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China Plans To Reach Mars by 2020 and Eventually Build a Moon Base (techinsider.io)

Posted by msmash on from the major-plans dept.

Rebecca Harrington, writing for Tech Insider: China has plans to orbit the moon, land people on it, and eventually settle a moon colony. But that's just part of the nation's vision for space exploration: China intends to get a spacecraft to Mars by 2020. "Our long-term goal is to explore, land, and settle [on the moon]," Wu Weiren, chief designer of China's moon and Mars missions, told the BBC. "We want a manned lunar landing to stay for longer periods and establish a research base." Weiren didn't specify when the country plans to accomplish these goals, but he did say they will "check out" the far side of the moon before attempting to land astronauts there. This mission already has concrete plans. He also said China wants to reach Mars by 2020, and implied that the country has finally settled on a mission to send a rover to the Red Planet. "We will orbit Mars, land and deploy a rover -- all in one mission," Weiren told the BBC.

105 comments

  1. No fscking chance! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's 2016 now, let's not forget just how far into the future we are(*).

    * us oldies expected cancer cures, nuclear fusion, and hyper-speed travel for vacations by now.

    1. Re:No fscking chance! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "expected"? Who promised this to you?

    2. Re: No fscking chance! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Obama.

    3. Re: No fscking chance! by Type44Q · · Score: 3, Funny

      I expect the sun to rise tomorrow; mind you, no one promised anything of the sort but still... I hold out hope. ;)

    4. Re:No fscking chance! by PPH · · Score: 1

      Flying cars. Even that would have been a start.

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
    5. Re:No fscking chance! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What, helicopters not good enough for you?

    6. Re: No fscking chance! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Humans are responsible for the Sun rising? Wow. I never knew! Thanks!

    7. Re: No fscking chance! by WindBourne · · Score: 1

      No, but I can show you a rising moon.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
  2. Finally by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    yes, someone has started the next space race!!!!!
    What will USA, Russia and EU do to compete?

    1. Re:Finally by Kreplock · · Score: 2

      Roll over and play dead?

    2. Re:Finally by NotDrWho · · Score: 1, Insightful

      They have't started shit. So far, they're just TALKING shit.

      --
      SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
    3. Re:Finally by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

      Apple will put out a bid to build a new manufacturing plant on Mars. The USA, Russia and EU will fall in line to get the job.

    4. Re: Finally by Type44Q · · Score: 1

      Might not be so far-fetched; did anyone actually hear them say that they intend for the passengers to arrive alive?

    5. Re:Finally by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Russia, nothing they have no money
      EU, not sure, they are a bigger economy than the US but I don't think they have the will to do it
      USA, sorry but the US is no longer capable. The ONLY metrics the US is number 1 in are Military spending and prison population, everything else they are not even close. US infrastructure is old and needs massive investment and there is little will to do that. It political system is a mess, its 2 parties more interested in pissing the other side off than doing what is best for the country.Peak USA has been and gone.

      Chinas economy, if its not already, will be bigger than the US by then too. They will have the money, the drive and the technical ability to achieve it by then. And just as importantly, they will have the trade agreements with other countries that will give them access to even more technology, skill, and partnerships in achieving the goal.

    6. Re:Finally by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What will USA, Russia and EU do to compete?

      The USA will be busty passing home schooling laws so that instead of learning science Little Jimmy can be taught by mommy at the kitchen table that Adam & Eve road dinosaurs 6,000 years ago.

      But no worries, you'll still get to watch the Mars landing on your Chinese made big screen TV.

    7. Re:Finally by WindBourne · · Score: 2

      It is already started. SpaceX is building rockets that are cheaper than China's to launch (and that is with China's money manipulation).
      In addition, we have Blue Origin which will have cheap orbital rockets by 2020.
      Then we have Bigelow Aerospace, that is making for space stations, and even lunar/mars bases to be cheap.

