Slashdot Mirror
China Launching First Space Station Module In September
arisvega writes "The Chinese Space Station's first module has been moved to its final testing location, and will soon be launched into orbit. Two manned missions are scheduled to follow after an unmanned mission checks out. The best part? A movie about China in space is already premiering."
Soon the Chinese will be dropping bombs on us from space like kids dropping rocks onto cars from freeway overpasses!
Proverbs 21:19
It is an unfortunate fact that in the current climate it is very hard to get people in the US interested in space when there's no big looming Soviet threat. This will be good for space in that it will help push people in the US to be more competitive, both because of our general competitive culture and because of the general, residual anti-communist attitudes (and yes, I know that the Chinese aren't really community at this point, but most Americans don't understand that.) So this will help encourage the US to be a bit more serious about space stuff. This is also good because competition is in general better. China might succeed at some things that the US and the various countries involved in the ISS have not done as well. Having different groups trying to tackle the same problems will often lead to different methods and technologies being applied, which in the long run benefits everyone. And of course, a space race is a much better form of competition than a lot of the alternatives like warfare.
We'd better hurry up and launch then, don't want China to steal our Alpha Centauri victory
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you
It was called Serenity.
Stay Shiny!
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
All the stuff we buy from China proves we have more than enough money to finance one. Theirs.
The shipping cost would be crazy.
Boldly going where the West and Russia were decades ago.
And since the West and Russia haven't been anywhere else since 1972, it's not inconceivable that the Chinese will be on the Moon before anyone else goes back.
But, hey, the West (USA) went there 40 or so years ago.
Then China will go to Mars and the West won't go, because, hey, what's the point?
Before you know it, the Chinese will have invented and developed a whole load of new and powerful technology that the rest of us don't have and can't afford. But, hey, that's OK, we can provide them with cheap labour and outsource their manufacturing for them...
Stick Men
The only reason for manned spaceflight, at this point, is to study manned spaceflight- or to study black holes, black-holes of money.
Like the aircraft carriers and stealth fighters , this is just flag waving "me too'-ism.
Apparently the Chinese have so much dough from selling us crap at Walmart that they need to watch some of it burn by launching toiletries into orbit.
This sig is not paradoxical or ironic.
and it seems like NATO haven't lost a single soldier in 10 years in Afghanistan and Iraq (unless you count those brief downlow obituaries your local newscasts slips in between the world news and sports segments).. We rox!
"Chinese spacecraft blows up after takeoff, all sinonauts survive".
It's one of those headlines I think even chinese will doubt.
Actually these kind of things are fun, on one hand China wants to show off to the public so live camera is not out of the picture, on the other hand it could blow up... I know the CCP-drones are effective, but I'd like to see them try to shield a camera from a fireball of burning hydrogen and oxygen with their flags ^^
Why does the icon for the China articles look more like a zipper than a wall?
For that matter, why do all the icons look like cartoony crap?
The space race of the 1960's is not going to return
I would not be so sure. Chinese progress in space could get quite a few US politicians to reverse their course. It has happened before.
The "patron saint" of the Apollo program actually started off wanting to kill the program. JFK was against Apollo as a senator and at the beginning of his administration. VP Johnson got him to delay his decision to dismantle Apollo. Then the Russians sent up Yuri Gagarin and Kennedy completely reversed his opinion on Apollo and became its champion.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Us_space_policy
"But, hey, that's OK, we can provide them with cheap labour and outsource their manufacturing for them..."
That outsourcy thingie has worked rather well for China, why not the US?
Let's not forget nations are built on cheap labour, ALL of them.
Americans expected the post WWII MegaBubble to last forever. Not happening. Let OTHER COUNTRIES blow megabucks advancing US for a change. The point of exploring space is that it gets done, not that Americans do it
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
The Chinks will obviously want to use SpaceX Falcon 9 boosters. Coz Elon Musk pulled some low ball cost figures out of his ass that even the Chinks can't match.
Okay, My eyes are opened, I see no link to support you assertion.
I should be glad that my 'scoop' got posted, but I still cannot enjoy it; with the exception of few posts (yeay! ./ moderation works!) there is so much trolling, bitterness and even anger - seriously, is everything a competition to you people?
