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China Plans Space Station By 2020
RedEaredSlider writes "China unveiled plans for its own space station, to be completed by 2020, along with a cargo ship to ferry supplies to and from orbit. The fact that the country is proposing one is a sign of the Chinese government's ambitions in space. China is the third nation to launch its own manned rockets into space, sending its first astronaut into orbit in 2003 aboard the Shenzhou 5 rocket. Since then two other manned missions have been launched."
Hopefully the emergence of the Chinese and others (India?) will fuel a new space race, with bigger ambitions than last time around. Mars maybe?
Tired of my customary (Score:1)
You're just going to be hungry for another space station in 2023.
Finally, a place where high levels of lead will actually be a good thing.
Tall people will have to scrunch down in their seat in order to close the door.
If they fly space stations anything like they drive cars, I'd avoid that neighborhood altogether.
I plan on using my 3 wishes for a billion dollars, a time travel device, and then an infinite amount of wishes!
If they want to waste their genie on shuttles, and space stations that's their business!
I bet the orbit will take an hour - so they'll be back around as soon as you are hungry again.
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
...oh wait, this is the plot to Moonlight Mile right?
With the what's been in the news in the past few years about Chinese manufactoring I would personally like to see some kind of oversight comittee on this project if they're going to be allowed to put a thousand pounds of "Grade A Chinese Steel" a few hundred miles above my head. I don't know why we're worried about regulating nuclear power, this is the kind of stuff that needs to be monitored.
And interestingly enough, the outside of their space station looks a lot like the ISS, but inside there is a lot of plastic, bad/cheap soldering jobs, cheap components that break easily, duct tape, and a lot of empty unused space.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
The design will look *exactly* like the ISS....
Not sure why every news source is banging on about the station being low mass; once the principle of on-orbit assembly is mastered the only real limits to mass are how many modules you choose to launch, and how much fuel you need for a reboost. Getting from 60-tonne station to 400-tonne station is a far smaller step than getting from nothing to a multi-modular station.
The fact China isn't going to build a very large station may indicate firm intentions to go to the Moon. If they are just using this to practice techniques for longer range exploration, there isn't much point making it huge.
If we can put a man on the moon, why can't we shoot people for Apollo-related non-sequiturs?
Just because China is planning to planning to build something does not mean they will. Remember we we planned to build that super mega particle smasher in Texas? I don't recall that plan working out.
Remember when the US planned to have colonies on the moon by now?
Remember when I planned to marry a super model when I was a teenager? I am sure you can guess how that worked out.
That aside, I hope they do it. It seems the world will only move forward with competition from an "evil" empire.
China first launched an astronaut in orbit eight years ago.
Seven years after the US launched its first astronaut in orbit, they had sent people to the moon.
'Low' Mileage, Great Location...
Maybe we should have worked with China as a partner on the ISS.
9 years to go from "we put a few guys in orbit" to "fully manned and fully operational space station" is a staggeringly optimistic schedule. If China is able to pull it off, I will tip my hat to them.
I wonder if they'll also be just as fast in discovering that manned space stations are generally a waste of time and money?
I read the internet for the articles.
Look for a video called "China's Ghost Towns" to see how China is inflating their GDP by building cities that no one can afford to live in. It's freaky to see all these empty supermalls and highrise apartment buildings. When China's bubble explodes it's going to be a whole new disaster for the world economy.
-- thinkyhead software and media
But seriously! In nine years?
Uhmm?
Well maybe if the Higgs really has been discovered and the Chinese know how to use it to surconvent gravity, then maybe.
Nah!
Good luck to them dodging all that debris they left for everyone when they shot down their own satellite.
For whatever reason, the Chinese may indeed commit the colossally stupid act of setting up a manned space station. It is a moronic waste of money, which presents competitors with an opportunity: set up a network of completely robotic space stations that will do vastly more at far lower cost and generate more advances in robotics. Let the Chinese put little red stars on their shirt collars so that mommy can see what good little boys they are. Nations that have already seen that it is a financial black hole that produces practically nothing of value need not accompany them.
Actually, it is wishful thinking to believe the Chinese are that stupid. 2020 is still a ways off, and they will likely see that for many reasons robotics is the way to go. They have the potential to dominate the nascent robotics boom if they avoid idiotic distractions like this one. Let's hope those of us in the US are up to the challenge.
Expect to see dollar stores in space by 2025 then?
Space travel - yet another thing we'll be outsourcing to China...
From a long-term evolutionary perspective, the cultural or polity which manages to keep a long-term presence off-world wins at life.
If they can pull it off, good for them.
I want to insert a white iphone 4 in my anus.
Will you help?
at lease someon is going. Good luck China.
BTW, Manned Space Programs are what countries get for have appropriate eye on science and the longevity of a country.
It's also what you loose when all focus is on money spent now and constantly cutting.
But hey, let keep lowering taxes and butcher all our assets. It's the libertarian way...to 3rd world status.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
The wiki page lists an eleven launch, partially completed program to a permanent station. Sounds a bit like Skylab or Mir.
that makes sense. saves bandwidth, typing etc... it's easy to know which opinions are unfavorable, as some are already partially censored (doublebunked), before we never even get to read them? you call this 'weather'? how about, after disarming, we establish stations on this planet, to prevent the development of the next scheduled chosen ones death from god holycost theatrical event, staged & executed for their own personal gain, & crusadiacal religious 'beliefs' about themselves. &, to cover up stuff from our real history, as evidenced in the genuine native elders teepeeleaks etchings, for which no certificates of proof are needed, as the look in their clear eyes, the soft voices & confident actions of the native elders legitimizes everything they say & do.
