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China's Chang'E 2 Succeeds In Thrilling Asteroid Flyby
Zothecula writes "China has now joined the very select group of countries to have succeeded in carrying out an interplanetary probe mission. According to reports from China's official news agency Xinhua, the Chang'E 2 probe passed a mere 3.2 km (2 miles) from the near-Earth asteroid Toutatis at 8:30:09 GMT on December 13, making it the closest asteroid flyby to date ... and resulting in some remarkable photographs."
This was done better and cheaper than the USA could have accomplished.
Don't forget, this is the Chinese with a history of faking scientific discoveries and other things.
When it's independently verified, then I'll believe it.
How can 3.2km be the closest asteroid flyby when Hayabusa returned a sample from an asteroid?
http://www.space.com/9538-asteroid-dust-successfully-returned-japanese-space-probe.html
I guess I'll have to RTFA...
It just a piece of Ginger Root scaled at different sizes!
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Electronic Music Made Using Linux http://soundcloud.com/polyp
Another damned link that talks about photos, MOTHER FUCKER THEY'RE AMAZING PHOTOS!!!!, and then doesn't provide them.
It does provide an artist's conception...of the spacecraft.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
But has it been confirmed by Netcraft?
I dare you to produce a list of things around you, cool or otherwise, that do not contain something made in China.
Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
This was done better and cheaper than the USA could have accomplished.
Don't forget, this is the Chinese with a history of faking scientific discoveries and other things.
When it's independently verified, then I'll believe it.
Astronomers have been tracking it for months... There's no faking going on.
Ok.. so I went to the article and saw the link to the Chinese site with the pics... http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/photo/2012-12/16/c_132043872_6.htm
All I can say is WTF... while the picture of the asteroid is interesting. There's a dozen photo galleries below it with photos that I would NOT want to be shared with friends and family...
For example... an "Underwear Show" "Top Bikini babes..." "Contortionist..."
Time to find another site without the BS...
Chang'E's flyby of 4179 Toutatis is certainly an impressive feat. But, given that Hayabusa took samples while several meters above the surface of 25143 Itokawa, and that NEAR-Shoemaker actually landed on 433 Eros, I don't see how the term "closest" (which the article uses as well as the summary) can apply. Unless they mean "the asteroid flyby mission that took place nearest to Earth," which, while interesting, doesn't seem to be how this is being presented.
North Korea's spaceship was doing donuts around the asteroid by the time the Chinese got there. Glorious Leader's spaceship is much faster and more agile than anything the Chinese could come up with.
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Slashdot editors' memory is getting really short. This is essentially the same story already post just two days ago! And nothing new in this one.
This was done better and cheaper than the USA could have accomplished.
Citation needed.
"I zero-index my hamsters" - Willtor (147206)
Chang'E's flyby of 4179 Toutatis is certainly an impressive feat. But, given that Hayabusa took samples while several meters above the surface of 25143 Itokawa, and that NEAR-Shoemaker actually landed on 433 Eros, I don't see how the term "closest" (which the article uses as well as the summary) can apply. Unless they mean "the asteroid flyby mission that took place nearest to Earth," which, while interesting, doesn't seem to be how this is being presented.
Some of the source articles from which Gizmag stole this story referred to this being the closest flyby of this particular asteroid. The wording was such that when I first skimmed one of them even I thought the claim was that this was the closest approach to any asteroid. When I went back and parsed the whole sentence it became much clearer - Gizmag must never have read their sources carefully.
"I zero-index my hamsters" - Willtor (147206)
China is an interesting problem, and I don't just mean geopolitically. On the one hand, China indisputably has been making incredible strides on applied science and engineering in space and in military matters, as well as economic progress and progress in controlling diseases. On the other hand, they've also lied through their teeth about each of these things, and so it's very hard to trust Chinese assertions without independent verification. Thinking about how far China has come since beginning liberalization just a scant couple of decades ago, the potential is enormous, and overall likely quite positive for mankind as a whole. In order to get there, though, China's self-confidence will have to improve to allow them to admit mistakes, and to get over some of the racial tics they have. I think, too, that it's likely that somewhere in the next thirty years, the Communist Party will lose its monopoly on power. That has to happen as they transition to a relatively free market, which is a path they are already on. In essence, I see China now as basically S. Korea in the 1970s, in political and socio-economic terms. Once they get to where S. Korea was in the 1990s, it's going to be amazing to see what China can do.
-- Two men say they're Jesus. One of them must be wrong. - Dire Straits
Not like South Korea at all. More like an oppressive capitalist dictatorship. There is nothing Communist left except for Stalinist paranoia and control.
A record to be shattered on the 21st...
Table-ized A.I.
South Korea in the 1970s was an oppressive capitalist dictatorship (specifically, a right-wing, military one).
-- Two men say they're Jesus. One of them must be wrong. - Dire Straits