the sinister sinization of their lands while the Taiwanese live under the constant fear of invasion by the CCP's military arm, the euphemistically titled "People's Liberation Army".
Bush, Blair & Co tout their invasion and occupation of Iraq as a "moral duty" while they're bending over backwards to roll out the red carpet to China's totalitarian rulers. Blair, who refused to even meet the exiled leader of the Tibetans last year will be kissing Chairman Hu's butt next week, hell-bent on resuming the sale of military technology to the aggressive dictatorship! They're trying hard to reach Putinist Russia's high moral standards apparently.
How is this all related to PRC's ambitious space program? Well, were we rejoicing when monsieurs Hitler and Stalin made progress on their respective paramilitary programs while building up ultranationalist fervour among their under-critical populations?
If this was about a peaceful and democratic China which wasn't committing genocide against its defenseless neighbours or oppressing its own people over "thought crimes" I'd be happy as a clam. I know there are good people in China; I've met such people myself. But too many, especially of those with knowledge of english and access to the 'net, are ultranationalistic stooges supporting their unelected regime with total disregard to the crimes they've committed.
Should invading one's peaceful neighbours be opposed, or rewarded with trade deals?
"The satellite is to be launched into lunar orbit for comprehensively probing into rich resources on the moon such as He3, Fe, Ti and water-ice, as well as its surface condition, landforms, geologic structure and physical fields through remote sensing. "
Later that article mentions the three step goals as:
"Another two deputy chief designers of Shenzhou III spacecraft revealed a three-step plan of China's first manned spaceflight:
[1] Take Chinese astronauts into space;
[2] create a space laboratory;
[3] and establish China's space station and establish a connection with international space stations. "
Looks like the Moon base and telescope were recent additions to the three step plan. In November 8, 2003 the Xinhua News Agency reported these four goals for Moon program:
" For the first goal, there will be three-dimensioned graphs of the lunar surface.
Basic structures and physiognomy units of the lunar surface will be defined precisely. Researches on the shape, size, distribution, and density will be made on the crates on the moon. These researches on the crates will produce data for identifying the age of the surface and early history of terrestrial planets and provide information needed to select the sites selecting for soft landing on the moon surface and for the lunar base.
The second goal is concentrating on the distribution and types of elements.
It will be focused on the content and distribution of 14 elements such as titanium and iron which can be exploited. A map of elements distribution around the moon will be sketched. Graphs for lunar rocks, mineral materials and geology will also be drawn respectively. The area rich in specific elements will be identified. And prospects of the development and exploitation of the mineral resources will be evaluated.
The third goal is to detect the depth of the lunar soil through microwave radiation.
In this way we can calculate the age of the lunar surface and distribution of the lunar soil on the lunar surface. This lays a foundation for the further estimates of the content, distribution, and quantity of helium-3 which is power generating fuel caused by nuclear fusion.
The fourth goal is focused on the space environment between the earth and the moon. ...
The average distance between the earth and the moon is 380 million km, which is in the earth's far magnetotail. Here the satellite probes solar energetic particles, plasma in solar wind, and the interaction between the solar wind and the moon and between the tail of the magnetic field of the earth and the moon. " Then of course we have to look at Chinanews 2005-11-01 article that sums up the most recent plans: "China will consider manned lunar landing after 2017".
" As for when the first Chinese astronaut will set foot on the moon, Ouyang said China will be capable of realizing manned lunar landing between 2020 and 2025. After that, China will also plan to build a base on the moon. "
Exploring space is horrendously expensive especially when America does it. I remember reading years ago, that the Russian space achievements during the cold war period were achieved at a tenth of the cost of the American achievements. Yes America reached the moon but what have we got to show for it? Apart from an inflated ego zilch! that was up until about twenty ago, when a lab in the University of Wisconsin discovered with little fanfare, something remarkable.
Read
http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/space/1283 056.html?page=1&c=y/
Shmitt (The only scientist to visit the moon) reckons that He3 is worth about $40000 an ounce or $1428 dollars a gram , gold is worth around 15 dollars a gram. If Shmitt is correct in his estimate of the value of He3, this makes He3 nearly a hundred times more valuable than gold. Had the astronaughts have struck gold on the moon, I have little doubt that we would be living on the moon by now.
There are many news articles about He3 here http://fti.neep.wisc.edu/gallery/
The science of He3 here http://fti.neep.wisc.edu/Research/he3.html/
The thing that will make human endevours in space viable, is when space makes a profit.
It's called an elephant's trunk whereas it is in fact, an elephant's nose, a nose by any other name would smell as sweet
One day, someone is going to build a flag so big, it will destroy us all.
The Mongolians also invaded Tibet in its entirety, being the only foreign power to do so before the Chinese communist army in 1950, and that invasion by the Mongols is used by the supposedly anti-imperial and anti-feudal Chinese communists today as a key argument as to why the Tibetan nation is theirs, and only theirs, to occupy, rip off and commit genocide as they please.
Should invading one's peaceful neighbours be opposed, or rewarded with trade deals?
In a unanimous uproar of praise, bill 2347-g passed congress today to allow Walmart to build the first ever outer-space SuperCenter on the moon in 2018. Walmart HMFIC had this to say: "It's so exciting!! There will be so many new resources and people to exploit, we are just giddy as school girls!!"
Join the Slashcott! Feb 10 thru Feb 17!
Can we as Americans still be proud when the Chinese finally land on the moon?
Well, you can still be proud of the little things like democracy and freedom of speech. They may seem trivial and perhaps in decline in modern America, but you're still light (years)^2/metre ahead of the Chinese, whose last emperor, Mao Zedong, has built a nation which looks like it's going to be an authoritarian oligarchy for some time into the future.
May the Maths Be with you!
25% of 0.000000000003 mB... wow.
You'd have to mine a HUGE amount of moon gas to get anything out of THAT.
Or did they perhaps mean using it as reaction mass of rockets ?
Also, since Helium is second-lightest element (and Helium-3 is presumably even lighter than normal Helium-4), why would there be significant amounts of it in the Moon, whose gravity field is weaker than Earths ?
Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.
By obsolete prestige projects, I mean the Chinese orbit/moon missions, the American Mars/moon missions, the International Space Station, etc. I'm guessing the first space elevator is going to be built 10 to 15 years from now. This will quickly open up space to the familiar menagerie of capitalists, settlers, and adventurers. So "prestige" missions like this which consist of temporarily transporting a few native-born sons onto a piece of nearby space rock won't get much news. Average people will already be doing much more than this.
I still think nations will have prestige projects and space races like before, but the scale will be much different. Instead of "let's send 3 men to the moon for a few days", think "let's send a probe to Alpha Centauri".