China says it is planning to establish a base on the Moon to exploit its mineral resources

has anyone seen this

news.bbc.co.uk...

Wow. Interesting. I was wondering how long it would take for someone to announce plans for that. Good idea I think. Maybe we're a lot closer to civilians in space than anyone thought?

rofl



"Another rocket blew up after take-off in early 1996 and, later in the year, a Long March rocket placed a $120m Chinese satellite in the wrong orbit, leaving it to drift hopelessly in space."

Originally posted by DaRAGE
rofl

"Another rocket blew up after take-off in early 1996 and, later in the year, a Long March rocket placed a $120m Chinese satellite in the wrong orbit, leaving it to drift hopelessly in space."

So, umm....DaRage, ya think they'll be able to make it to the moon ??? I mean... earth's moon?

Maybe A moon...not Earth's.

I I figure this will start some sort of spcae race. The old space powers (the US and Russia) have gotten lax. I think the first power to put a colony on the moon is goign to have a major edge earthside... but it might also result in some ugly, ugly wars. Makes me wonder which is safer- being in near-vaccuum where sabotage with a safety pin can kill us all, or here when nukes start flying around.

DE

Originally posted by DeusEx
Maybe A moon...not Earth's.

I I figure this will start some sort of spcae race. The old space powers (the US and Russia) have gotten lax. I think the first power to put a colony on the moon is goign to have a major edge earthside... but it might also result in some ugly, ugly wars. Makes me wonder which is safer- being in near-vaccuum where sabotage with a safety pin can kill us all, or here when nukes start flying around.

I still question why we gave up on our lunar program to begin with. Colonizing the moon would be a good warm-up to colonizing other planets, I'd think. I'm not sure if another space race will start, but keep in mind that according to the article (which was published in May of 2002) China was planning on a manned spaceflight by 2005.

Considering that they're now ahead of schedule with their recently successful manned flight, China seems to be the country with the most momentum. The US is still busy reworking and retooling Shuttle missions and equipment, and the Russians are still using Soyuz craft that didn't make it to the moon to begin with. Both countries seem more focused on the ISS than on further lunar exploration.

It should be interesting to see how things progress from here.

Maybe this will be the kick in the ass the US and Russia need...

We can only hope. America gets discouraged after a tragedy like challenger or columbia. We fell off the horse there, we aren't honoring their memories by not getting back on that horse. We need more dedication to the space program. There is no reason for us not to be up there. There should be a Hilton on the moon by now

Hopefully. we'll get envious of China's progress and get in gear.

Originally posted by Saiyan
has anyone seen this

news.bbc.co.uk...

seems to me like the powers' will find this outrageous.
it is likely russia will find this outrageous, and plow more resources into getting something better done.
as for the U.S, always ready to compete or at least take part in the project

Originally posted by Garon
We can only hope. America gets discouraged after a tragedy like challenger or columbia. We fell off the horse there, we aren't honoring their memories by not getting back on that horse. We need more dedication to the space program. There is no reason for us not to be up there. There should be a Hilton on the moon by now

Hopefully. we'll get envious of China's progress and get in gear.

We've been too interested in orbital flights to look at the possibilities that lunar expeditions and colonization hold. Given the pace the program progressed at in the late 60s and early 70s, nobody thought we wouldn't have a base on the moon as shown in Kubrick's 2001 movie. Somewhere along the way, the priorities changed though, and now NASA has other countries looking to beat them at their own game, so to speak.

That article is somewhat out of date. They have obviously had recent success. China have something to prove, the US doesn't. It will be interesting to see if the US responds with it's own moon schedule if it actually starts to look like the chinese will actually do it.

Originally posted by Zzub
That article is somewhat out of date. They have obviously had recent success. China have something to prove, the US doesn't. It will be interesting to see if the US responds with it's own moon schedule if it actually starts to look like the chinese will actually do it.

you're up late....12am ai?
Nasa's too underfunded, no chance....unless something radical happens which motivates the gvrnmnt to shovel out more money.
Cyrus

Agreed. Without an assload of funding, US moon colonization plans are pointless. Even if they do gets dumpsters full of money, they still have to catch up to the chinese. And that's if the russians haven't pitched their lot in with teh Chinese, a very real possibility...

DE

I think this is a act to prove the US to enter another space race. Evidently, China doesn't really have the technological capabilities to go to the moon yet, so it'll take some time. Space techonologies have improved considerably over the years, so I may be wrong.

We really are spending too much time on orbital flights. After flying around earth for all this time, doesn't NASA get bored? It's about time that we expanded our frontiers and move on away from our planet.

Funding is going to the wrong places nowadays. we're still fighting a war over "a rock" while China is planning to dump their population on the moon, which they should, you now how crowded it gets over there?

I find another article it look like the china are not the only one this is a old article
www.wired.com...

WOW it look like they are on the ball we will see here a new article i found

www.washtimes.com...

Nice article, Saiyan. Can we all imagine the Starbucks Colony and the Radioshack Crater?

DE

Lol I just read this post, the Chinese are planning to mine the moon? Imagine if in a couple hundred years there's no moon because it's all been mined out.

Chinas space program has had an 100% success race since 1996.

Do you want to get more information about our country?
Here is the right place
www.military.china.com