      Finally, NASA is hard at work helping build up a number of companies that will want to go to the moon around 2020. And Spacex will be going around 2027 to Mars. Chances are, that SpaceX's BFR will be used to go to the moon as well since we are talking 150-250 tonnes into orbit around 2020, and for a costs of less than 500M. That will be hard to ignore.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    8. Re:Finally by Areyoukiddingme · · Score: 4, Informative

      They have't started shit. So far, they're just TALKING shit.

      Well yes and no. They did land a rover on the moon recently. It croaked during the first lunar night, but it worked up until then. So they are building hardware and successfully soft-landing it places that aren't Earth. They aren't random space nutters wishing out loud. They're engineers with a proven track record, orbiting multiple humans and landing a moon rover. Western media carefully forgets that China has engineers and astronauts with orbital experience, not just sub-orbital.

    9. Re:Finally by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      nah you'all will either hitch a lift with the Chinese or the Chinese will certainly sell you a trampoline. My monies on the former and then you doing it for yourselves and claiming you were the first or you invented it. it's the American way.

    10. Re:Finally by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      we are talking 150-250 tonnes into orbit around 2020, and for a costs of less than 500M

      Unfortunately SpaceX is screwing the American taxpayers right now, being incapable of getting even 10 tonnes into orbit for 133M with its CRS flights.

      BTW, aren't you the same idiot that claimed Tesla engineers are so incompetent that they would replace the Model S drive unit, at $15,000 cost to Tesla, just because the customer "thought" they heard noises?

      https://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=5539843&cid=47683327

    11. Re:Finally by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      we are talking 150-250 tonnes into orbit around 2020, and for a costs of less than 500M

      Unfortunately SpaceX is screwing the American taxpayers right now, being incapable of getting even 10 tonnes into orbit for 133M with its CRS flights.

      BTW, aren't you the same idiot that claimed Tesla engineers are so incompetent that they would replace the Model S drive unit, at $15,000 cost to Tesla, just because the customer "thought" they heard noises?

      https://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=5539843&cid=47683327

    12. Re: Finally by Type44Q · · Score: 1

      You mean like how the Wright Brothers, the Manhattan Project, Bell Labs and many, many others all stole their ideas from brilliant Chinese innovators?

    13. Re:Finally by Teancum · · Score: 1

      China is also being extremely timid with their space exploration plans. While they have done everything you have said, they aren't really pushing any sort of frontiers in any real sense of the word or doing anything that hasn't been done repeatedly by other spacefaring countries in the past.

      In that sense, statements like "we will build a base on the Moon" definitely makes them sound a whole lot like "space nutters" that you are railing against. They have so much to accomplish and so much to learn about what it would take to actually get there that I strongly question any bold statements of that nature. Ditto with anything going to Mars or the Moon beyond just a duplication of the Surveyor & Ranger series of vehicles. China is at least 20-40 years away from duplicating Neil Armstrong's walk on the Moon as a weekend camping trip much less actually building a permanent structure of any kind there.

      Yes, they can eventually get there if they actually commit resources to making it happen. China even now has the money necessary to do some national prestige projects like planting a red Chinese flag next to the completely white flag with a few extremely faded strips left by the Apollo astronauts several decades ago.

      My largest complaint about the Chinese astronaut corps though is the lack of an operational tempo where those astronauts definitely are not getting the experience needed in space to actually perform the tasks that are going to be needed when the going gets tough. It took a decade of constant practice, multiple crewed spaceflights each year, and frankly some incredibly bold steps in order for both the USA and Russia to be ready to send people to the Moon. Russia's main drawback was that they couldn't get a reliable super heavy launch vehicle working (aka the N1 rocket). China doesn't have that kind of depth to its astronaut corps to pull off any significant effort beyond LEO right now.

    14. Re:Finally by Teancum · · Score: 2

      Unfortunately SpaceX is screwing the American taxpayers right now, being incapable of getting even 10 tonnes into orbit for 133M with its CRS flights.

      You do realize that SpaceX just sent a CRS payload into orbit this past week, and the capsule is still up on the ISS attached to the station as I'm writing this reply?

