Slashdot Mirror


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

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.

61 of 105 comments (clear)

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

    Roll over and play dead?

  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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 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

    4. 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.

    5. 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.

    6. 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
  5. 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)

  6. 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.

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

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

  8. 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. ;)

  9. 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?

  10. 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.
  11. Re:No fscking chance! by PPH · · Score: 1

    Flying cars. Even that would have been a start.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  12. 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.

  13. 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.

  14. 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!

  15. 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 R3d+M3rcury · · Score: 1

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

      FTFY.

    2. 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.
    3. 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
  16. 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.
  17. 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

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

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

  19. 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
  20. 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.

  21. 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.

  22. 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 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.
    2. 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.

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

    Talk is cheap

  24. 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.
  25. 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.
  26. Re: 4 Years? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    What do you mean by 'people like you'?

  27. 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.

  28. 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.

  29. 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?

  30. 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.

  31. 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.

  32. 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
  33. 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".

  34. Memo to China by LifesABeach · · Score: 1

    Score Board.

  35. 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.
  36. 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.

  37. 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
  38. 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
  39. 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.
  40. Re:Finally by jandersen · · Score: 1

    What will USA, Russia and EU do to compete?

    Say "please"? ;-)

  41. 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.
  42. 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.
  43. 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

  44. 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.
  45. 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
  46. 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
  47. Re: 4 Years? by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

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

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  48. 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.

  49. 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?