China: The new space superpower?

[MOBIUS]

China's Jade Rabbit Moon rover sends back first photos

The first robot to land on the Moon in nearly 40 years, China's Jade Rabbit rover, has begun sending back photos, with shots of its lunar lander.

Jade Rabbit rolled down a ramp lowered by the lander and on to the volcanic plain known as Sinus Iridum at 04:35 Beijing time on Saturday (20:35 GMT).

It moved to a spot a few metres away, its historic short journey recorded by the lander.

On Sunday evening the two machines began photographing each other.

A Chinese flag is clearly visible on the Jade Rabbit as it stands deployed on the Moon's surface.

Whilst the US and the USSR were only interested in the Moon for their mutual dick waving contest, it seems like China is rapidly building up a space infrastructure that could see it outstrip the capabilities of both the Americans and the Russians and become the first nation to actively mine the moon for minerals...

discuss.

[MOBIUS]

Why China is fixated on the Moon

I asked him if the idea of a Chinese moonbase extracting minerals was remotely plausible.

"It's perfectly plausible from the technical point of view, absolutely plausible from the finance point of view because they have great buying power, so I think, yes, there's nothing at all to stop them doing that probably within something like 10 years.

As we Civ players know, you just have to have the right sort of government in place - and China has that government...

[Ban Kenobi]

What minerals does the moon have that aren't already readily available on Earth?

[Dr Strangelove]

Tritium, which technically isn't a mineral.

[kentonio]

I'd be more concerned about their inevitable space weaponry capabilities. He who controls the sky controls the land.

[Dr Strangelove]

Oooh. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.

[Andemagne]

What minerals does the moon have that aren't already readily available on Earth?

Tiberium

[MOBIUS]

What minerals does the moon have that aren't already readily available on Earth?

Helium-3 is the main lunar resource people are talking about: China's 1st Moon Rover Begins Its Exploration --Will It Find Helium-3?

[Colon™]

There will be moon conservation groups before there will be moon mining.

[Pax]

If any resources are found, and financially profitable ways to recover them also developed there will be a mad scramble from business interests and various governments to get a piece of the pie. So China will not be lonely up there.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Tritium, which technically isn't a mineral.

Plenty to be had via any operational LWR. As an example, DOE has bids out to a number of commercial power plants for tritium.

China has plenty of nukes capable of supply.

[The Mad Monk]

What about He-3, then?

I wish them every success, if only to get our own asses moving.

[pchang]

I, for one, welcome our new over.....


Wait, that would be me.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

What about He-3, then?

I wish them every success, if only to get our own asses moving.

I have no idea. He-3 for fusion purposes?? Seems since there has yet to be a viable safe fusion reactor, choice of Tritium vs He-3 as a fusion fuel seems rather moot.

BTW - Mobys article about the search for He-3 is craptacularly poor.

[MOBIUS]

It's not my article. Just one I randomly linked to.