      I don't know what you are complaining about, other than a big oops happened with the CRS-7 flight. Those issues (at least the cause of that incident) have been resolved and the Falcon 9 has gone back into service with what I have seen as one of the fastest turn around times of any launch provider after a complete catastrophic failure of their primary launch vehicle.

      The only people complaining are folks who are clueless about rocket science.

    15. Re:Finally by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      Unfortunately SpaceX is screwing the American taxpayers right now, being incapable of getting even 10 tonnes into orbit for 133M with its CRS flights.

      What the hell are you talking about? You think you can do it for $19.95? The CRS flights definitely get ~10 mt into orbit for those $133M. In fact, they can also get something like two tonnes of equipment back, which nobody else at the moment can do for any amount of money.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    16. Re:Finally by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What the hell are you talking about? You think you can do it for $19.95? The CRS flights definitely get ~10 mt into orbit for those $133M

      Well except your gay sex buddy WindBourne was waxing eloquent about 150-250 mt for $500M.
      I'm no economist like your gay bugger Elon Musk, but at current rate and inflation...I'm thinking 15-25 mt for that bargain price of $500M?

      In fact, they can also get something like two tonnes of equipment back, which nobody else at the moment can do for any amount of money.

      Soyuz...oh wait, it only brings astronauts back...but we all know that astronauts are not "equipment".

    17. Re:Finally by WindBourne · · Score: 1

      Actually, that is my private troll. He is windblown and works for ULA. Sadly, he is an upset asshole because SpaceX is absolutely DESTROYING ULA. I live in this area and know a few. Most of the ones that I know have moved on to BO and SpaceX.
      I suspect that nobody wants to take him.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    18. Re:Finally by Areyoukiddingme · · Score: 2

      In that sense, statements like "we will build a base on the Moon" definitely makes them sound a whole lot like "space nutters" that you are railing against.

      For the record, I wasn't railing about "space nutters". I was preempting the usual Slashdot complainers.

      They have so much to accomplish and so much to learn about what it would take to actually get there that I strongly question any bold statements of that nature.

      I'm not seeing what they're missing. The rover landed. Building anything on the lunar surface is, for the time being, just more of the same. Land a bunch of pieces and make sure at least one has the wheels and the lifting capacity to trundle around and collect all the pieces and set them next to each other.

      I strongly suspect that the US notion of a lunar base and the Chinese notion of a lunar base are very different. We're not talking buried domes with grass and trees inside them. We're talking ISS-style tin cans, except on the ground. The first thing an arriving astronaut will have to do is trudge across a lunar maria dragging a set of jumper cables to manually hook up the solar array. Which will be deployed from another tin can using a wrench and a goddamn hand crank. (I suspect there are plenty of US astronauts who would be delighted with such a simple design, instead of the usual baroque NASA fare.) I'm quite certain that Chinese engineers have the necessary skills and experience to make that happen. Especially with a thorough and complete data dump of the ISS designs to start from, which I am certain has been in their possession for years.

      My largest complaint about the Chinese astronaut corps though is the lack of an operational tempo where those astronauts definitely are not getting the experience needed in space to actually perform the tasks that are going to be needed when the going gets tough.

      I agree they're relatively inexperienced. I think their engineers are going to attempt to make up as much of that shortfall as they possibly can with automation. For the rest, they'll get it the same way the US did: trying to do stuff. And are they really that inexperienced? They performed their first manned docking procedure 4 years ago. On the first try.

      Before I toss out my own number, I'll note one other thing that also hasn't filtered into Western media very well. Their publicly announced plan is to build a base on the moon by 2020. In the very next breath, they also announced that said base will not be occupied by a human for up to a decade afterwards. They'll build a base, but it won't be occupied for years, until their extremely timid testing is completed to their satisfaction.

      So, I agree they won't be done by 2020. But I'm not nearly as pessimistic about their operational temp. I predict it will take 10 years to get the various chunks landed on the moon and shuffle them into proximity to each other. And I predict it will be 2030 before a human cracks a hatch and climbs into it.

