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China Plans Manned Space Mission This Month
jamstar7 writes "From an Associated Press report: 'China will launch three astronauts this month to dock with an orbiting experimental module, and the crew might include its first female space traveler, a government news agency said Saturday. A rocket carrying the Shenzhou 9 spacecraft was moved to a launch pad in China's desert northwest on Saturday for the mid-June flight, the Xinhua News Agency said, citing an space program spokesman. The three-member crew will dock with and live in the Tiangong 1 orbital module launched last year, Xinhua said. The government has not said how long the mission will last.' China, who is not an ISS partner, plans to see if its Shenzhou 9/Long March 2F system can get the job done like the Dragon/Falcon9 system can. They plan on two missions this year to dock with their Tiangong 1 module, which was launched in September 2011. Their eventual plans include building a complete space station by 2020, though one of only about 60 tons, compared to the ISS's 450-ish tons."
USA legal teams develop relationship with patent troll Lodsys. Strategy? Wait for China to succeed in space and then sue their butts off for patent infringement.
Does anyone have a clue why they want to do it by them selves?
I applaud the DIY mentality there, but it doesn't seem to be the easiest / cheapest thing to do. And on this level "because they can" is just seems ludicrous.
Anyone?
rm -rf --no-preserve-root /
You do realise this exact same shit was said about Japan years ago. All they do is copy... not innovate...
China is copying to catch up. Once they catch up they will go shooting past - and all the MBAs, financial instruments and lawyers that the US has wanked away its educational estasblishments and brainpower on producing won't be worth a piss in a wind storm.
Meh.
What I find most interesting is the difference between the Chinese Space Program and organizations such as the ESA, NASA, and POCKOCMOC (Russia) is the amount of secrecy. Whenever any of the other space agencies makes a manned launch, you normally hear about it years before the actual mission flies, and the crew assignment is normally announced shortly after the mission is. With China, you hear about it almost days before launch day!
Sig: I stole this sig.
Wahhhh, we're halfway there
Wahhhh, livin' on a prayer
Take my hand and we'll make it I swear
Wahhhh, livin' on a prayer
Seems perfectly in line with being an astronaut to me.
Space game using normal deck of cards: http://BattleCards.org
The well-known journalistic suffix of "-ish" is used when quoting figures from Wikipedia, where you cannot be sure of veracity, or using woefully vague units like "ton". Wikipedia gives the mass as "approximately 450,000 kg (990,000 lb)", which is 450 tonnes (a non-SI unit acceptable in SI) or 495 short tons, the unit most commonly called "ton" in the US, 446 long tons, the unit used for the displacement of ships and in the UK. NASA, on the other hand, give the much less massive figure of "861,804 lb (390,908 kilograms)" or 391 tonnes, 431 short tons, or 395 long tons. Both sources approximate conversion from kg to lb, so there are four different figures to choose from even if you ignore the vagueness of "ton." Pick your poison.
Patent litigation: A doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction... in which everyone seems willing to push the button
It's not really that it's the Chinese Space Program being secretive, that's just China.
Japan is an economic joke!
Japan's GDP per capita is only $4K less a year than the USA and higher than Germany's. Some joke!
And here I thought the ISS was for the good of humanity and all that warm and fuzzy stuff. However, don't American fears of Chinese industrial espionage also apply to the Russians?
An expedition to Mars would need a collaborative effort, going by what it'd take to get there.
Based on what? Fantasy estimates from NASA? My take is that with a cheap, heavy lift launcher (such as Falcon Heavy which is claimed to be able to put 50 metric tons into LEO), we could do an indefinite series of manned missions to Mars (say one to two manned missions to Mars every two years) on what the US pays for the ISS, roughly $2 billion a year. That's a bit too ambitious for private groups (who could do a scaled-down version of this), but easily affordable by a number of government.
I think it's a little sad to think that a figurative dick-waving is what you have to do in order to get anything done, the idea that "haha, we're better than you!" urging us on instead of, "OMG, if we'd all stfu and combine resources, we could be on Mars by such-n-such a year!"
I don't really care, if "peen" is what it takes to go to Mars. Seems good enough a reason for me.
However, don't American fears of Chinese industrial espionage also apply to the Russians?
Why would they? The Russians stay bought.
That's taking a little naive look at it. Japan's debt is domestic dept, and their can print their own money. So their debt problem is not the same as Greece (who is on hock to foreigners, and can't print their own money), Spain, Italy and Ireland.
Ironicly, Ireland is one of the countries Americans create shell corporations in to hide their assets. Go figure. Raise the tax rate in Ireland and the that solves one of America's problems automatically.
Anybody care to provide a link that isn't paywall'd?
http://www.usnews.com/science/articles/2011/04/19/nasa-pulls-out-of-astrophysics-missions
Google is always very helpful
Don't you think so?
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
Less because I think china will do anything meaningful in space exploration at least for a long time to come. But Americans in particular take space more seriously when they think they're competing for it. So this could mean a serious reprioritization of resources in favor of space exploration by the US.
Again, I think it's great the chinese are interested and I wish them the best. I think it's great that more countries are getting involved. I just think in the short term the best news here is that it's likely to get more established countries more involved as well.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
They previously put a small habitat into orbit. Now they're sending some people up. The US had Skylab, the USSR had Mir, and China is now doing something in roughly the same scale. Why not?
Sigh, here we go again.
You should read the Myth of Japan's Failure --- a great piece on perception vs. reality of Japan's economy. Hopefully, this will clear your misconceptions and not have you spewing forth silly rubbish.
Slashdot, where geeks who do not know or understand economics talk about it, and sound like idiots doing so.
Apollo was 119 metric tons into LEO, if I am not mistaken. It definitely should be bigger.
50 tons isn't nearly enough. The Saturn V had a 119 ton capacity to LEO, and managed to land a tiny lander on the Moon. Mars requires a much heavier capsule, heavier lander, and much larger delta-V, even for a one way trip with short stay on Mars.