China, shooting for the moon
Discussion
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/dec/30/chin...
IIRC Eric, you mooted this?
Could this be the new Space Race?
IIRC Eric, you mooted this?
Could this be the new Space Race?
So China is aiming to possibly do in 2025 what the USA did in the 1960s? I'm not sure that's leading any space race.
The trouble with modern China and the Chinese is that they arent the first to do anything but are all queueing up to go second.
Why don't they not go to the moon and lead the way to Mars instead. That would be impressive.
The trouble with modern China and the Chinese is that they arent the first to do anything but are all queueing up to go second.
Why don't they not go to the moon and lead the way to Mars instead. That would be impressive.
el stovey said:
The trouble with modern China and the Chinese is that they arent the first to do anything but are all queueing up to go second.
True, but sometimes it is wise to let the adventurers go first/make mistakes/die, then follow along afterwards and do it better. el stovey said:
Why don't they not go to the moon and lead the way to Mars instead. That would be impressive.
They may do, but the Moon is a good first staging post to test technology etc. The Apollo programme was a long series of steps; the Chinese one (Aporro?!) is sure to be the same.el stovey said:
So China is aiming to possibly do in 2025 what the USA did in the 1960s? I'm not sure that's leading any space race.
The trouble with modern China and the Chinese is that they arent the first to do anything but are all queueing up to go second.
Why don't they not go to the moon and lead the way to Mars instead. That would be impressive.
IIRC the yanks said they wanted to be back on the moon by 2020 which I thought at the time was odd, why does it take 10 years to come up with technology that you had 50 years ago?The trouble with modern China and the Chinese is that they arent the first to do anything but are all queueing up to go second.
Why don't they not go to the moon and lead the way to Mars instead. That would be impressive.
onyx39 said:
IIRC the yanks said they wanted to be back on the moon by 2020 which I thought at the time was odd, why does it take 10 years to come up with technology that you had 50 years ago?
You know how your mobile phone has the same computational capacity as the Apollo missions? It's taken the this long to figure out how the heck to fit an astronaut in a Bose SoundDock thingy 
onyx39 said:
IIRC the yanks said they wanted to be back on the moon by 2020 which I thought at the time was odd, why does it take 10 years to come up with technology that you had 50 years ago?
America often invents targets for the Moon or Mars (Mars was originally 1980) which are quickly scrapped for various reasons, usually money. And as the West is a bit light at the moment, don't expect anything soon. I doubt they will ever go back.As for the equipment that worked so well in 1969, the technology to make Saturn Vs etc has probably been lost. And then they will have to add a million computers, and that will take it over-schedule and over-budget, and then the computers will go wrong, or something important will fall off because they were too busy looking at the computers.
Meantime the Chinese will fill a grain silo with gunpowder, add a joystick, and light the blue touchpaper
randlemarcus said:
Remind me why the US and the USSR poured ridiculous amounts of resources into getting large payloads into orbit? The slightly cynical side of me says sticking Aldrin et al onto the surface of the moon was an excellent unintended consequence of getting a decent set of ICBM kit.
Virtually none of the rocketry developed for the Apollo missions had much connection with any of their military ICBM programmes. The ICBM work was parallel but separate from the lunar programme.Simpo Two said:
onyx39 said:
IIRC the yanks said they wanted to be back on the moon by 2020 which I thought at the time was odd, why does it take 10 years to come up with technology that you had 50 years ago?
America often invents targets for the Moon or Mars (Mars was originally 1980) which are quickly scrapped for various reasons, usually money. And as the West is a bit light at the moment, don't expect anything soon. I doubt they will ever go back. They have a lot to do before they will be in a position to put a human on the lunar surfacer. At the moment they are more or less where the US was in 1966 and the Soviets were by about 1971. Although the US only took three more years after 1966 to land a man on the moon, the Chinese programme is nothing like as intensive as Apollo so I would expect that a lunar landing is at least 10 to 20 years in the future for them.
jmorgan said:
They have only just docked and that was remotely controlled. I think they are before 1966 and at a slower rate. Good luck though, crack on.
Well, the US docked for the first time in 1966 although it took about 5 goes to get it right. With more modern computer and guidance technology now available, the Chinese have gone the unmanned docking route first.What they are seriously lacking is a large booster in the Saturn V or Soviet N1/Energia category. I don't think a moon landing is feasible until they are capable of putting around 100 tons in lunar orbit - and to do that they need a booster capable of providing 6 to 7 million pounds of thrust at lift off from earth. I would expect the most powerful versions of the Long March rocket develop about 1 million pounds of thrust.
Gassing Station | Science! | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff