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China and Russia to Launch Joint Mars Mission
The Interfacer writes "China and Russia are planning a joint mission to Mars that will bring back samples to earth and land on one of the red planet's tiny moons, state media quoted a Chinese scientist as saying Wednesday." From the article: "Russia will launch the spacecraft, while China will provide the survey equipment to carry out the unmanned exploration, Ye Peijian, a senior scientist at the Chinese Academy of Space Technology, told a meeting in Beijing, according to the official Xinhua news agency."
But it would be tough to keep a vehicle on the surface of Venus long enough to do much good science...Mercury isn't too terribly interesting...and you can't really 'land' on any of the gas giants. Mars is fairly hospitable to our machines (as proven by the long lives of Spirit and Opportunity) and fairly interesting from a scientific standpoint. IANARSPD
The V2 program wasn't a space program. The rockets weren't designed to reach space, they were designed to hit targets up to around 300 km away and deliver a warhead of up to a metric ton.
look up the Shanghai Cooperation Organization
Well, Mars anv Venus are closest. Unfortunately the atmosphere of Venus is very unfriendly to humans/machines.
Venus has an extremely thick atmosphere, which consists mainly of carbon dioxide and a small amount of nitrogen. The pressure at the planet's surface is about 90 times that at Earth's surface--a pressure equivalent to that at a depth of 1 kilometer under Earth's oceans. The enormously CO2-rich atmosphere generates a strong greenhouse effect that raises the surface temperature to over 400 C." cite.
The next closest planets are Mercury and Jupiter, you wouldn't want to visit them either. Mercury is basically a semi-molten ball of rock, Jupiter is no treat with its high gravity, high winds, and very little (if any) crust. The planets don't get any better the further you get away from the sun. Basically, Mars is the only planet close enough and similiar enough to Earth to have any hope of visiting (and staying) for any useful amount of time.
Er, not exactly... http://www.factcheck.org/article148.html
/No, my scarcasm filter isn't broken, I just wanted to set the record straight on this particular issue.
Forget thrust, drag, lift and weight. Airplanes fly because of money.
This is a link to an interview with the General Designer of Russia's Korolev Space and Rocket Corporation. Interesting information about the Clipper space transportation system, and also about ion engine spaceships that they plan to send to the Moon and Mars.
Thank you for stero typing. I'm a christian, probably not a fundamentalist, but a Bible belivin Christian. I have a college education in software engineering. Also, 3 of the Math professors, 2 engineering professors and a physics professor at my college were all christians. I would say a PHD in science or egineering is pretty good education. I went to small(4,00 students) secular state school.
When did fundamentalists go after NASA? Please provide so proof to back this up.
I know it's easy to say "darned backwards stupid Christians cause all our problems!" It's nothing new, Christians were blamed for the fall of Rome too which is why Augustine wrote City Of God.
"A nation cannot remain a leader in today's technological world if it will not maximize its scientific potential."
I definitely don't want to live in a nation where scientific progress trumps all moral and ethical obligations. At what cost is it ok to maximize our potential. Why don't we just allow all scientists free reign to do any research they want. Whatever it might be. We could learn so much, we might have to hurt or kill a lot of people to get there, but hey it's progress and for our nations future!
There is a balance and place which will remain in place and should. I honestly hope neither side ever wins and that they alway balance out. there needs to be a balance between science and mroality. There needs to be a balance radicals on both sides can screw this up.
Actually, this graph is pretty telling (NASA budget as percentage of government spending):
c entage-1962-2004-MM.png
http://www.asi.org/images/2003/NASA-budget-as-per
Lyndon B. Johnson (D): Huge increase, then a moderate decrease.
Richard Nixon (R): Large decrease
Jimmy Carter (D): Small decrease
Ronald Reagan (R): Small decrease
George Bush Sr. (R): Small increase
Bill Clinton (D): tiny decrease
George Bush Jr. (R): tiny decrease
Now, factor in the fact that Republicans are "all about" cutting government income and spending as a whole (whether or not they succeed), and you get that democrats are bigger supporters of NASA than Republicans. However, even with that, it's clearly not a very partisan issue.
But this Rottweiler not only is snarling and frothing at the mouth; it also went to Harvard.
Like it or not, he's right about this one.
For your enjoyment:
NASA budgets since fiscal year 1992:
# 1993 $14.309 billion, existing NASA budget when Clinton took office;
# 1994 $14.568 billion, $259 million increase, first Clinton budget;
# 1995 $13.853 billion, $715 million decrease;
# 1996 $13.885 billion, $32 million increase;
# 1997 $13.709 billion, $176 million decrease;
# 1998 $13.648 billion, $61 million decrease;
# 1999 $13.654 billion, $6 million increase;
# 2000 $13.601 billion, $53 million decrease;
# 2001 $14.253 billion, $652 million increase;
# 2002 $14.892 billion, $639 million increase, first Bush budget;
# 2003 $15.000 billion, $108 million increase (estimated);
# 2004 $15.469 billion, $469 million increase (proposed);
There are five approved religions in China. In fact, there are more catholics in China then in Ireland.
Unfortunately, that doesn't tell the entire story, either. Many of the technologies NASA uses have been getting cheaper in comparison (especially in the areas of computer and data recording) meaning that quite a few of their projects aren't as expensive as they once were. So looking at anything technology-related in comparison to overall spending is a bit misleading. Especially given that Congressional Pork has become a more prevalent part of the budget in recent decades.
Precisely. And it's definitely NOT an issue that involves religious fundamentalism in any way, shape, or form. If anything, the "fundies" are just as much enamored with spaceflight as the rest of the population. Which is to say, sometimes they're really excited about it, and sometimes they ignore it. It all depends on what exciting developments (or not) the general public is told about. If anything, environmentalism (both directly and indirectly) has had a far greater impact on NASA.
Unfortunately, "religious fundamentalism" is a hot-button issue for Slashdot at the moment, so the trolls are taking note. Their using the opinions and prejudices of Slashdotters to undermine conversations with their usual rabble-rousing. I just hope that people wake up and realize that they're being played.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
Exactly. This guy has no clue. He's seen some western news coverage of religious persecution in China and has assumed that it's something that happens every day. Pure FUD. He's been raised in a "Stop those commie bastards" environment and he's bought in with every last cent.
The Chineese gov't is not peaches and creme. But it's not the scorched earth hell that so many Americans believe.
IMHO, this is very significant.
My very uninformed view of China's space program so far is that it's largely been purchased Russian technology with some in-house few updates. This makes sense for everyone, since Russia has been consistently launching rockets and orbiters for decades now, and China might as well take a little help to get some experience.
This time, from the article, it looks to like China will be doing the "interesting" science portion of this joint mission and Russia "just" does the pushing. Yes, others have built planetary landers before, but not so many that task is mature or easy.
So, this might be China's coming out party with respect to space research and technology. And then they'll shoot for the moon... (literally).
Actually, this has been in the works for some years now. They've probably invited the Chinese on board because they're strapped for cash and because the Chinese should be able to provide the mission with sensors the Russians can't produce cheaply enough.
Anyway, for more pictures of the spacecraft, check out the site of Lavochkin, research corporation that's going to build it:
http://www.laspace.ru/rus/phobos_ship.php
It's just too bad the mission probably won't include a rover.