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China Just Launched Two Astronauts Into Orbit (bbc.com)
An anonymous Slashdot reader quotes the BBC: China has launched two men into orbit in a project designed to develop its ability to explore space. The astronauts took off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in northern China at 23:30 GMT on Sunday [7:30 p.m. EST].
The plan is for them to dock with and then spend 30 days on board the Tiangong 2 space station testing its ability to support life. This and previous launches are seen as pointers to possible crewed missions to the Moon or Mars.
NBC calls this evidence of "the intensifying U.S.-China space rivalry... With the current U.S.-led International Space Station expected to retire in 2024, China could be the only nation left with a permanent presence in space."
The plan is for them to dock with and then spend 30 days on board the Tiangong 2 space station testing its ability to support life. This and previous launches are seen as pointers to possible crewed missions to the Moon or Mars.
NBC calls this evidence of "the intensifying U.S.-China space rivalry... With the current U.S.-led International Space Station expected to retire in 2024, China could be the only nation left with a permanent presence in space."
In the mid 1990s, China was not allowed to join the ISS over human rights concerns. Of course,that didn't stop us from welcoming Russia which also had a terrible history, and it isn't like he threat of not being in the ISS changed China's behavior at all. So the end result is that China instead has a very strong and fast growing space program of their own when instead we could be cooperating with them.
China is no rival of the USA in space exploration.
Right, there is no rivalry: China can send people into space and the USA cannot. Also, China has its own space station, and the USA can only pay Russia for a lift to the ISS, which is international.
So, the capabilities are not the same.
I, for one, think we should stay in the trees. We have enough problems to solve here before we go roaming the grasslands in search of denser food sources.
In casual speech in Hong Kong and Taiwan, astronauts are often called "taikong ren" (literally "space people") - this is probably where "taikonaut" comes from, a weird portmanteau of that with "astronaut". But no-one actually uses the word "taikonaut" besides novelists as far as I can tell. English releases from Chinese companies always use "astronaut".
Chinese space travelers are Taikonauts, much as Russian space travelers are Cosmonauts.
So what do you call a Chinese-born American resident who travels on a Soyuz spacecraft to work in the Italian-built ESA module of the International space station?
To be fair (concerning your F-35 point), there is no point on the near horizon in which manned military jets will be obsoleted by drones. Namely because you can't jam a human. Until you can get to the stage where drones do not need real-time command streams in order to be fully effective - that is, drones making their own decisions on who to kill - you need humans. People always forget electronic warfare when it comes to military conflict, yet it's one of the most important aspects of a modern battlefield.
There is some interesting potential for drone-human synergy, however. Look at the F-35 and its main strengths and weaknesses. Its main strengths are that it's very hard to detect / target, and that it has a very high level of sensor integration, including multi-aircraft sensor integration, designed to distribute a wide variety of data to make decisions about what responses to make with the hardware on hand. Its weaknesses include limited internal payload capacity (it can carry external payload, but at the cost of its stealth) and limitations on how much EW it can do on its own (either due to built-in capabilities, limited capacity for extra payload, or the risks of being targeted while carrying out EW).
Pairing F-35s with drones however seems to meet the best strengths of both. F-35s could have sensor fusion with drones, allowing them to take part in EW and carry significantly more armament than the F-35 itself can carry,. The drones can afford to be more visible, since the loss of one is not as significant. Meanwhile, having it in formation with an F-35 makes it much harder to jam communications. You have a no-lag, relatively short distance mesh network (that can close distance as-needed), with a human in the local decision-making loop.
Re, Russia: A new Cold War with Russia is lining up whether the US wants one or not. It only takes one side to start one. Re, China: no, not really. There are some clear conflicts, mainly these days centered around the South China Sea. But the overall conflict level is no broader than it's been on average than in the past several decades.
Re, "bombing ISIS": Russia is not bombing Daesh. Russia is bombing JaF and to a lesser extent FSA. They were only doing about 10-20% of their bombing runs on Daesh before, and since the failed Tabqah offensive haven't focused on Daesh at all.
You are correct that space programs are cheap, on the overall scheme of things.
The internet is not a series of tubes. It's more like a net. Or a network of computers. Or an internet.
How long would it take the US to launch a manned moon mission?
Well, it is going to take 30 years to finish the BART extension from Fremont to San Jose, and a moon landing is more complex than that. So it could be a while.
Putting men into orbit and on the moon had no immediately applicable results. No, we didn't get rich off the moon rocks we got home. But what happened during this time caused the US to lead the economy for decades after. It forced us to come up with new solution to new problems, the US made progress that's been seen before only in times of war when innovation was crucial for survival. And all that without the bloodshed.
There were huge leaps ahead in metallurgy, propulsion, computers, electronics, medicine and a lot of other fields, but this also marked the beginning of key elements that we today consider cornerstones of efficiency, from process management to risk management and disaster recovery procedures.
So believe it or not, launching people into orbit has its merits. It forces you to solve problems that do have very real applications down here on our planet.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
from a paltry German invasion.
Paltry? I don't think I have ever seen that adjective applied to the Eastern Front. I'm more used to seeing it described along the lines of "The battles on the Eastern Front constituted the largest military confrontation in history."
Britain took Hong Kong 1841-1997
Yes, and Hong Kong became a titan of industry, finance, and overall standard of living.
Why didn't the rest of China? Oh, that's right, because communism destroys and ruins everything it touches. Not to mention Mao and the millions he murdered and starved to death.
If I were Chinese I would do everything in my power to get to a "colonialist" hub so that they could "abuse" me to their colonialist heart's content. Far better than the patriotic zeal from Mao and co.
You kids need to learn more history....
Spend some time reading something besides twitter.
Seems like it's you who should pick up a history book and stop gulping down regurgitated propaganda from your leftist professor's mouths.