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Photos Stream Back From China's Lunar Lander
After the successful soft landing of its carrier vessel on the surface of the moon, China's Jade Rabbit lunar rover has begun beaming back photos of the lunar surface. From the BBC's article, with links to video as well as several photos, comes this description: "Chang'e-3 is the third unmanned rover mission to touch down on the lunar surface, and the first to go there in more than 40 years. The last was an 840kg (1,900lb) Soviet vehicle known as Lunokhod-2, which was kept warm by polonium-210. But the six-wheeled Chinese vehicle carries a more sophisticated payload, including ground-penetrating radar which will gather measurements of the lunar soil and crust. The 120kg (260lb) Jade Rabbit rover can reportedly climb slopes of up to 30 degrees and travel at 200m (660ft) per hour. ... The rover and lander are powered by solar panels but some sources suggest they also carry radioisotope heating units (RHUs), containing plutonium-238 to keep them warm during the cold lunar night. According to Chinese space scientists, the mission is designed to test new technologies, gather scientific data and build intellectual expertise. It will also scout valuable mineral resources that could one day be mined."
It's time for those who insisted that the moon landing by the Apollo astronauts were fake to stop spreading their falsehood.
The moon pictures that the Yutu rover and the Chang'e 3 lander take look very much like the pictures that NASA provided us some 40-odd years ago - of course they can try to claim that these new batch of pictures are fake as well.
I do not understand why there are still people holding on to that kind of conspiracy theory. I just do not understand.
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.
The same goes for China. Industrially, they're getting to where the US was in the mid-1800s. Their space technology is in the 1950s, and early 1960s. Socially, they're pre-1750s in many ways. Militarily, they're in the 1910s, at best
I certainly hope that you are NOT an American.
If you are, please, I beseech you, please WAKE THE FUCK UP.
America is in a steep decline, and the rate of decline has quicken in the past 2 decades.
And America's decline is in stark contrast with the rapid growth of Brazil, India and China.
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
My congratulations to the scientists and engineers that made this mission work! A difficult job done well!
The Sea of Tranquility has always been part of China.
Seriously, I'm glad somebody else is going into space. NASA seems to be doing well in deeper space - Mars rovers, missions far out into the solar system, and deep-space satellites - but we still have plenty to discover in our own backyard.
Even though the rocketry task has been done before (putting a rover on the moon) there's a hell of a lot of difference between a 1960's Soviet rover and a 2010's rover, so they're going to be uncovering plenty of new stuff.
That's a bad policy.
Play Command HQ online
You have to get out of orbit...you need to get to the moon....you need to get into lunar orbit and then land....successfully. Read the history of the Ranger Program to see how much work this took the US, and they were crashing onto the moon, not trying to land a working Rover. Getting the insertions correct is not easy. China has done something difficult and laudable. While I'm sure they had the full data from the US program, and the USSR program, making this happen is still a great achievement. I have noticed how the US media is paying little attention to this......
The treaty doesn't say anything about them not being able to mine the shit out of the moon. It just says they can't claim territory or place nukes in space (which you can be damned sure we've already breached) It also says the parties retain rights over whatever the launch into space, so should they start building mining platforms and shipping stuff back, we couldn't touch the equipment without breaching the treaty.
Their space technology is in the 1950s, and early 1960s.
China has over one million people working on their space program. They have so much cash that they've been buying US Treasury Bills despite their dubious value and have recently stopped being so silly. They're building a moon base in the next decade and will be landing men on Mars in the 2030's.
Buy lots of cheap stuff at Walmart - it's fueling humanity's journey to the starts.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
We're not running out of resources. We have enough to feed everyone here, why aren't we? Why are we fighting? Why do we need to work so much despite the much-vaunted technology and productivity we have?
Where are we now? Right here! What more do you want? *Everything* and *everyone* is right here!
Okay, enough of the bickering.
There is a page claiming that CNSA (China National Space Administration) will share all the data it gathers from both the Chang'e 3 lander and the Yutu rover with scientists from all nations.
http://io9.com/heres-what-chinas-yutu-rover-is-doing-on-the-moon-1483746967
I do not know if the CNSA really will share all the data it gathers with the world. Time will tell.
But if it does (and I hope it will), that will be a plus for humanity.
And I sincerely hope that the ISS will be open for China's involvement as well.
It is utterly stupid to play politics in space.
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
Space race was part of the arms race.
Let's be honest, anyone who still thought that the moon landings were fakes, isn't going to be convinced by this either.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
The transmissions used were line of site, VHF, the transmissions to the moon were followed by replies from the moon.
Both sides of the transmissions could be monitored by other nations, including the USSR who would have been VERY fast to call phony.
Also, the USSR had spacecraft that could listen in and could tell where it was all coming from, so because of the time of travel and source of the transmissions, the only way to fake it would be to have the entire thing prerecorded before launch.
But you would still have had to land the recordings and transmitter on the moon as well as send back the images of the moon, which would have to be faked ahead of time and sent to the moon.
Except that much storage didn't exist back then.
So no, it couldn't have been faked, unless the USSR and perhaps several other nations were in on it. I guess that part is possible, but frankly I think in 1969 it would have been easier to just send men to the moon than it would be to fake the whole thing and get the USSR on board.
That, plus I've personally met two of the moon astronauts, Buzz Aldrin and Gene Cernan. I met Buzz only briefly, however I've spoken with Gene for more than an hour about his experiences.
He could be lying, but frankly, I believe him and I don't think you'd get those 12 men to lie about it for as long as it has been.