    19. Re:Finally by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      Setting aside your homoerotic projections, you seem to be mixing up two generations of launch vehicles. And no, Soyuz has next to zero return payload capability. And yes, astronauts are crew, not equipment.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    20. Re:Finally by Gavagai80 · · Score: 1

      In addition, we have Blue Origin which will have cheap orbital rockets by 2020.

      Blue Origin will be lucky to get their sub-orbital operations going commercially by 2020, let alone orbital. There's no saying whether their orbital flights will end up cheap at this point either, since they haven't even finalized the design let alone built one let alone tested it.

      --
      This space intentionally left blank
    21. Re:Finally by Maritz · · Score: 1

      Well except your gay sex buddy WindBourne was waxing eloquent about 150-250 mt for $500M.

      Why can't you just fuck off back to /b/ and let the grown ups talk here?

      --
      I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
    22. Re:Finally by jandersen · · Score: 1

      What will USA, Russia and EU do to compete?

      Say "please"? ;-)

    23. Re: Finally by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wow, a history lesson from an old man. How about something from this century, grampa?

    24. Re: Finally by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Comedy at its finest. The US continues to dominate especially with tech with no end in sight. China continues to decline. You know as well as all others that the US will be far ahead in this and have the first bases. Your post is trash and not based on any salient fact, just comedy.

    25. Re:Finally by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      The critical path to orbital spaceflight is long. There's little that can be done about that. However, 2020s is better than never.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    26. Re:Finally by mikeiver1 · · Score: 1

      True but they also have an economy in collapse. Smart money would be to put together a joint base on the moon that the major players in space all develop and use together. To bad that the politics of fuckheads gets in the way of science and exploration.

    27. Re: Finally by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      This century? Google, Facebook, Twitter, the smartphone, bluetooth, WiFi.

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
  3. Then stop talking by NotDrWho · · Score: 3, Informative

    Then go do it.

    Talk is cheap, bitches.

    --
    SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
  4. 4 Years? by dead_user · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    Rotsa Ruck!

    1. Re: 4 Years? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Seriously, the causal racism on Slashdot these days is getting way out of hand and really really old (as you probably are)

    2. Re: 4 Years? by quax · · Score: 1

      Judging from his user name he is already posting from beyond the grave.

    3. Re: 4 Years? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I guess you probably meant "casual", and by "racism" I can only presume by the context you meant "off-color Michael Richardsian jokes"

      have some pity, not everyone can be a Daniel Tosh.

    4. Re: 4 Years? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Seriously, the causal racism on Slashdot these days is getting way out of hand and really really old (as you probably are)

      Maybe she wasn't being racist, maybe she was simply culturally appropriating Engrish! After all, the Engrish language has a long and proud tradition in Chinese culture!

      Could make your head explode, couldn't it?

    5. Re: 4 Years? by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      Really. All I could say is Ho Lee Fuk!

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    6. Re: 4 Years? by Type44Q · · Score: 1

      Dont you mean culturalism or nationalism? Racism generally has an altogether different meaning. It's cool; English can be hard.

    7. Re: 4 Years? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why are you so rude to a Chinese speaker who is obviously struggling with the English language?

    8. Re: 4 Years? by Opportunist · · Score: 2

      So that was why the Chinese guy was arrested for political critique when he said he is displeased with the inadequate erections?

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    9. Re: 4 Years? by Kreplock · · Score: 2

      Seriously, the causal racism on Slashdot these days is getting way out of hand and really really old (as you probably are)

      Seriously, anonymous complaints are white noise.

    10. Re: 4 Years? by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 1

      Seriously, the causal racism on Slashdot these days is getting way out of hand and really really old (as you probably are)

      Old racists, young dyslexics. Another missed chance to untie on an issue.

    11. Re: 4 Years? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, that was racist. I'm not sure why people like you are so quick to defend and dismiss racism.

    12. Re: 4 Years? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But you've bravely posted under your real identity, I see.

