China declares plans for mission to the moon

[craigdbfan]

China declares plans for mission to the moon

- China has declared its intent to send a man to the moon, aiming to become the first nation to reach the lunar surface since the last American mission in 1972.

A white paper published on Thursday laid out the country's five-year plan for the development on new satellites, spacecraft and a space station and provided the official confirmation of China's lunar ambitions.
The landing is not expected until at least 2020 but under the government's blueprints "new technological breakthroughs" in human space flight will be achieved by 2016.
The country hopes to complete it first space station in the same year, a goal encouraged by the successful mission to dock two unmanned spacecraft in orbit last month.
“Chinese people are the same as people around the world,” Zhang Wei, an official with China's National Space Administration, told the Financial Times.
“When looking up at the starry sky, we are full of longing and yearning for the vast universe.”

 

[Spider-Who?]

Re: somebody rented Apollo 18 and wants some moon rocks.

 

[Mike_D202]

Someone tell them to aim for that place where the cigar-shaped spacecraft thing is at.

 

[Crazy Quilt]

Wow. So the new space race is on?

 

[Thundercrack85]

I can't see a space race until China says it will go to Mars.

Landing on the moon? America played golf on it, in the sixties.

But they might get give NASA some extra cash now.

 

[KalMart]

I guess China wil have to settle for, I dunno, finding some sort of scientific use out of it. Hope that when they develop it, they'll have a golf course so the Americans will have something to do.

 

[Crazy Quilt]

I can't see a space race until China says it will go to Mars.

Landing on the moon? America played golf on it, in the sixties.

But they might get give NASA some extra cash now.

The United States has been talking about wanting to go back to the moon for a long time.

 

[Thundercrack85]

There is no justification for going back the moon. It's purely a matter of national pride. China wants to say "look at us, we did it". Five minutes after giving his famous speech, Neil Armstrong got bored. There's nothing they can do on the moon that robots can't. It's just not worth the money for the US to do it again. They've talked about mining the moon, mainly for Helium-3, but, that's future talk.

Mars is a different story. Still not much humans can do there, but it's a matter of national pride.

 

[socool]

I don't see the big deal...

 

[Thundercrack85]

Now what would crack me up, is if North Korea announced their own plan to fly a man to the moon... by 2056.

 

[SuperSoldier985]

China's looking for the Decepticons?

 

[Mogwai]

Yeah, I agree that it's a matter of national pride and nothing else. The Chinese flag will rest along with the US one for all eternity.

 

[Thundercrack85]

The US one fell down. Well, the Apollo 11 one anyway. They can always just send a robot to put one up.

 

[bullets]

The United States has been talking about wanting to go back to the moon for a long time.

Talk is cheap. Watch China find something we overlooked.

 

[Ultra Lantern]

Talk is cheap. Watch China find something we overlooked.

A Decepticon base.

 

[Godsfireworks]

A Decepticon base.

We've made a grave mistake...

 

[terry78]

As sci-fi as it is, finding a new place to colonize aside from just assuming Earth will always be here is not exactly a farfetched idea.

 

[Iron_Stark]

Good for them, atleast someone will go to the moon since, you know the US never went.

Spoiler

jk, I'm not one of those people. I would've figured by now that someone would've posted something like that.

 

[Dr.]

I can't see a space race until China says it will go to Mars.

Landing on the moon? America played golf on it, in the sixties.

But they might get give NASA some extra cash now.

A crewed mission to Mars or an asteroid, etc. requires a heavy lift vehicle. Nasa is supposedly developing this (or re-developing it – the Saturn V from the 60s was heavy lift). And once the hardware is built, a dress rehearsal to the Moon is not just a good idea - it’s pretty much mandatory. So whether it’s a “race” with the Chinese or not, I’d say the US (and partners) will be heading back to the Moon.

 

[Wolfwood]

We need to build a moonbase. That's a helluva lot cooler than a space station

 

[Mike_D202]

Moon Base FTW

 

[Thundercrack85]

A crewed mission to Mars or an asteroid, etc. requires a heavy lift vehicle. Nasa is supposedly developing this (or re-developing it – the Saturn V from the 60s was heavy lift). And once the hardware is built, a dress rehearsal to the Moon is not just a good idea - it’s pretty much mandatory. So whether it’s a “race” with the Chinese or not, I’d say the US (and partners) will be heading back to the Moon.

They need motivation. I don't know if China landing on the moon will be enough. Hopefully this recession will be over by 2016. NASA's budget always gets slashed during a recession. But you're right about the rehearsal.

But it will be quite a while before China can go to Mars, if they ever will. It's still theoretical. And then there's the Mars curse.

 

[chamber-music]

Perhaps China may find the Space Moonbase of the Nazis as seen in Iron Sky

[YT]4lJAw_BtM2g[/YT]

 

[Why Are You Crouching Spock?]

Cool. Good for them.

 

[Thebumwhowalks]

bleh