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China Reveals Its Space Plans Up To 2016
PolygamousRanchKid writes "China plans to launch space labs and manned ships and prepare to build space stations over the next five years, according to a plan released Thursday that shows the country's space program is gathering momentum. China's space program has already made major breakthroughs in a relatively short time, although it lags far behind the United States and Russia in space technology and experience. The country will continue exploring the moon using probes, start gathering samples of the moon's surface, and 'push forward its exploration of planets, asteroids and the sun.' Some elements of China's program, notably the firing of a ground-based missile into one of its dead satellites four years ago, have alarmed American officials and others who say such moves could set off a race to militarize space. That the program is run by the military has made the U.S. reluctant to cooperate with China in space, even though the latter insists its program is purely for peaceful ends."
At this rate, if we want Star Trek to remain at all within the thinnest stretches of credibility, the next reboot of the series will have the Enterprise captained by Sulu and Kirk will be pitching manure in Iowa.
From TFA:
China's space program has already made major breakthroughs in a relatively short time
NASA went from the first manned spaceflight to walking on the moon in around seven years. China first flew a manned spaceflight eight years ago; what major breakthroughs have they made in comparison?
Feels odd to be living through the prequel to a Vernor Vinge novel....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Deepness_in_the_Sky
we should start nuking nascar events. biggest concentration of retard mutants I can think of.
Watch what the Chinese are doing. Also the Indians. Maybe the French and the rest of Europe.
Try to beg nickels out of Congress.
Plan Neil Armstrong's funeral video.
Drink Tang.
The private sector may be about to take the space torch and run with it. In which case, they'll soon outdistance every govt, whether American, Chinese, or otherwise.
Because the world needs mutant hillbillies running around...
Just to correct, but it was the research team led by Carle Pieters of Brown University which discovered water on the Moon, using the M3 instrument on the Indian-launched Chandrayaan-1 space probe.
NASA just followed up with a bunch of announcements after the fact, to drown out that landmark announcement with their own also-ran announcements.
Well at least one of the American funded (Walmart shoppers, etc) space programs has a plan. Too bad its not the US based one.
Sorry, not even going to post this anonymously.
Whatever you think of how China's gov't works. No matter the motivations. How is this anything other than an overall good thing? Seriously? We have a space agency in the world right now with both the government funding, the will and potentially the skills to advance manned spaceflight again!
Worse case scenario, things don't work out and remain as they are(not counting deaths here since that's always a possibility with these and NASA as well as the Russians have had their fair share).
Best case scenario: They pull off something here and either succeed or encourage this awesome spirit of competition we've been sorely lacking since the Soviet Union and the US fought over the moon.
Please, keep your racist, xenophobic, nationalist or just plain ignorant bile to yourselves and enjoy what MOST people who admire the stars have been wishing for for a very long time: a renewed interest in space travel.
Depends on which Star Trek you watch (John Cho, Sulu in the new Star Trek, is from Seoul).
You know, it does occur to me that part of the reason they are releasing this information is as a ruse. They know the American economy is in a bad spot, and they are also aware that Americans are disastrously bad at math. So, we demand improvements / money allocated to a space program to chase after a phantom or exaggerated threat, and we blow up our economy in the process. It would be something like what happened to Russia with Reagan and the SDI program, with the US playing the part of Russia in this contrived scenario (why not, we've been implementing sooooo many of the USSR's failed policies lately, one more can't sink this ship!). .
And our Congressmen appear stupid enough to totally go for it. It's a jobs program, right? And we own our currency printing press, right? If it's a disaster, we can just inflate away the damage, like Russia did with the Ruble.
I am John Hurt.
"China always adheres to the use of outer space for peaceful purposes, and opposes weaponization or any arms race in outer space," Thursday's white paper states.
And yet, ppl will ignore the fact that this SAME PEACEFUL SPACE PROGRAM shot a sat out of the sky.