Am I wrong in reading at '-1' ?
These are new exciting times; and you are worried that China will be pissing on you from orbit? Or that superpower leaders are stupid enough to go to war?
If you are afraid that China will colonize low Earth orbit and "force" you to conform to some twisted communist standards in order to share the spoils, then go there too; stay with them; show them how you think it should be done, help them out if they ask, and perhaps learn a thing or two yourselves (and about yourselves) in the process.
The three laws of thermodynamics:(1) You can't win. (2) You can't break even. (3) You can't even quit.
And from where I stand
I reach my hand
To catch a love blow
But the selfish stare
Though electric air
Is a blinding light show
I see the face
That has no place
But somehow knows
The truth is clear
But hiding here
In the blinding light show
The place is strange
The colors change
The dancer slows
And shifts his pace
And lifts his face
Into the blinding light show
A naked heart is
Quickly torn apart
And the burning grows
When you try to think
It only makes you sink
Into the blinding light show
And while the crowd keeps
Calling out "Hoorah"
Their greedy hands
Keep clutching out
Hoorah, hoorah, hoorah
The aimless mob is calling out
"Hoorah"
And unseen candles
Burning out
Hoorah, hoorah, hoorah
The blinding light show
And the sounds of truth
Ring hollow
In this pretense world of show
And the footlights
Burn their pathways
As the profits come and go
And the seeming some-day singer
Lives the Carney Barker's dream
Selling all by saying nothing in
The language of a scream
And the blind shall
Lead the sighted
As we lose the candle glow
No one knows tomorrow
In the blinding light show
The blinding light show
It's one of those headlines I think even chinese will doubt.
There is not much to doubt really, unlike the space shuttle, the Shenzhou has an escape system and on the Soyuz, which the Shenzhou design is based on, they actually had to use it when a rocket exploded on the launchpad.
People talking about Chinese Astronauts dying and being covered up are conspiracy theorists. China has enough money and isn't racing anyone that they can take their time and do it right. Even if they do have an accident, there is no obvious reason why they would cover it up and a cover up may be difficult to do given the number of eyes that would be on such a mission. This isn't the cold war, media is much more widespread and the Chinese can get around their firewall whenever they want to even though it comes with risks but many still do so. I think some people like to think China is worse than it is.
So is it safe to assume they are going to connect to the existing technology and steal it just like they do with everything else
It will be Bruce Lee's grandson, in orbit with feet and nunchuks flying as he fights the evil criminals in zero gravity. Pufff. This is going to be awesome!
Looking at slashdot headlines in my rss reader, at first I mixed up several different headlines and read this one as "Google Launching First Space Station Module In September."
... and it didn't really seem particularly surprising...
We live, as we dream -- alone....
Enough said :D
ahhh.... sure dude. I think I'll take the official explanation of lousy engineering/planning for the Apollo 1 death over any conspiracy theory.
When choosing between human stupidity and an elaborate conspiracy theory, I'll go with human stupidity every time.
Who cares if the Chinese go to an empty, desolate radiation-blasted vacuum? How many you think can go there? How much energy you think this will take and where will it come from? Coal? Wind? The good, cheap energy is gone now.
Anyways, before you know it, you'll notice that nothing new will happen in space, just like it hasn't in decades, and you'll have to figure out how to live down here, on this "rock", with all that nasty free air, water, gravity and correct temperature...
But the Moon, that's the future, right?
Imbecile. Functional moron.
The world needs to wake up, the chinese are eating our money at the cost of their citizens, they work for a very low salary and still producing high quality products with the knowledge of great companies and at the same time applying this knowledge in its own researchs. Most of us, specially the americans, think we are smarts, "Oh, lets produce ours goods in China, it is cheaper and we will get more profits.", daahhh bullshit. We are giving away knowledge to them, and they will improve it in a scale that will make all of us eat dust. Believe or not their are right, it is what the capitalism taught us, no matter how, the important is to be the most powerful, if they are comunist, capitalist, socialist, doens't matter, they will been soon the greatest and more powerfull nation in the world, and our children will ve learning mandarin at school. RIP USA,EUROPE,JAPAN,RUSSIA... The next empire will be a chinese one. Fact!