    13. Re: 4 Years? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      What do you mean by 'people like you'?

    14. Re: 4 Years? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What do you mean by 'people like you'?

      You know, South Park fans.

    15. Re: 4 Years? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The authorities decided to go hard on him to show him how wrong he was

    16. Re: 4 Years? by indi0144 · · Score: 1

      Daddy Trump motivates all the bigots to get out of the closet, get used to it, is the real "You".

    17. Re: 4 Years? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      >really really old (as you probably are)

      Ageist motherfucker.

    18. Re: 4 Years? by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      But he already knew how wong he was. And how wang too.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    19. Re: 4 Years? by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      As in, alluding that distinctive human characteristics, abilities and traits are pre-determined by race? Somehow I fail to see the connection to this notion.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    20. Re: 4 Years? by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      Hey, edumacate yourself. That's Vietnamese, not Chinese.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
  5. this is what you get by yodleboy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This is what you get when your manned space program is driven by actually having achievable goals than by nostalgia and keeping the government pork flowing. Oh I have no doubt there will be a lot of flag waving and such, but I'll take my hat off to them when they pull off a sustainable colony on the moon. Which event will come long before NASA even manages its publicity stunt manned flight to Mars. Manned space flight is still risky, and you will lose people eventually. NASA has largely decided that the risk of losing people is unacceptable to Americans and they will keep manned projects in design indefinitely to avoid it. Just wait and see. One thing the Chinese have going for them, they won't let loss of life knock their program on its ass. Those lost will be rightly called heroes and will inspire, not terrify, others to follow.

    1. Re:this is what you get by NotInHere · · Score: 2

      Well the NASA sort of lost its point after it has successfully been used to show the russians who the boss is. Perhaps the Chinese manage to make enough competition that the American pride gets hurt. If that happens, there will be an US flag waving on Mars faster than the senate requires to pass an average budget legislation.

    2. Re:this is what you get by tnk1 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Sadly, the loss of life we have suffered did not used to terrify us, and I don't think it terrifies most people in the USA today either. It's those people who are always looking for some sort of outrage or some sort of event to make themselves seem important or to grab a headline. And then the damage control starts and the politicians run away so that they don't end up on the Evening News.

      I don't think America as a nation has run away from a space program or space exploration, but I do think our *government* considers it either a joke or a pork barrel. And that is why I hope commercial exploration keeps moving forward.

      If they succeed, which I think they are quite capable of, China will prove that we are held back less by the difficulty of the task of the Moon, or a Moon base, or going to Mars, but rather by the difficulty of getting our politicians to pull their heads out of their asses to commit to it.

    3. Re:this is what you get by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Just wait and see. One thing the Chinese have going for them, they won't let loss of life knock their program on its ass."

      Yeah, remember when NASA scrapped Apollo after the Apollo 1 fire? Oh, wait...

    4. Re:this is what you get by thinkwaitfast · · Score: 1

      What makes you think China doesn't also want to keep "the government pork flowing"? I read an interview from a Chinese engineer after they had put someone in orbit. It was basically this guy lamenting how they could do so much more if they didn't have to hire so many people. He said they had seven times as many people as they needed and it got in the way of dong things. Same goes with companies and empire building

    5. Re:this is what you get by yodleboy · · Score: 3, Interesting

      "What makes you think China doesn't also want to keep "the government pork flowing"

      Nothing at all. I have no doubt there's government pork involved. However, as the Chinese are relatively new to this manned spaceflight thing, the distribution of that pork is still up for grabs. Here in the US, it's been set for decades and there is probably no way to overcome the inertia associated with it (as far as NASA *** is concerned). Also, the Chinese government won't hesitate to take a heavy handed approach and squash anyone that gets in the way of the ultimate goal. In the US we'll let the NIMBY's and special interests add so many requirements and caveats to a government project that it drowns under the weight.