But even this article missed some interesting points by China. The Chinese government on Thursday (Dec. 29) issued a broad statement on its five-year space program, saying top priorities include developing three new launch vehicles — including a rapid-response launch system —
Basically, they want their civilian launch system to be able to launch on short notice. The west's DOD units want that as well. But none of the civilians systems make that a priority.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
I'm as "Who cares about China" as the next /. poster, but I think it's a waste of money for China to put anything in space that isn't a domestic satellite. A few reasons:
a) Reinventing the wheel, given they can't steal American or Russian IP if they aren't involved with American or Russian space programs, just proves that China steals more IP and really doesn't know how to invent. This is the only field where they have to put their own research money and people on the line. Maybe they'll do it right for once.
b) Even Russia and the Americans were making reusable launch orbiters at the same time, The Russians didn't use theirs due to cost ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuttle_Buran_program ) and collapse of the USSR.
c) The Americans and the Russians have done the "Satellite, Moon Landing, have something survive to Mars" already. If China wants to impress the world, they need to do something different.
Suggestions:
- If they build a space station, they should build it from the beginning as a tourism target for reusable launch orbiters. The hard part is figuring out how to get people to it safely, something China has a terrible track record with.
- Land and build a "base" on the Moon, like the space station point, if they could make it a tourism target, that would win, but safety matters here too. Nobody has put a permanent settlement on the moon yet.
- The next target would be permanent settlement on Mars, but I don't see this happening within my lifetime, primarily since we have yet to establish that Mars is safe to land on (given all the other failed Mars missions.)
Not much else is interesting that hasn't been done that doesn't require some kind of FTL travel.
It'll be the same cramped tin can with not very much useful going on. Sure, many papers will be published, a few billionaires will get their equivalent of a "billionaire merit badge" to show off to their millionaire friends.
Get over it, geeks. China is re-living our past. Let them. The future is all about energy, adapting to our new expensive-energy future (you don't think we'll ever see the Concorde again, do you?). It's also about bio-tech and the thousands of little things we'll be discovering about biology.
Space? It's dead. It's nothing but a cargo cult now.
Other than the considerations of zero gravity environmental safety, radiation protection, and atmospheric preservation, I can't think of anything special about "space technology." Sound engineering practices and safety standards come from long established research and experience and are applied to space exploration by NASA and others.
It seems trite, but even rocket science isn't rocket science any more. The nations have shared too much data and information for anyone to really be starting from scratch.
China has some pretty aggressive schedules tabled. It's interesting how much more can be done by a government which supports a space program than one that lets the bean counters cut such budgets. But it's not surprising -- China has repeatedly demonstrated a willingness to tackle huge long term projects that would never even get approved in the US or Canada over the bleating of NIMBYs and environmentalists.
It's a subtle difference, but Chinese society has always emphasized the importance of the nation over the rights of an individual. I realize it's shocking to North Americans, but the Chinese immigrants and exchange workers I've talked with over the years think it's a good idea for the government to restrict the activities of protesters to quell dissent and social unrest. Most seem to consider it an honour to make a personal sacrifice in support of a big government program, rather than doing their best to stop the government from proceeding because it would inconvenience them.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
China's plans through 2016: Dropping failed launches and tonnes of space junk from fucked-up missions onto random countries, blame the U.S. for it.
Mod up!
Excellent! I was about to suggest the same. The Reagan SDI scam was a beautiful killer. There are more costly scams around. The hunt for peace in the Middle East is another example. It would surprise me if the US troop's presence in that area has created more badwill than goodwill.
It's always plans of what China will do after 10 years, 20 years, 100 years. China seems a lot bigger on plans and intentions than on things it's doing right now. It's like the hunter bragging how much game he's going to kill, or a fisherman saying he'll catch the entire lake. Well, I say why don't we wait untill after you've come back and see what you've got. Let's not put the oil in the frying pan while the bird's still in the forest.
Aren't it Americans who coined the phrase "peace through superior firepower"?
Your point (a) is changing with time.
As time moves forward, China becomes less dependent on trade with the USA BUT the USA becomes more dependent on China.
So when do they plan to go to Europa?
(2010 the book, not the movie)
The largest problem with the Chinese space program is mainly one of operational tempo. Other countries; notably Russia and even America.... if you consider commercial enterprises like SpaceX, Virgin Galactic, and other endeavors; are launching vehicles on a regular basis. The Soyuz rocket is flying at a rate of about one launch per month, and in the case of Virgin Galactic they are hoping for weekly flights when they get going. Contrast that to the Chinese who are launching one of their manned spaceflight rockets about once every year or two. When the Space Shuttle was being flown, it was at least flying at the rate of about 4-6 flights per year, with as many as eight in one year.
