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China Launches Second Space Lab (space.com)
Reader hackingbear writes: China's next space laboratory, Tiangong-2 launched from the country's Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center today at 10:04 a.m. EDT (1404 GMT) on a Long March 2F carrier rocket. Like its predecessor Tiangong-1, Tiangong-2 is an orbiting space lab -- but this latest model has made several improvements in the series. Among the advances: astronauts can remain on the station up to 30 days; New systems allow in orbit refueling of propellant; and 14 new experiments in a wide range of sciences including composite material fabrication, advanced-plant cultivation, gamma ray burst polarization, fluid physics, space-to-earth quantum communications. The space lab is also equipped with a cold atom space clock, that has an estimated precision of 10 to the power of minus 16 seconds, or a one-second error every 30 million years, enhancing accuracy of time-keeping in space by one to two orders of magnitudes. This exactitude will help measure previously undetectable fluctuations for experiments conducted in zero-gravity.The Tiangong 2, while is an experimental space station, is still operational. The astronauts that would come on board next month are to spend a full month up there -- a longer period of time than possible on Tiangong 1.
I've often wondered what prevents (aside from stupendous cost) someone from launching up to one of these and taking it over while it's not occupied?
At what point will this actually become an issue?
-nb
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I just can't wait until we catch up with China and have the ability to launch astronauts into space!
"Among the advances: astronauts can remain on the station up to 30 days".
Which leaves them (after a three year break in manned flight), what... forty years behind everyone else? Not that that will stop those who want China to give them stiffies and stroke material by re-igniting a Space Race.
China has just enough of a space program to let them claim (internally and externally) to be a Real Country with a Real Space Program, and not a yuan's worth more. Despite their many pronouncements about things they may do in some misty future, there's no evidence they intend to ever have anything more.
Try "accuracy" next time. That's like listening to an asshat who uses "betterment" in conversation.
The space lab is also equipped with a cold atom space clock, that has an estimated precision of 10 to the power of minus 16 seconds, or a one-second error every 30 million years
Einstein proved that time is relative. So accuracy is also relative.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
China plans to complete space station in 2022 and will have a mass of 64,000 kg. This is about half of the mass of Mir launched 30 years ago by USSR. Still a lot to catch up. The ISS launched in 1998 has a mass of 440,000 kg.
They will never learn.
Pirates were, customarily, hung by the neck until dead. Can't do that in zero-gravity...
Throwing one out of an airlock is rather cruel — and unusual too. Wasting your own crew's sole means of evacuation on transferring the captured pirates to Earth is not only wasteful, but may well condemn the said crew to death.
Keeping the detained pirates up there — and feeding them food at $17,000-20,000 per kilogram? Talk about waste of taxpayers' money!
Letting them "go", as we now do in our vegetarian times with most maritime pirates, is not going to be an option either — where are they going to go and what'll keep them from coming right back to your space-station after you leave?
Quite a dilemma, actually... Unless you handle it the Russian way — "release" the bastards, but make sure, they die before reaching the shore.
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
In many ways it's too bad USA banned them from the current station (ISS) due to possible military-related secrets.
ISS requires a lot of maintenance such that there's not much time left for science. If China participated, then there would be more time-slots for science instead of fixing toilets, etc.
By now the ISS's technology should be old enough to not be secret: it's decades old. Plus, Russia already has access to it and they trade secrets with China anyhow.
Why did US put sensitive tech in ISS to begin with? We F'd up.
Table-ized A.I.
A lot of anti-spaceX posters here have to be pretty proud of China's accomplishment.
There are plenty of them that would rather see CHina succeed than to see Musk, Bigelow, or even bezo succeed.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Seriously, if we wanted to, we could put somebody up there within 3-6 months. The issue has been that CONgress has NOT properly funded things. However, in an emergency, SpaceX could easily launch a V1 with extra O2 on-board to get to the ISS, and within several months, a V2 could be ready.
Likewise, CST-100 could be ready in under 6 months or less. It would take money, but there is little issue about our ability to do so.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
I keep seeing you prattling on as a Musk fanboi. As much as I'd love to see space for myself I'd not ride a SpaceX rocket if it were free. Their failure rate is the same as the mortality rate of playing russian roulette.
What, he didn't have the courtesy to give you a reacharound?
I think you want to reply to Windborne, he's the one who seems to fancy MuskCock up his ass. Probably another one of these Trump fuckers who think that private industry is going to do it all. We see that Musk is a bitch sucking at the government teat and claiming to get a new god. Sounds a lot like Frump.
Is their swimming pool big enough to hold two?
I don't know the meaning of the word 'don't' - J
I hope they purchased some kind of extended warranty because I doubt that it will keep running past 10 years---let alone 1 billion years.
No, I wanted to reply to you. It is obvious that you have had your head pounded too much by the kock bros and are now brain dead.