Chinese moon landings

[Dauphin]

China confirms space station plan

Plans to build a Chinese space station were first revealed in 1999 but little further information has been provided. According to some reports, China also intends to launch a manned mission to the moon by 2010

China launches dummy astronaut

China hopes to become only the third nation to place a human in space after Russia and the US. Some Chinese media reports indicate that a manned launch could take place as early as 2003 and that the nation aims to put a man on the Moon

Ok presume that China were able to get men on the moon and back again, within the near future (i.e no-one start saying they don't have the technology yada, yada, yada..). What would be the point- a political message to the world? National pride? Technological advancement? I see no reason for the Chinese to do this, or make claims about doing this. Its a dead-end.

Thoughts...

[chequita guevara]

It means China can bomb the United States.

[Dauphin]

You don't need to go to the moon to do that.

[ranskaldan]

Why did the US do it then?

[Dauphin]

The cold war. To proove a political point that the US had the biggest d!ck.

[General Ludd]

Re: Chinese moon landings

Originally posted by Sagacious Dolphin
What would be the point- a political message to the world? National pride? Technological advancement?

Yes, Yes, and yes.

[WhiteElephants]

Maybe they intend to over populate the moon as well.

Or perhaps this is just another ploy to earn a few bucks sending boy band members to the moon like commrade Russia sends them to the space station.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by ranskaldan
Why did the US do it then?

To show it could bomb the USSR.

[KrazyHorse]

Maybe this'll scare the US+EU into spending more money on space development.

[Inverse Icarus]

KH: we can only hope.

if nasa didnt take so many funding cuts we could be walking on mars by now

[DanS]

China is going nowhere in manned space flight, but there's no harm in having unrealistic goals, I guess. Somewhat inspiring, since space is really only what you make of it.

KH: The US already spends at least $5 billion per annum on manned space flight. EU does about 1/10th that.

[Shadowstrike]

I doubt that China has any serious space program plans, and those would be for national pride and a show of stgrength if anything. The most important goal for the Chinese government is missile technology, so that the MAD defense does work indeed against the US/EU. This would of course increase the chances that the world will cometo a thermonuclear end.

[chequita guevara]

To add on to Shadowstrike, I think we should see this as China's response to Bush's missile shield. This is just what we opponents of the damn thing predicted, it will lead to greater instability.

Gotta love conservatives. Shafting the future to loot the present.

[MichaeltheGreat]

At least from a rhetorical standpoint, the PRC is out to be the next superpower - anything they can do, or claim they intend to do, to inflate national pride and ego serves a purpose.

It's really irrelevant to missile defense (which I've never been a big fan of, I'd rather spend the money elsewhere on more useful military capabilities)

[Shadowstrike]

The really alarming thing about this is the uncertainty of China's political system. Simply put it we don't know if the next strongman in Beijing will be a hardliner who recalls the days of the Great Leap Forward (a ultimately foolish endevour that killed millions), or a progressive Chinese Gorberchev.

Of course blaming the Repbulicans along is pretty much just finding a scapegoat. The Chinese have pretty much wanted to do this since the 60s. The missile shield may have sped up teh Chinese program, but I'm pretty sure that they would go ahead with it anyhow.