Chinese Moon Probe Ventures Into Deep Space

hackingbear writes "After completing its 6-month moon survey mission, China's second moon orbiter, Chang'e-2, was found to be in excellent condition and has abundant fuel left, and so it set off from its moon orbit into deep space, heading toward Lagrangian point L2 about 1.5 million kilometers away from the earth, or about 4 times farther out than the moon. The orbiter left its moon orbit at 5:10 p.m., according to the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence. The probe is expected to perform exploration at L2. It is the first Chinese spacecraft to venture beyond the moon and establish the country's capability in deep space exploration."

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Space Travel: Unfit for Humanity

[eyenot]

Space Travel - Unfit for Humanity
by Gabriel Arthur Petrie, 11-22-2009

A lot of people on Earth would like to believe that one day, maybe even in their own lifetimes, humanity will reach for the stars in great shimmering vessels. Scientists, sci-fi fans, new-age believers, and imaginative young people around the world share a common dream of exploring and colonizing the near and distant planets, even one day meeting with fellow intelligent races in this galaxy or perhaps, given enough travel time, some other galaxy.

These dreams are all very grandiose, and as engineering visions go, even noble. That we can as a species manage to conquer the stars is a warming and supportive sentiment. That we can actually achieve it within our limited means and resources from Earth is, conversely, as flighty and half-baked as any idea anyone could have. And to actually embark upon such a project, with the world's situation as it is now and obviously for the rest of time, is selfish, rude, arrogant, perhaps sadistic, and surely despotic and tyrannical if on behalf of any government.

The resources required for such an undertaking may exist here on Earth in one form or another, but those resources are too direly needed by the planet's current population to allow it all to be seized up in some dream works that are not guaranteed to produce any positive results.

The inventions brought to us by the space programs of the past are just that -- inventions, not discoveries. There is no cosmos full of advances in textiles, communications, and soft drinks waiting for us to grab it all up. If anything, we might feel sad at the wealth of new things we have in our lives brought to us by the space program, because it means there are fewer things left to be invented in the future, therefore we face a less valuable future in space program commodities enrichment.

Anyone who unwaveringly insists that there are infinite worthwhile inventions for humans (or infinite ways to improve upon what commodities do exist) has as much sense as an inbred dog and need not read further (for objective truth is wasted upon them). I should not have to explain the faulted logic behind those sorts of beliefs, and it is sad that the space program has so many supporters by way of pure stupidity. In any case, to dispel such sturdy beliefs tends to require more example than explanation, and short of witnessing firsthand the dismal ruin of humanity due to the prolonged pursuit of this sci-fi "space-faring" drama, there is not much that can convince the shuttle-hugger to change their ways.

Now, I am not saying that the space program is pure nonsense or entirely worthless. Who knows, there may be a few more inventions or advances in Earthly science that can be mined from space program research projects, but all of this can be achieved in near space. For the sake of using the space program for mere scientific advancements in entirely unrelated fields, there is no need whatsoever to set our sights on far-off places.

And metaphor be damned: this isn't a matter of the poor, humble telescope viewer being suppressed by the superstitious monarch, or a matter of how little we would know now were it not for those brave enough to cross forbidden seas in the distant past.

Building and manning a ship, making a voyage to presumably the edge of the flat earth, these are undertakings that consumed, historically, so little resource overall that compared to today's energy consumption (in, say, Spain) it is not even a fraction of a drop in a bucket. Conversely, when we talk about travel to distant stars and humanity's future among them, we're speaking of energy consumption measurable in the mineral wealth of whole planets, starting with our own, and environmental impacts that will never, ever be recovered from, right here on our home planet. And as for suppression, there simply isn't anyone to blame any more: this is a round planet and that's all that it is, and those boundaries are more firm and more unyielding than any belief that keeps one from