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."

Comments

Re:Why Mars?

[SSCGWLB]

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.

Re:I'm so tired of you liberals

[BiggerIsBetter]

He is single handedly pulling this country out of the mess the Clinton years produced.

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.

Details on Russian Space Plans

[lobotomir]

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.

Re:Politically interesting in the US, too.

[embracethenerdwithin]

"They attempt to make up for their own lack of education by forcing their twisted ideas about the world on others, including people and organizations who wish to improve our understanding of nature via the scientific method."

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.

Re:Politically interesting in the US, too.

[Rei]

Actually, this graph is pretty telling (NASA budget as percentage of government spending):

http://www.asi.org/images/2003/NASA-budget-as-perc entage-1962-2004-MM.png

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.