Mars rover Curiosity lands on surface of Red Planet

[kentonio]

The point that the comic was making was that the "total output" is a completely meaningless measure of scientific achievement. You can pump out as many papers as you like, but if none of them are actually breakthroughs, who gives a ****?

Who do you think is writing these papers exactly?

There is only one country whose research could ever hope to rival the United States, and that's Japan.

Based on what exactly? More importantly what in gods name do you base 'could ever' on? You've been a superpower for less than 70 years, and you're already convinced that no other country could compete? Other than Japan?!

Also launching commercial satellites is not a scientific endeavor, it's free riding on America continually pushing out the state of the art. America leads, Europe follows.

Interesting theory, but didn't you basically steal your rocket technology from Germany and develop it with German scientists? Didn't you actually just free ride on Nazi Germany in effect?

While France and Russia have been launching satellites, the US has been sending out deep-space probes and building space stations.

That's interesting, what space stations have you built since Skylab back in the 70's? Would you be talking about the International Space Station (ISS)?

Funnily enough though, China did launch one themselves just last year.

[Hauldren Collider]

Uh... Mir, ISS, and Salyut...?

Edit: And Venera

ISS is NASA. Other countries may have built some of the modules on the ground but NASA did almost all the construction.

[giblets]

There is only one country whose research could ever hope to rival the United States, and that's Japan.

Makes sense. Everyone who doesn't live in those two countries is a ******.

[Hauldren Collider]

Makes sense. Everyone who doesn't live in those two countries is a ******.

I didn't phrase it quite right, it's difficult to type on a phone. What I meant was, at the moment, the only country whose real research output rivals the US is Japan.

[Lorizael]

ISS is NASA. Other countries may have built some of the modules on the ground but NASA did almost all the construction.

The first component of the ISS was built and launched by Russia. The difference between Russian and American components is that the Russian components didn't need astronauts (or cosmonauts) to install them.

[giblets]

China has something like four times the population of the United States. Until their scientific productivity is more than that, you can't really make any claims about the quality of their science education compared to ours.

That's the bizarre thing. China has like ten times as many people as Japan, but he's convinced that Japan is somehow destined to be a bigger contributor to the sum total of human knowledge than China...?

[Hauldren Collider]

The first component of the ISS was built and launched by Russia. The difference between Russian and American components is that the Russian components didn't need astronauts (or cosmonauts) to install them.

Very little of the station ended up being built by Russia, however, even if that was initially the plan.

[giblets]

I didn't phrase it quite right, it's difficult to type on a phone. What I meant was, at the moment, the only country whose real research output rivals the US is Japan.

Yeah, you really did phrase it poorly. When you said "only one country could ever hope to rival the US" it certainly seemed like a prediction.

[kentonio]

Very little of the station ended up being built by Russia, however, even if that was initially the plan.

What do you mean 'very little'? Loads of it is Russian, the biggest module is Japanese and the ESA made at least one of the modules.

Btw, you are aware that the US can't even get to the ISS any more without hitch-hiking with the Russians?

[Hauldren Collider]

What do you mean 'very little'? Loads of it is Russian, the biggest module is Japanese and the ESA made at least one of the modules.

Only a couple of the early modules are Russian and the US ended up paying for about half of it anyway, since they couldn't afford it. And like I said, the ESA and Japan built modules on the ground but they were launched and built by the US. The solar panels, junction modules and truss system were also all US-built.

Btw, you are aware that the US can't even get to the ISS any more without hitch-hiking with the Russians?

Yes, unfortunate . However, by the end of next year that should be fixed with the SpaceX Dragon.

[Lorizael]

Very little of the station ended up being built by Russia, however, even if that was initially the plan.

Of the 15 pressurized modules, 5 were built by Russia, 5 by Europe, 3 by the US, and 2 by Japan. All the Russian components were launched by Russia, and all the rest were launched by the US.

[kentonio]

Yes, unfortunate . However, by the end of next year that should be fixed with the SpaceX Dragon.

So now you can rely on a private company instead of having to rely on the Russians? That certainly does appear to be the new American way.

I'm curious what you're going to do when private companies like Space X decide to do things like sell their technology to the Chinese government or just start providing services to countries that America dislike.

[MrFun]

So what's the big deal about this landing? It's not unprecedented - we have landed a rover on Mars before.

[The Mad Monk]

The US holds the cutting edge, but is severely lacking in follow-through due to underfunding of our space program.

[The Mad Monk]

So what's the big deal about this landing? It's not unprecedented - we have landed a rover on Mars before.

Not like this. Never like this. This is the dropship scene from Aliens.