      Don't get me wrong, I'm not really advocating the Chinese way of doing things. I'm just pointing out that it's silly to dismiss their plan as BS, since they don't have to attempt to please everyone. I think 4 years is probably optimistic, but 8 years? yeah, they could do that. Meanwhile, NASA will probably still be running tests of new hardware in LEO and revising the "why we're behind schedule" paperwork again.

      ***I mean NASA the organization here, I have much respect for NASA the people.

    6. Re:this is what you get by Yunzil · · Score: 2

      I'll take my hat off to them when they pull off a sustainable colony on the moon.

      Hope you like wearing your hat.

    7. Re:this is what you get by rtb61 · · Score: 1

      Cheaper launch methods are on the drawing board for quite a few players, much cheaper than current systems. Rockets are on the way out and launch tubes are in, and not circular but elliptical to ensure the correct lifting body shape and fuel should be used for guidance and landing only (a fuel less take off, as far as the flying body is concerned, using the last bit of atmosphere to adjust vector and speed). So once you shoot that flying body in space, landing it becomes a matter of effective breaking, the high velocity makes specific engine types much more feasible so as to achieve far lower landing speeds than are currently obtainable. This hugely improves re-usability, to the point of land, service and take off again, especially in regard to a return flight from the moon (fancy runway on the moon, electromagnetic to hold the craft to the surface and decelerate it, avoiding fuel waste, even circular, think banked race track, a rather peculiar landing angle at the raised entry and then around and around you go). Plenty of hats will be required to take off for plenty of players.

      Any moon base should be joint access. Sure you can have your own section as big or small as you want it to be but it should be directly and intimately linked with all others and work with all others and everyone should know what everyone is doing in that base, it is better for everyone that way (this can be ensured by forcing sharing of the launch and landing facility and proper shared control of that facility, not just governments but also public and private).

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
    8. Re:this is what you get by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You have to walk before you can run...

      Chinese have the right idea. Establish a moon base, colonize it and use it as a jumping off point for further space exploration. Learn how to live in space, before you send live people to Mars, which is totally stupid as we're not ready for that yet, basically a suicide mission !

  6. But is it web scale yet? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What if the moon lander wants to phone home to the Amazon S3 instance? We can't build a moon base without putting an Amazon data center there, otherwise the ping is too big. And if we want to use Apple devices in space, we need an Apple data center, too.

    1. Re:But is it web scale yet? by tnk1 · · Score: 1

      If China does it, they won't have to worry about that. They'll have a Great Moon Firewall that will make connections to the Internet impossible anyway.

  7. Mr. President, we must not allow a moon base gap! by Lucas123 · · Score: 0

    If they have more moon-base space than we do, they could breed more, and possibly take over when they come out. They might even try a quick, sneak attack, so they can take over our moon base space. They might even try to knock over a couple of other countries and take their moon-base space.

  8. Unless you have a better idea, which you don't by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 0

    Sorry, the free nations of the Earth must forbid dictatorship from spreading off world.

    --
    (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
    1. Re:Unless you have a better idea, which you don't by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sorry, the free nations of the Earth must forbid dictatorship from spreading off world.

      Oh, Sealand. Somehow I don't think they forbidding anything makes much of a difference.

  9. Re:Mr. President, we must not allow a moon base ga by tnk1 · · Score: 1

    Gentlemen! Please! You don't have to crowd so close together, this is the Space Room!

  10. The kickstart we need by firesyde424 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Honestly, it's my personal opinion that the US needs someone else to beat us to a major milestone in space. We've fallen into a bit of a winners dilemma. We've beaten everyone else, why do we need to keep trying? I think if China beats the US to Mars, you'll see the political will materialize around the space program again.

    1. Re:The kickstart we need by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The US has more active space projects then the rest of the world combined. Unmanned probes and science packages have been traveling around the solar system and even leaving the solar system for 30 years. It just takes so long for these missions to get where they are going the general public forgets about them. The US made several landings on the moon and decided there was nothing there worth going back for. A manned mission to Mars is an expensive one way trip for bragging rights but even the one way trip is going to require technology capable of protecting the fragile human mind and body. To justify manned space travel you need a destination where man can actually survive. And since Earth is the only place in the solar system humans can survive we need to discover a friendly planet somewhere in the galaxy. After we find such a planet we still don't have anyway of getting there so I hope someone is secretly working on warp drive.

