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China Plans To Land Probes On Far Side of Moon, Mars By 2020 (phys.org)
China has revealed some ambitious plans for space domination in the 2020s. On Tuesday, China set out its plans to become the first country to land a probe on the far side of the moon, in around 2018, and launch its first Mars probe by 2020. Phys.Org reports: "To explore the vast cosmos, develop the space industry and build China into a space power is a dream we pursue unremittingly," read a white paper setting out the country's space strategy for the next five years. It says China aims to use space for peaceful purposes and to guarantee national security, and to carry out cutting edge scientific research. The white paper released by the information office of China's Cabinet points to the growing ambitions of China's already rapidly advancing space program. Although the white paper doesn't mention it, China's eventual goal is the symbolic feat of landing an astronaut on the moon. The white paper reiterated China's plans to launch its first Mars probe by 2020, saying this would explore and bring back samples from the red planet, explore the Jupiter system and "conduct research into major scientific questions such as the origin and evolution of the solar system, and search for extraterrestrial life." The paper says the Chang'e-4 lunar probe will help shed light on the formation and evolution of the moon.
These are ambitious plans (esp bringing samples BACK from Mars) showing the commitment to become a premier space industry country. I think China will do everything to make it happen. Living now in Hong Kong and often visiting mainland china for business, I think they will succeed - the general engineering quality AND available quantity is high.
The one thing that is a bit a pity, and I realise it sounds naieve and wishful, I expect for humanity to be truly succesful in space exploration and possibly having otherworld bases, we would really need a maximum of international cooperation, which would include the Chinese.
Trump should team up with China to open Asian markets to both American and Chinese products.
China set out its plans to become the first country to admit to landing a probe on the far side of the moon
You are being ripped off every second of every day, so that advertisers can help rip you off even more tomorrow.
from the dark-side-of-the-moon dept
Fail.
If you haven't realized, the US is losing its place in leading the world, and China is about to take over as the primary political superpower. And while the EU may rise as the primary economic hub if they can get their fractured budgets and banking in order, their political influence is dubious when it comes to contentious issues as the EU is unable to speak as a single voice.
Two reasons for this:
* A historic one - The UN permitting China to retain veto power after the Chinese Civil War. even when they don't use their veto power, it is a major factor in UN agendas.
* A pathological one - The US, both its government and its people, not recognizing their dominate position in the world is not guaranteed and they must continue to work to maintain it.
The results are:
* An increasingly belligerent China that is a palatable threat to the sovereign nations in the South China Sea.
* The American people elect a President that who is unwilling to represent the US's international obligations.
Trump should team up with China to open Asian markets to both American and Chinese products.
More pertinent, perhaps Trump should partner with China to open Dark Side of the Moon markets to both American and Chinese products.
Since it turns out the moon is not actually made of cheese, a good start would be a load of Wisconsin's finest - and I don't mean a load of Tony Shalhoub movies!
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Gee thanks paktron.net ! We really needed that.
Oh wait, no we didn't.
Chang'e 4 will also carry an experimental radio-astronomy receiver on its relay satellite, more here.
"to guarantee national security" doesn't go along with that. It means putting weapons up there as a deterrent for any sea/air/land attack on China.
What if we had international cooperation, yet China decided to turn down these gestures of cooperation
And demonstrate what leading the space race means
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If they do get a successful Mars mission off in 2020, great, better for everyone. That would put them 56 years behind Mariner 4, the first successful Mars mission. And as ESA just showed, landing on Mars is more difficult than NASA has made it look in their last 50 years of doing that. A good feat, but hardly "space domination in the 2020s"
... because the Chinese _do_ believe in them. By going to the Moon & Mars they hope to establish First Contact and become the brokers or spokespersons for the rest of Humanity. Yeah, I know that sounds crazy.
Sorry, I forgot that so many people have so little background on world events. Let me start over and give you enough context so you can understand.
* The UN permitting the PRC to retain veto power after the fall of the ROC.
The US opposed the PRC joining the security council, and the ROC and PRC could not both peacefully exist on the council at that time because each considered itself to have domain over all of China. (the so-called "One China Policy"). It was the UK, France and other American allies that persuaded the US to set aside its objections and allow the PRC to ascend to the security council. Thus cementing communist China's place in the world as a major political power.
It's interesting that you cut off quoting the part of my post that would have given you enough information to follow along: "after the Chinese Civil War".
Matter of fact, it's all dark.
Trump is a businessman, so I'm surprised he doesn't see this.
Trump isn't a very good businessman and is more concerned about his image than anything else so I'm not surprised at all.
In business terms, we need to be focused on keeping our customers happy right now, not on how we can raise our prices.
