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China's First Mars Probe Ready To Launch
henrypijames writes "At the Shanghai Aerospace Exhibition last week, China's first Mars probe Yinghuo-1 was the main attraction. The newly completed probe will soon be sent to Moscow for some further testing, before a joint launch with Russia's own probe Phobos-Grunt from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan this October."
The story is showing in red on the main page - perhaps reflecting the fear of a red mars in all of us. Oh, wait...
I am one of many. My idea is not unique, nor do I expect my voice alone to sway you. I speak in a chorus of opinion.
China's first Mars probe Yinghuo-1 was the main attraction. The newly completed probe will soon be sent to Moscow for some further testing, before a joint launch with Russia's own probe Phobos-Grunt
A probe to Mars, made by China, tested and then launched by the Russians with their effort called 'Grunt'.
What could possibily go wrong?
If it's going to Moskow for testing, it's not fucking ready to launch now is it?
Slashdot editors: Read the damn summary at least!
In space, no one can hear you grunt.
http://twitter.com/OLDTELEGRAM
North Korea has also announced a... yeah, a "Mars Probe", and they're going to be launching it as well. It has a small nuclear reactor on board to supply power throughout the long journey, so that will explain any traces of radiation seen during the launch. It, of course, needs to be launched in a Westerly direction over Japan and the US, so this message is to alert those two nations that this is a PEACEFUL PROBE to another planet and there is no need to track it closely.
Thank you
Kim
Hard to get too excited. We are after all talking about the oh so NOT transparent China. Who knows what, if any of the data will be accurate or even real. The state run PR dept. of China is famous for their Science Fiction.
Guys I'm not sure we should let China fire a rocket after all what if it's secretly a weapon? They have no right to fire rockets while we're around!
Post again after it launches.
I heard about this probe. It's really a marvel of engineering. Looking at it you can see it's the next phase in Chinese innovation. The probe they're sending is designed to go to mars, steal the American probe, then bring it back to China. After reverse engineering the American probe, the Chinese then launch their new probe back to mars.
And that was the last Terry Fox run I ever participated in.
I'm just sayin'...
How much of this probe was Chinese-designed, and how much is from the Russians? The Chinese have made a lot of progress in their own tech, but most is based heavily off old Soviet/Russian technology.
The probe itself also doesn't seem very ambitious- more of a test run, before attempting landers or anything more complicated. Anyone with the knowhow care to educate us on the difference in difficulty of landing a probe on Mars vs. doing atomospheric experiments?
But... but... then MARS will be RED!
...in communist China, Mars probe launches you!
I can't wait for the Chinese to start probing Uranus.
Harharhar.
I bet they would like to take out the "opportunity" to be the only ones working properly on the surface of mars
Never remind everyone that Americans still worship deities or you'll be modded down as a troll. :D
..is that it'll fly there sideways.
...important archaeological sites? I mean, what if they upset Viking? or interfere with either of the two NASA probes that are already up there and working? That would be AWFUL! WON'T SOMEONE PLEASE THINK OF THE CHILDREN!
Rhapsody in Numbers
Hopefully they've taken note of any problems in NASA's.
According to Wikipedia the name Yinghuo means "firefly".
Does Joss Whedon know?
This is actually quite interesting. With China putting a lot of prestige in being "better than the west", they may actually be able to pull of something good with this one (and hopefully, later missions). There is nothing like a bit of competition to get the party started. Their Changâ(TM)e 1 probe was a sucess, so why not this one ? they have at least proved themselves capable of space exploration, and the more space exploration, the better!
Doolittle :
Bomb no.20 : To explode of course.
...everything else China's produced (product wise) is anything to go by... can we expect this probe to be primarily made of plastic, and not fit for the intended use?
The communist-made probe is launching in October to fly to the red planet. Hail, the great Red October!
See the report yourself: http://safeweb.norton.com/report/show?url=xinhuanet.com
if the PRC is really interested in Mars or if this is just bread & circuses to distract and amuse their people?
"If you want to know what happens to you when you die, go look at some dead stuff."
I was thinking the very same thing. I wonder how many "Copyright XYZ Company, 2006" code comments, labels, pc boards etc would be found in one if it were cracked open? Original software bugs and all ;)
The US was planning to send its fourth rover to mars- The Mars Science Lander- recently renamed Curiosity- during the once every 26 months Mars launch window (Oct 2009). But Curiosity turned into a bloatware monster, a billion over budget. Its as large and minivan and required new technology like retro-rocket lander and nuclear power energy which went over time and over budget. They've reconfigured it for the 2011 launch window.