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China Sets Sights on Comprehensive Lunar Survey
eldavojohn writes "Perhaps unsatisfied with the closeups that Google Moon has to offer, China has decided to survey the moon down to the 'inch'. In the second half of 2007, they plan to launch an unmanned lunar satellite to first orbit the moon, land on the moon & then return samples to earth for them to analyze. '"The moon probe project is the third milestone in China's space technology after satellite and manned spacecraft projects, and a first step for us in exploring deep space," the China National Space Administration head said. The orbiter represented the first phase, with a moon rover to be used in the second phase scheduled for around 2012, reports said. The plan for the third phase, scheduled for around 2017, was for another rover to land on the lunar surface and collect samples before returning to Earth.'"
Anyone want to start laying bets on who lands a person on Mars first? It's looking more and more like the Chinese if you ask me.
A-Bomb
Here I was worried that China was about to wake up and discover their industrial and technological might, and crush the U.S. like a bug. It turns out they woke up alright, but instead decided to test their prowess by engaging in a multi-trillion dollar moon-ography bee.
So is anyone going to make a stink when China claims the Moon for themselves?
I know there is a treaty prohibiting this, though I don't know if China is signatory, and I don't know if they care, or if they'll find a way out of it.
But it appears that the general way if the future is: China does what China wants.
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
Obligatory Heinlein reference "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress"
To paraphrase: When you run out of room, there's always the moon.
meh
This is all well and good and I think China should be proud of their accomplishments in space. But the idea that the US is behind because we have concentrated on near earth orbit operations with the Shuttle and ISS programs is flawed at best. Remember that putting things like remote vehicles on the Moon is a far cry from what NASA and JPL have accomplished. We've landed PEOPLE on the moon, and plan to do that again before the next decade is out. We have put rovers on MARS - an order of magnitude more difficult than putting them on the moon. Our deep solar system probes have, by and large, produced spectacular results. The experience and capabilities that have been created by building the ISS have given NASA and our international partners a great foundation for further manned space exploration. Again, I'm not bashing China - I'm just trying to put what they are doing into perspective.
Brawndo: It's what plants crave!
Guys, the leaders of "The West" look ahead maybe five, ten years max. The Chinese are thinking ahead 100 years.
... here's an interesting tidbit:
They plan on mining Helium-3 from the lunar soil, for use in fusion reactions.
Wikipedia link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium-3
-(snip)-
It is believed that the Moon's surface has large amounts of helium-3 in the lunar regolith.[18] At the start of the 21st century several countries planned to explore the Moon and to use its resources. Helium-3 is expected to be one of those resources if a commercial fusion process is created. Yet to be determined is the exact quantity of helium-3 which the solar wind traps and deposits on the lunar surface. As of our current knowledge of lunar regolith, it is exceedingly scarce (ppb quantities mixed in with ppm quantities of He4), and may be beneath the point of economic recovery. However, processes to extract other materials from the lunar regolith could cover the majority of the energy expenditures in extraction; Helium-3 extraction might be piggybacked on these processes.
Cosmochemist and geochemist Ouyang Ziyuan from the Chinese Academy of Sciences who is now in charge of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program has already stated on many occasions that one of the main goals of the program would be the mining of helium-3, from where "each year three space shuttle missions could bring enough fuel for all human beings across the world."[19]
In January 2006 the Russian space company RKK Energiya announced that it considers lunar helium-3 a potential economic resource to be mined by 2020.[20]
-(snip)-
Regarding funding for our own ailing space program, by the time the American sheeple wake-up and this actually becomes an issue that the politicians can use to run for re-election, it will be FAR too late.
My advice: learn to speak Mandarin. My wife and I are doing it already.
"All your base are belong to us."