The reason why this matters is because you need to have people who are doing this kind of stuff the ability to practice their craft. Yes, rehearsals and "dry runs" are useful in some situations, but until you actually do it you won't really know what is going to be needed. Simulations can't substitute for the real thing, and without actually getting stuff done you won't know if your ideas will work or not.
I'm not saying that it is impossible for China to catch up or to even become a major spacefaring nation, but at the moment they aren't showing the commitment necessary to really pull it off. I see a whole bunch of press releases coming from China like this which can be used as a sort of "Red Menace" to try and scare people into action, but until the Chinese government stops flapping their jaws and decides to fund a real space program, I will continue to be underwhelmed by their capabilities. The current flight rate and operational tempo of their space program is soon going to be hitting the hard cold reality of physics that doesn't care about political philosophies or what the will of the "great leader" wants to have happen. Ultimately that means a commitment of a large amount of money and manpower to see that it happens.
By far and away I'm more impressed with the European spaceflight efforts, and I think it will be European countries that are ultimately going to be the real challengers to American and Russian efforts in space. No, I'm not talking just ESA (which is pretty impressive in its own right), but much of the commercial activity in Europe doing things in a very European way where I think more than a couple of those efforts are going to succeed. China might make it to the Moon before Europe, but I wouldn't count out a bunch of crazy Danes from making the trip to Mars before anybody else.
I guess ultimately the issue is an open society that is willing to tolerate a little bit of risk and let its citizens try new and crazy things. China is following the rocketry development cycle that America and Russia did in the Cold War and are trying to duplicate those efforts. Sadly, that is the most expensive and least productive way to get things done. Perhaps China will discover that for themselves, but I wonder how many Yuan are going to be dumped into that effort before they finally notice?
Hey... I make it to at least 1 NASCAR event a year be it Atlanta Motor Speedway, Talladega Superspeedway, or Texas Motor Speedway. I live 20 miles from Atlanta Motor Speedway that is in Hampton Georgia. It is some of the best Tailgating, partying and boobfest that one can imagine. When I am there at these events and the things that we do there..... Well... Hey wait.... Maybe you are right.
Nathan
Manned space missions are a joke. Just a stunt by the flyboys who run NASA out of Houston. The real science is done by unmanded probes from JPL out of Pasadena.
As long as we all can enjoy the fruits of this labor, who cares, if the russians, chinese, koreans, or americans, make this happen, IT WILL HAPPEN, just make sure to be part of it, so extend the arm of friendship and become a partner already.
Before 1940s most US scientists would do grad school or postdoc in Europe. There was a language requirement in many US grad schools well into the 1970s.
After WWII the US got many immigrant scientists and permanent government S&E funding. They started winning the bulk of Nobel prizes then. And led way in major engineering projects like the space programme.
China may be the dominant S&E country by 2030, if not earlier.
I guess this explains who will employe all those layed off Nasa workers after the space shuttle was scrapped
If a space station falls to earth, China didn't fail, Gravity did.
Was there ever a Chinese character in Star Trek series? I only remember a Korean (Ensign Kim) and Japanese (Sulu).
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Kind of sad that a dictatorship where people can be jailed for criticizing the government is doing more in space than the US and that we are dependent on the Russians with a 40 year old design to bring astronauts to the ISS.
what about every single human on Earth could go and sue China's Government for all the debris they have left from their experiments on the different layers of the exo-atmosphere. The litigation would be "the potential damage that a debris could cause on my house, my car, or even myself if those finally come to Earth and project towards us". If this litagation goes, and every single American could sue China's Government, maybe our debt to this Country could even be reduced to zero; while other countries like in the Africa (or even Greece, Portugal and Spain), they would be benefitted from that extra money; finally, the Chinese government would also have pressure in (a) cleaning their mess, and (b) to balance their currency / inflation by distributing their extra cash ... a very great scenario for the 2012 ...
Well, with Chinese making fools of the America, maybe that will let Congress actually get NASA stick to one plan not have politics monkey around with it. Chinese layed these plans 20 years ago and here we are 10 years into it and their going strong.
I can only hope the private space companies can keep up their momentium and keep hard charging into the future.