Sort of. The problem many US business have costs that are somewhat out of whack for certain types of products. Trump is making noise about bringing back "manufacturing jobs" but what he doesn't get is that the jobs that left CANNOT come back unless there is a big fall in wages. The jobs that left are mostly labor intensive jobs that are going to go wherever labor costs are cheapest. No amount of tariffs or political sabre rattling are going to bring these jobs back to the US. Labor costs are too high for that to be possible. Trump doesn't know this because he doesn't know anything about manufacturing. The US manufacturing sector is (depending on the measurement used) somewhere north of $3 Trillion annually and growing steadily. We don't make happy meal toys. We make jet aircraft and cars and earthmovers and drugs and medical equipment. But we don't need the masses of people we once did to make these. It's like farming - automation has freed up labor to go do other stuff in man cases. There is a need for SKILLED labor though and lots of it.
I'd give Trump some credit about understanding real estate but speaking as someone who has spent several decades in manufacturing I can tell you that he hasn't said anything about manufacturing that indicates he knows what he is talking about on that subject. His promises to "bring back manufacturing jobs" are empty lies that he cannot make happen even if he wasn't just pandering and really meant it. Manufacturing is alive and well in the US but it isn't going to be a source of unskilled jobs. Those will come elsewhere for the most part. What we need to be doing is promoting skilled trades where there is a HUGE existing need (3-5 million open jobs) but we've decimated the talent pipeline for these good and good paying jobs. Mike Rowe (of Dirty Jobs fame) has been talking about this and he's pretty much dead right.
The rarest of species, a conservative that can detect fake news. By now I would have though eugenicists would have bred out conservative's ability to separate fact from dogma.
For saying the FAR side of the moon, and not the DARK side of the moon... People would have to respond: "There is no dark side of the moon, it's actually all dark"
Cool, now maybe we can finally put an end to the "large structures on the far side of the moon" conspiracy.
There is no "the" markets. For purposes of discussion there is the Chinese market, the American market, the European market, the Russian market, the Japanese market, and the markets of the other countries in the area near China and Japan and the South China Sea that have similar skin tone to those two countries, and it is these countries to which I am referring when I make mention of the Asian market.
Anyone can, and does make cars and earthmovers.
"Anyone" can make cars and earthmovers? Then explain to me why there hasn't been a new large car company created in decades. (No Tesla isn't profitable and they've been trying for about a decade) China for all it's manufacturing prowess doesn't yet have a single home grown car company of any consequence and it's going to be at least another decade before they do if not longer. The Koreans are the most recent significant entrants and their success has been decades in the making. Aside from some mergers the top 10 car companies today are roughly the same as the top 10 car companies 20 years ago not that different from 40 years ago. GM, Ford, Fiat/Chrysler, Nissan/Renault, VW, BMW, Mercedes, Toyota, Peugeot, Hyundai. Good luck cracking that market.
The notion that anyone can get into capital intensive manufacturing is just naive nonsense. To do that you need capital and lots of it. Best case is that it takes decades to make a major dent. Japan's auto industry took nearly 30 years and some oil shocks before it was able to take serious market share. Nobody is going to drive Caterpillar out of business - they are one of our largest exporters. It it was easy to do then someone would have already done it. And you not only have to build the machine but you have to build the distribution and support infrastructure. To go toe to toe with Caterpillar takes decades even if everything goes right.
Drugs are a protection racket and could easily be made elsewhere, often for far far less.
Cute how you are confusing the cost of creating a pill with the (literally) billions of dollars it costs to bring a medicine to market. But by all means do away with patent protection if you prefer to bring medical research to a screeching halt. Distasteful as it is sometimes, a profit motive is a STRONG incentive to advance the state of the art in drugs and nobody is going to spend billions to develop a drug that someone else can copy for millions. Manufacturing the medicine is mostly not terribly difficult but given that you cannot separate it from the need for patent protection (because of the free rider problem) then you have an industry that cannot be easily replicated elsewhere.
Medical equipment i'll give you, and semiconductors, but not a lot else.
"You'll give me"? Spare me the condescension. You have no idea what you are talking about. The top ten manufacturing industries in the US (in no particular orders) include: petroleum, steel, automobiles, aerospace, telecommunications, chemicals, electronics, food processing, consumer goods, lumber, and mining. (Yes mining, drilling and lumber are forms of manufacturing) What you'll notice is that almost all of that is capital intensive. The expensive bit isn't the labor doing the work but the equipment and facilities and materials needed to enable the labor to do the work. How do you think the US has 17% of the world manufacturing capacity with just 5% of the world population? The answer is automation and capital.
That's why Trump's empty promises about bringing manufacturing jobs back to the US are just nonsense. The ONLY way that we increase number of jobs in manufacturing substantially is to cut wages (by a lot) so that labor intensive industries (think happy meal toys and textiles) are now attractive to make in the US. If you are good with people making $1-2/hour then by all means let's do it. Personally I think that's idiotic.