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China Plans To Land Probes On Far Side of Moon, Mars By 2020 (phys.org)

Posted by BeauHD on from the dark-side-of-the-moon dept.

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.

7 of 115 comments (clear)

  1. Impressive and ambitious, but... by Camembert · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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.

    1. Re:Impressive and ambitious, but... by dbIII · · Score: 5, Interesting

      we would really need a maximum of international cooperation

      Remember the ESA lander that crashed on Mars this year? Initially they were partnered with NASA for their landing system, but NASA's budget was cut so they backed out and the intellectual property that had been shared up to that point was not usable. Hence an untried landing system when others have worked on Mars in the past.
      It would be nice to have international cooperation but congresscritters have other ideas.

  2. More evidence by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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.

    1. Re:More evidence by Kiuas · · Score: 4, Interesting

      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.

      As a European I wholeheartedly agree with this. This is also the reason Russia likes nothing more than to see the rise of age-old nationalism in the Union countries, and they're in fact funding - directy or indirectly - many nationalist media and pseudomedia (ie. propaganda) outlets. They've been trying to fund Le Pen in France but the problems faced by Russian banks seem to be preventing that for the moment.

      The fact that the nationalists are blindly going along with this, some of them even openly embracing putin as a model of leadership, without realizing that especially for bordering states favoring nation-states instead of a strong unified Union essentially means they're trying to roll back the clock to the era of the Cold war, when Finlandization was going strong and even the countries not directly in the soviet union had to essentially make sure their actions would be agreeable to Russia/CCCP.

      Now, with a lot of the former soviet satellites now in NATO the board looks slightly different than it did 50 years ago, but with Trump's stance on the role of NATO and hence the future of the entire alliance still unclear, right now the primarily right-wing nationalist uprising happening across the continent benefits Russia the most, and China as well.

      --
      "It is the business of the future to be dangerous" -Alfred North Whitehead
    2. Re: More evidence by ScentCone · · Score: 1, Interesting

      If Trump had any backbone, he would not have sourced his products from China, nor would he have used Chinese steel in his buildings.

      Or maybe if he had backbone he would do the rational things for his business that any person would do (purchase where it makes the most sense for the bottom line viability of the project/product given the reality of the market in which he's doing business), and then at some point when he has the resources and a family to which he can trust his businesses, do something like, say ... run for president with an eye on changing the lopsided international agreements and other policies that chased textile and steel manufacturing out of the US in the first place.

      This type of detail is probably too nuanced for Trump to understand nor be bother with.

      Yes, you're right. Your own observations and skills clearly far, far outweigh his and those of the people he's engaged over the years to become successful. Your own international operations are probably much more successful. Congratulations!

      --
      Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
  3. Re: Slightly OT by WindBourne · · Score: 3, Interesting

    flamebait? They have a treaty with Japan which requires pollution controls on their coal plants. See that polluted air? That is nearly 100% from their coal plants.
    Likewise, per WTO/IMF, they were supposed to free their money, as well as remove many of their tariffs, no dumping, etc. China is now the exact opposite.
    In addition, when we were allowing them to launch for American businesses, when an American company spotted an issue and told them, they fixed up their ICBMs FIRST, before fixing up the rocket.
    As long as their space program continues to be under their military, it will remain that way as well.

    --
    I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
  4. Trump knows nothing about manufacturing by sjbe · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.