      If China actually does put someone on the moon and starts building a base you can be sure the US will go back to the moon using the military budget which is tantamount to removing any financial barriers to achieve the goal. The US would never cede the ultimate high ground to China.

    2. Re:The kickstart we need by R3d+M3rcury · · Score: 1

      The US made several landings on the moon and decided that it was too expensive.

      FTFY.

    3. Re:The kickstart we need by chihowa · · Score: 4, Informative

      Honestly, it's my personal opinion that the US needs someone else to beat us to a major milestone in space. We've fallen into a bit of a winners dilemma. We've beaten everyone else, why do we need to keep trying? I think if China beats the US to Mars, you'll see the political will materialize around the space program again.

      For the most part, the US got whomped by the USSR in major milestones in space. Besides landing a human on the moon and some amazing unmanned planetary and outer system probes, they beat us at nearly every early milestone: ICBM, probe to orbit, animal in space, human in space, spacewalk, woman in space, probe to moon (orbit, impact, and soft landing), image of dark side of moon, return of moon sample to earth, space station, ...

      Your last sentence is spot on, though. Getting beat by the Russians was the perfect motivator for our space program.

      --
      If you want a vision of the future, imagine a youtube comments section scrolling - forever.
    4. Re:The kickstart we need by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      The US decided that moon landings were too expensive even before succeeding with the first one.

      FTFY #2.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
  11. You can kill yourself, I don't care. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    Once I saw Michele fingering her cunt, she make a lipo anc changed her name to Helena, now it's a cunt named Fernanda. All must be fake names, since it's a nazi fugitive or something worse. And the bad part is having to smell the shit of this retard living nearby. Her father is a crooked cop and it's using police tool to help her to stalk me. I need advice on how to mak she feel very disgusted at me, because I already tried many things. I'm afraid of eating shit and making she feel in love with me.

  12. Robots by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm planning to design and build autonomous construction robots which will mine, refine, and manufacture and even do basic constructions all by themselves.

    NASA has had plenty of time to achieve this technology. I bet tiny little war torn Israel already has it.

  13. Where's the hardware China? by CajunArson · · Score: 1

    If you want to actually be on Mars by 2020 then you need to be in flight for 6 to 8 months before you touch down and that's not mentioning all the planning that takes place.

    Where are the publicity shots of your rover prototypes if not the real rovers themselves?

    Where are the publicity shots of the orbiter and deployment bus for the rover?

    What rocket platform have you validated for Martian transit?

    --
    AntiFA: An abbreviation for Anti First Amendment.
    1. Re:Where's the hardware China? by kevingolding2001 · · Score: 1

      Where are the publicity shots of your rover prototypes if not the real rovers themselves?

      Here

    2. Re:Where's the hardware China? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Still no rocket nor orbiter, which are much harder to develop/copy than a remote controlled car.

  14. Let it be HKL by JonahsDad · · Score: 1

    When they build the moon base, please let them call it Hong Kong Luna

  15. I hope they make it! by gurps_npc · · Score: 1

    And I hope it lights a fire under President Hillary Clinton (odds are 1/3 in her favor) to start Space Race 2: Mars or Bust!

    --
    excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
  16. Need to be careful by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They should find 3 operational rovers (2 of them nuclear powered and one of those recently landed), a stationary lander, and a veritable armada of US spacecraft in orbit. The Chinese need to be careful not to embarrass themselves.

  17. Yellow Mars! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We cannot allow this to happen!

  18. Domestic Chinese Politics by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is just for domestic chinese politics; they may achieve it but the purpose is to highlight the fact that China in it's current form is just as good as the West.

    There's no value in going to the moon; this is why NASA has lost focus on the moon. Satellite imagery and communications is so much more immediately valuable; the moon simply has nothing to provide of value that you can't get out of a satellite today. In 50 years maybe, when they figure out how to bring back something of value and land it on earth, then maybe we're talking, but that's a long ways off.

