Chinese moon landings

[chequita guevara]

MtG, aren't you supposed to be wearing a dress or something? Whatever happened with you and Horsie's bet?

[Seeker]

Space.com posted an article saying some FAS guys think the mysterious extra nose module is an experimental 'nanosat', a small remote controlled satellite which is meant to disable other satellites.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
MtG, aren't you supposed to be wearing a dress or something? Whatever happened with you and Horsie's bet?

Horsie mentioned something about April 7. There's some other stuff coming up, too, so I don't know what the resolution is. We don't have confirmation of OBL's status one way or another, and probably never will have, unless he shows up somewhere to make a point.

I personally think he's been buzzard **** up in the mountains for some time - he wasn't the paragon of health and vigor in his last video.

Anyway, I'll PM Horsie in the next day or two to figure out the resolution.

[Alinestra Covelia]

Hu Jintao, the likely candidate for leadership of the Chinese government, is a moderate and seems to emphasize economics over political ideology. This comes as no surprise, since he was chosen by Deng Xiaoping way back in 1996, and also supported by Jiang Zemin, both of whom are well-known (and sometimes disliked) for their support of economy over communist teachings.

As for the space flight, I was amused by the amount of negative feeling that the western press appears to have generated about this. Some of the New York Times reader comments ranged from the coolly dismissive to heated attacks ("Those Red Commies must have forced the astronauts into the cockpit with AK-47s!" etc). The American response to Sputnik I could understand, and the national achievement of the Apollo Programs is very real, but this is just another country following the great example of space exploration.

I wonder if the media were less unilaterally critical of China, whether the global feelings towards this country would be somewhat better too. A plan to put a man in space should not be interpreted as some covert plan to nuke a country (or seven).

[Shadowstrike]

While putting people is space is an admirable achievement, China isn't exactly doing that to collect moon rocks or build space cities. The most immediate appilcation of the technology would be missiles, and a nation that can send a man to the Moon will have the tech to nuke anything else on the planet. The PRC is still very much a military state, moving towards democracy (or so we hope).

[KrazyHorse]

Shadowstrike, hitting anything on the planet is not contingent on being able to put a man on the moon. Developing a viable long-range ICBM wouln't cost a tenth (or prabably even a hundredth) of what a lunar mission would cost.

[Serb]

Originally posted by Alinestra Covelia
As for the space flight, I was amused by the amount of negative feeling that the western press appears to have generated about this. Some of the New York Times reader comments ranged from the coolly dismissive to heated attacks ("Those Red Commies must have forced the astronauts into the cockpit with AK-47s!" etc). The American response to Sputnik I could understand, and the national achievement of the Apollo Programs is very real, but this is just another country following the great example of space exploration.

The West is very jealos. For them commies=barbarians. They simply can't accept the fact the commies may be more advanced then they are in some fields.
I've heard many times how they saying- "you've send the first space sattelite and the first spaceman earlier then USA only because of political reasons, we had better technologies". Funny bullsh1t. They will twist facts as they like, but will never accept the defeat properly.

[MichaeltheGreat]

What defeat? Yeah, they got there first, we did the rest.

And Salyut / Mir was a hell of an accomplishment, but we went in a different direction with the STS.

[Shadowstrike]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse
Shadowstrike, hitting anything on the planet is not contingent on being able to put a man on the moon. Developing a viable long-range ICBM wouln't cost a tenth (or prabably even a hundredth) of what a lunar mission would cost.

My point was that should they be actively pursuing this kind of stuff (space tech), everyone else would immediately suspect them of trying to built long range ICBMs.

[Urban Ranger]

They already have long range ICBMs. Long range rocketry is a prerequisite technology for space flight, esp. to the moon and other planets.

I suppose the point of having a moon program is to integrate all the necessary technology and make them work together. This will spin off into various military and civlian sectors.

[KrazyHorse]

Suspect them? They already have long-range ICBMs, and whether or not they did this, I'd be pretty sure they were trying to upgrade their arsenal.

EDIT: Bastard crossposter.

[Serb]

Originally posted by MichaeltheGreat
What defeat? Yeah, they got there first, we did the rest.

And Salyut / Mir was a hell of an accomplishment, but we went in a different direction with the STS.

What type of different direction?
Are you talking about international orbital station? If yes, then I don't understand why only YOU are? We are partners in this progect and without our space technologies you'll go in "nowhere direction".
May be for Americans it is the first Orbital station, for us it is 13th. We already have an experience of long space flight, you've just started to gain in orbital station. Our spacemans lived on Earth orbit for more then year (the record is 500 days or something near) long ago.

[OzzyKP]

As an American patriot and anti-communist I don't see the harm in China going up into space. Good for them. It is rather biased to assume that the "evil communists" have some plot for world destruction up their sleves no matter what they do. In my limited news watching I haven't seen many hostile moves from China, and from what I hear they have no ambitions to be a world power like the US.

They just want to climb the highest mountain cause its there. I respect that, hopefully our country will do more of the same.

[Serb]

Originally posted by OzzyKP
I hear they have no ambitions to be a world power like the US.

Start to worry then.
I can asure you that they have such ambitions, and they will be more powerfull then USA soon.
And they are far away from commies now, the only reason your media prtraying them like "evil commies" is just because they are your enemies as future compititor in world dominance.

[Sprayber]

It's nice to see that the Chinese are concentrating on whats important. Yet another trip to the moon.