That outsourcy thingie has worked rather well for China, why not the US?
It doesn't work that well to the majority of the Chinese population. When work is being outsourced to you, it's great to help build your economy, but it does also mean that you are behind the people outsourcing to you. After all, if the population in the US were willing to work for the salaries of the population of China and India, there'd be no outsourcing.
Let's not forget nations are built on cheap labour, ALL of them.
And after the nation has been built, you should never go back.
Americans expected the post WWII MegaBubble to last forever. Not happening.
Not at the rate we're going, unfortunately.
Let OTHER COUNTRIES blow megabucks advancing US for a change.
How is THAT beneficial? Let me put this to you in MMO turns. If I'm at level 60, and you're at level 3, I might be spending tons of money to help level you up quicker. That does not mean that you're superior, in fact, it means the quite the opposite: the only time other countries will spend money on your country is if they're ahead of you. If that's happening, you're on the losing side, you just so happen to be not be falling too far behind because you're more useful to them if you don't.
haha america YOU SUCK
When China lands humans on the Sea of Tranquility, I hope they will respect history enough to preserve the original footprints of Armstrong and Aldrin. It will be their choice, of course. History is written by the *last* winner.
Oddly insightful for AC, China gets ripped on for "stealing" technology, but its not like America is making it any more difficult.
tell me this, why SHOULDN'T china steal technology if they are already using it thanks to American investors?
Err, the US is flushing its money down the drain because of the dumbfuck Dubya, and his nation building policy. Regrettably, Obama has continued (3 months my ass) Bush's military adventures. The big expenses have been on ground forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. If operations in Iraq and Afghanistan were wound down within 1 year, of commencing operation, the 'defense' budget could have been cut 1/3 to 1/2 in size.
Bush wasted lots of money, I hope he dies. Obama is a hypocrite, and is on another path to lose more money (Libya). I hope he loses in 2012.
That's right, and chineses are right! They will use American technology until they starting producing a better technology based on the American technology. Take as an example their Bullet Train, it is the fastest yet produced, before that a French company opened a factory to produce their bullet trains there, years later, bingo! China produced their own, and look, it is far better. Allied to this fact is the high investment of the chinese in education, allied to a billion of consumers. I think China is doing the right thing, USA did the same (stealing technology) using its Intelligence Agency with all their secrecy (bullshit), China does openly. I prefer the chinese way do it openly, almost we see what is their intentions and can prepare us better for a "maybe" fair competition. I'm not american, I'm not chinese, but I'd prefer 10 thousands Chinas ruling the world than 1 USA. A bellicose country that have all they want using brute force, spending thousands of billions of dollars. The USA promoted a lot of dictators specially in Africa, Middle East and South America, we lived in a dictatorship for decades, thousands of our brothers died fighting for freedom against dictators promoted by the USA and CIA, sad history, USA that self denominate self calls a freedom lovers, yes I see, how USA loves freedom. I don't think that with China it can be different but at least there still hope.
I read here on /. that Bob Lutz from General Motors says as soon as The Chinese start graduating MBAs from 40 new business schools into their system, their industrial capabilities will head straight into the the toilet like ours did.
Wow, delusional and paranoid much? If it were possible to have all this "powerful technology" from space, why didn't the West or Russia do it in the last 40 years? Is it because it's simply not possible?
No, it's because Russia couldn't afford it, and in the West where the Market is God, the market chose not to do it (because there was no competition).
Now there may be some competition, but the West (in the form of the USA) has let itself slip.
I'm British, and I'm extremely ashamed to say that the UK actually had its own space rockets and launched 3 satellites in the early 70s but canceled the programme because there was "no future" in launching things into space. Once again, the ignorant pointy-hairs scuppered our technical achievements... but that's a whole nother rant.
America should have had a semi-permanent moon base by 1980 and should have been on Mars by 1990, in my humble opinion.
If you're perfectly happy only having human presence on this rock, that's fine, that's your blinkered opinion and you're entitled to it. I prefer to look a bit further.
Stick Men