    1. Re:Domestic Chinese Politics by Maritz · · Score: 1

      Fuel. You don't bring it back to Earth. The whole point is that it's already out of Earth's gravity well.

      --
      I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
    2. Re:Domestic Chinese Politics by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ... to fuel what? A base set up to provide fuel is a huge drain on resources if there's nothing to take it's fuel, and nothing is going beyond the moon except some probes.

  19. Would have been sooner but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    NASA has improved their cyber security.

  20. Century 21, we're HERE! by Thud457 · · Score: 1

    Popular Mechanics
    The funny papers
    Walt Disney
    The Monsanto corporation
    Parliament
    The Jetsons
    The U.S. Air Force
    Gerry Anderson
    George Adamski
    James Bond
    Several World's Fairs
    Movies
    Syd Mead
    Nikola Tesla
    Canadian Avro Aero corp
    Television
    Paul Moller
    Sun Ra
    George Van Tassel
    GM

    Pretty much everybody that wasn't warning us of IMMINENT ATOMIC DEATH from the COMMIES. And half of them, to boot.

    --

    the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

    1. Re:Century 21, we're HERE! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And you have the notarized deed of the formal promise they made? Do you understand the difference between a daydream and reality? And really? A UFO hoaxer? Kid's shows?

      You sound like a whiny, entitled taker who just expected to sit on his ass and have the future handed to him!

      Taker! Loafer!

    2. Re:Century 21, we're HERE! by Longjmp · · Score: 1

      You forgot the refrain:

      "We didn't start the fire, it was always burning ..."

      --
      There are fewer illiterates than people who can't read.
    3. Re:Century 21, we're HERE! by Foobar+of+Borg · · Score: 1

      And you have the notarized deed of the formal promise they made? Do you understand the difference between a daydream and reality? And really? A UFO hoaxer? Kid's shows?

      You sound like a whiny, entitled taker who just expected to sit on his ass and have the future handed to him!

      Taker! Loafer!

      Well, he is a baby boomer, after all. Even as old as they are now, they think the world owes them everything.

      --
      Similar to the upcoming US election results
    4. Re: Century 21, we're HERE! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's like you're completely missing the relevant point he's making about sensationalist scientific journalism. A.I., cures, evolution, marine-biology, etc. "YOU WONT BELIEVE WHAT THEY FOUND AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS TRENCH. ALIEN LIFE??" from non-tabloid publications.

  21. China Says "Thank You Timmy" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Looks like Apple Inc. "TOP Queer" CEO Timmy Cook's $300 Billion chump change will pay for the China Space Program and more!

    Ha Ja

  22. There's a lot of things I plan on doing by watermark · · Score: 1

    Talk is cheap

  23. Moon Base by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    When you get to Mars and build a base, wouldn't it be a Mars Base?

  24. Weird by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    And presumably Nasa and others do not talk or announce plans or go through years and decades of talk. Why this gratuitous animosity? Towards a natural process of announcements of plans. Something weird happening here with these reactions.

  25. Don't care about China by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I don't care about China they've been full of it for decades. Now if Russia said that I might take it more seriously.

    1. Re:Don't care about China by Maritz · · Score: 1

      I hope they don't get too upset when they hear about your lack of credence in their plans.

      --
      I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
  26. Memo to China by LifesABeach · · Score: 1

    Score Board.

  27. 2020? Too late by just+another+AC · · Score: 1

    The glorious leader Kim Jong-un has already established a very successful moon research base, and has single handedly colonised mars in his spare time. He announced it at Christmas and said it would be done by the end of the year.

    Got to love the Chinese (or any communist) propaganda train

  28. uh... NO by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    China's Jade Rabbit died after only a day or so on the lunar surface, whereas the American Rovers (Spirit & Opportunity) and the American Space Telescope,Kepler, last for YEARS beyond their expected lifetime.