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China Developing Manned Space Mission To the Moon
China is building a manned spacecraft capable of sending astronauts to the moon as well as near-Earth orbit flight, according to Chinese state media. From a report on CNBC: The official newspaper of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China cited system chief architect Zhang Bainan who claimed the craft is being designed to carry as many as six astronauts. The newspaper, Science and Technology Daily, quoted Zhang Bainan as saying China wished to catch up with international standards of space exploration. The fresh announcement follows a separate Chinese ambition to bring back samples from the moon before the end of this year.
I don't think the Chinese will cut corners on this one. It's one thing to make a piece of military equipment cheaper and accept higher casualties. It's a different ball game in space. You can just throw more soldiers into a battle. You can't just throw more astronauts at the Moon. They're worth too much. It's not *just* a human life on the line. It's the cost to their international prestige and the value of contracting services to other nations. We don't use Soyuz rockets just to save money. They're also one of the most (the most?) reliable man-rated boosters. I'm sure the Chinese would love to have a business like that.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?