"China Plans Space Station By 2020"
In other news:
"FBI Says Wire Fraud Scam Sending Millions To China"
"77 Million Accounts Stolen From Playstation Network"
So good for them! Nothing like a little friendly competition (and hopefully collaboration) to reignite the space race. Mars or Bust!
Perhaps they are waiting for us to finalize our designs for our Back to the Moon missions so that they can finally start building their ships. I doubt they want to replicate our Apollo Era technology at this point.
My God can beat up your God. Just kidding...don't take offense. I know there's no God.
US spacefarers are astronauts.
Russian spacefarers are cosmonauts.
Chinese spacefarers are taikonauts.
This is good for China, but whats much, much more impressive is a private company has started making plans on putting a man on Mars within 10-20 years (SpaceX). Its one thing for a government to commit to space travel, but its amazing for a private company to do that! SpaceX is already do amazing things with their launch capabilities.
I'd bet the Chinese have plenty of big ambitions for their space station... like weaponizing it with missiles aimed downward at the USA.
As with the US-USSR space race, there is also the purpose to perfect missile technology, especially ICBMs. Keep that in mind for each space program you hear of.
just trun on no DISASTERS and it's 100% safe
They DO realize that really, to build a space station, it has to be in SPACE - you know, where people can see it?
Not, for example, in a pool.
I'm just sayin'.
-Styopa
We should be looking towards the oceans. What other environment on this planet is protected from storms, quakes and fires. Underwater cities over the deep ocean would make for great homes. Can also grow a lot of food near the surface in underwater green houses. So much space in the oceans for us to expand to. Does not need to be very deep. Would also learn how to live in such environments which would further our ability to live in space.
How Chinese are viewed as copycats and inferior but when it comes to space all of a sudden we feel threatened? They're just copying what other big powers did before them. They probably know it's a stunt and are just doing it for "form". It's not like physics, economics, engineering, chemistry, biology and reality are different in China. Maybe the economics, sure, but I don't see China getting bent out of shape because they can't sell you space iron...
This looks like a knockoff of the Russian space station Mir.
Will it also be based on 30 year+ old Soviet technology?
An American physicist named Gerard K. O'Neill explored ways to boot strap an in-space economy and the notion is sometimes referred to as The High Frontier. A permanent presence in space, and an in-space industrial economy would be useful for many things.
If you mod me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.
China has plan to get nuclear energy resource from the Moon. Send spacecraft to the Mars (not new to US but who knows what is true motivation). Build the world biggest radio telescope in mountain. Build/divert a river from Tibet plateau to west desert... to name a few.
Everything comes from nothing.
Instead, we have commercial space already started. Now, we have to get the communist out of US CONgress (shelby, hutchinson, coffman, hatch, etc) and get new private space moving. The problem is that we have a number of old guards in CONgress that want to throw 10's of billions at various unworkable solutions. Constellation was a joke and a half, and was not funded during the 00's. And now SLS is the latest joke. WHen you have ppl like Shelby, Hutchinson, Coffman, and Hatch telling NASA how to build a rocket and who to use (oddly all of the companies were in these ppl's districts), then you know we have a command economy CONgress.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
I have a horse that I suspect would fuck you to death. Will that make you happy? I suspect that nearly all here would be happy with you being gone and no longer posting such things.
We can not compare them. SpaceX has put up a capsule and returned it with only 7 years worth of work. They will in the next year or so, put up a rocket that will be 2.5 x the size of what China has done for the last 45 years. China has said that they can not approach the costs that SpaceX has. Bigelow will have a space station started in 3 years.
So, yeah, you are right. We should not compare CHina to America. It is not fair to China.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Seven years after the US launched its first astronaut in orbit, they had sent people to the moon."
And now, thirty years later, the USA is just about to lose its ability to launch astronauts as far as LEO. Good luck on the Chinese I say - more players the more interesting it gets, and it might spur the USA and others to think about manned flight again.
So much for holidays on the moon by the 1980s and astronauts on Mars by 2000....
True, the US sent men to the moon a few years after their first manned space flight. But, was it sustainable? Did the US followed through with a moon base and all that 2001 Space Odyssey dreams? Maybe the Chinese had studied the history of space exploration and decided not to repeat the US mistakes. Maybe they have a longer term and more sustainable plan for space exploration. You have to remember, the Chinese have more than 4000 years of advanced civilization behind them. This tends to make them more farsighted don't you think?
Perhaps with this kind of ego boost they won't feel they need to prove their worth by conquering neighboring countries like Taiwan or annexing parts of India.
I often don't like the choices people make, but I like the fact that people make choices. That's why I'm a conservative.
Actually, I think that's a very good idea - maybe not six years, but double the actual term limit : in eight years, the president gets to do what he wants (with the caveat of having the Congress on his side), and he doesn't have to worry about getting re-elected at the end. He can work on a project from the conception phase to the concretization without thinking about whether his electoral base will go for it. I don't see why it would be more dangerous to have a president for eight years instead of four. Can anybody?
And they're funding the development from all the phishing scams.
http://feeds.arstechnica.com/~r/arstechnica/index/~3/RTjp4tv83B4/fbi-businesses-lost-11m-over-12-months-to-china-based-phishers.ars