China launches third unmanned space vehicle

AFP ^ | 25 Mar 02 | Staff

[MarkWar]

>What goods are you expecting?

Well, the "traditional" hope is that micro-gravity will prove a great environment for growing super pure crystals. (The last I checked into this area, there were conflicting studies indicating that very high gravity might be better for pure crystal growth...)

As more and more circuitry can be compiled onto super-pure crystals, entire machines can be fabricated in clean rooms. And, as nano-technology becomes a real deal, entire mechanism can be built in clean rooms.

If the raw materials for such stuff -- basically "sand" -- can be lifted off the Moon, or cobbled off asteroids, then an entire "Silicon Valley" could be constructed at, say, Lagrange 5 and would have the entire globe -- heck, the entire inner system! -- for a market...

Mark W.

[shaggy eel]

FYI

[RightWhale]

General Armament Department (GAD) of People's Liberation Army (PLA),

Means nothing. Manned spacecraft have no useful military role except as easy targets.

[B4Ranch]

I wonder if they named it in honor of the man who authorized their plans being sold the plans. The Honorable 42nd President of these United States, Mr. William Clinton at your service. (for a cash price, of course)

Sickening!

[RightWhale]

I wonder if they named it in honor of the man who authorized their plans being sold the plans

That's like, you know, water under the dam, or water over the bridge, or something. Also underestimates our Eastern friends; they're still some time from catching up, but considering NASA is effectively grounded, they will probably surpass the greatest accomplishments of NASA in a few years, and all on their own. Watch the planets as they turn Red one after another, except Mars, which will be a UN Bioreserve.

Seems strange that America owned outer space and has given it up to whoever without contest. What's up with that? Cost can't be an argument because America is the richest country of all time and China is about to take over and they have been about the poorest country overall, although if they colonize outer space correctly, they won't be poor much longer.

[B4Ranch]

Look at the differences in economic balance. Since NAFTA our has been way out of balance, all the money goes to foreign countries. China, well they are getting the opposite picture. More money going in than coming out. Help explain why we are $3,000,000,000,000.00 (TRILLION) in the hole? Look at our foreign aid output and war costs.

[RightWhale]

$3,000,000,000,000.00 (TRILLION) in the hole

It's worse than even that.

Public debt is about $6 trillion. Private debt is another $6 trillion. Can a country spend itself to prosperity by going into debt? So long as the economy expands almost everyone is happy, but a 2-year recession and counting kind of takes the fun out of it.

NASA is grounded until they figure out what to do with their International Orbiting Black Hole. Space Station Alpha? They should call it Space Station Omega. $30 billion right there doing nothing. $30 billion could build an impressive space infrastructure, bases on the moon and Mars and in between if they do it correctly.

[B4Ranch]

Now look what you did to my day. It's twice as bad as when O woke up! Sheesh, what more are you going to do to me? LOL

[ReveBM]

After reading the stories about the cracks in the Three Gorges dam (somewhere else on FR), I would hate to be the first Chinese astronaut, (or Taikonaut, if you prefer) that goes into space under their program.

..........

...cut to scene somewhere in space, July 2005.

A medium sized space capsule floats among the stars, with a large red Chinese flag on the side.

...the capsule door opens...

Two Chinese taikonauts emerge, wearing space suits not dissimilar to those used by the Russians in years past...

...radio gargle

...one taikonaut radios the other...

TAIKONAUT ZHANG: "Comrade Chen, Comrade Chen, is your headset working?"

TAIKONAUT CHEN: "...Yes Comrade Zhang. It is working. Finally we are in space!"

TAIKONAUT ZHANG: "Yes, it is a truly glorious day for our Motherland! Finally sons of the yellow emperor and representatives of the new socialist man have conquered space, and claim it in the name of the glorious one billion Chinese people."

[live feed captures Zhang's words and beams them to adoring millions in China]

TAIKONAUT CHEN: "Comrade Zhang, I hear a noise. Is it not true that there is supposed to be no sound in space?"

TAIKONAUT ZHANG: "Yes, but we have been told many lies by the devious Americans and incompetent Russians in the past. Now that we are in space we shall expose the reality of space to the Chinese people."

[somewhere in China, a group of government officials watching a wide-screen TV breaks into applause at Zhang's words]

TAIKONAUT ZHANG: "Comrade Chen, can you please describe the sound that you are hearing?"

TAIKONAUT CHEN: "Well, it sounds like a snake. When it hisses."

[Taikonaut Chen spots something and begins flailing about]

TAIKONAUT CHEN: "My suit is leak../

[Transmission of the space broadcast is abruptly cut from a central control area. Because the broadcast was delayed by several seconds my editors, Taikonaut Chen's last words are not seen by the audience. An educational tape on space exploration abruptly replaces the live feed. A closed Chinese politburo session only reads about the disaster many months later]

[MarkWar]

>Look at our foreign aid output and war costs.

Hmmm. Jerry Pournelle -- and others -- like to say that the US crushed the Soviet Union by making them spend till they died trying to keep up with us in space, in arms, and in Southeast Asia. The "Seventy Years War," I believe Pournelle has called it.

With the US already sending so much money overseas, and now all the terrorism costs -- not to mention the indirect terrorism costs, like giving hundreds of millions to North Korea to entice them to be good, etc. -- how long will it be before the US collapses the way the Soviet Union did?!

Mark W.

[zog]

--I think the biggest thing they learned was to quit pharting around with 18 ton mainframe computers and get with miniaturization if they really wanted to go high tech. That and some machining and materials advances. I think they lost 20 years on abandoning the x projects and going to the dumb capsule concept though.

[zog]

--hasn't our own shuttle lauched military satellites before?

[B4Ranch]

I wouldn't be too awful upset if this government just went off in a corner and died. Maybe the next one would keep a copy of the US Constitution in their pockets to refer to once in awhile.

However this is going to be exciting, even if it does mean fighting our way up from the bottom.

[RightWhale]

hasn't our own shuttle lauched military satellites before?

Bottom line, it's the only reason the Space Shuttle still exists. Now that the military is launching all their own satellites, NASA is all but grounded.

[mafree]

Where's Black Jade? He/She pinged me to this thread.

[RightWhale]

I do not know, but Black Jade is somewhere on FR, if not here.

[Plummz]

We could also blame NASA for not doing enough, but that would be misplaced blame. It is Congress that lacks vision

---

What did we get from our space program? How about the ability to tell which brand of watch is on bin Laden's wrist from orbit? The military "payback" is obvious. And, once someone establishes a serious presence in orbit, say at L5, the real economic returns may become, so to speak, astronomical -- don't forget, it costs almost nothing to ship goods down to Earth... (If resources could be gathered, say, from the Moon or from passing asteroids, rather than shipped up from Earthside...)

---

There won't be a free, profitable, commercial manned presence in space as long as Congress keeps NASA's de facto monopoly on outer space in place.

[MarkWar]

>Where's Black Jade? He/She pinged me to this thread.

1) Black Jade is a she.

2) Black Jade put up post #23 here, pinging us, and then the post was pulled.

3) I've seen posts pulled before, but I've never seen a post pulled by a regular who was putting up a serious note. This is a first for me.

Did anyone here get a look at #23? What was the content?

Mark W.

[MarkWar]

>I wouldn't be too awful upset if this government just went off in a corner and died.

Yep. Lots of people share this view. Isn't it odd -- just a few months ago, we were all fighting so hard for this government, and this is what we got for our efforts. [sighs]

Mark W.