Posted on 12/01/2013 8:03:37 AM PST by Jack Hydrazine
China will tomorrow become the first country in almost 40 years to soft-land a probe on the moon, in a huge step forward for its ambitious space programme.
The nation will become the third in history to launch a lunar probe when the device, named 'Jade Rabbit' after a Chinese folklore character, launches at 5.30pm on Sunday evening, which is 1.30am local time.
The mission forms part of a plan in which China hopes to build a permanent lunar base in order to launch future missions to Mars within the next 15 years.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Before Sputnik, people would’ve said it’s impossible to safely land men on the moon and bring them home.
If we can land on the moon, we could at least orbit Mars.
“There are reasons why we haven’t been back.”
Yep, mainly stupidity, shortsightedness, and misplaced priorities. It looks like the private sector may finally pick up the slack though... ;-)
Reagan would have shot it down and reminded the Chinese about their ASAT launch a few years back.
Ruh roh . . . .
Am I the only one who’s read “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress”?
:o(
I never thought of Rev. Sun Myung Moon dressing up in drag.
LOL!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Moon_Is_a_Harsh_Mistress
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress is a 1966 science fiction novel by American writer Robert A. Heinlein, about a lunar colony’s revolt against rule from Earth. Widely admired for its credible presentation of a comprehensively imagined future human society on both the Earth and the moon, it is generally considered one of Heinlein’s major novels as well as one of the most important science fiction novels ever written.[1]
Originally serialized in Worlds of If (December 1965, January, February, March, April 1966), the book received the Hugo Award for best science fiction novel in 1967,[2] and was nominated for the Nebula Award in 1966.[3]
Found a launch video!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_zkXd6mUqg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9kUf8-JTOY
Has English translation
Lunar probe sep.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQkoNtGmzAU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hElwYF1-ME
In related news...
Spanish are sending a rover to the Moon to win Google’s Lunar X-Prize. Chinese will take them in 2014.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StPD5BmztpY
Chagrined that the Chinese are probably going to have a base on the moon before we finally get a handle on getting a manned program going again.
remember the day when there would be a betting pool on whether the Chinese mission
1- gets off the ground
2- reaches space
3- manages to hit the moon
?
Hold it. Didn’t America land a man on the moon first? And didn’t he unfurl and post a flag there? Well, then the moon is US territory. They can’t build a lunar base without US permission.
I guess you could say that. What are those sayings?
“Blab it and grab it.”
“Name it and claim it.”
Both China and Russia have made it clear that they intend to use such bases for military purposes. What good did it do us to get to the moon first - we are just letting them take it over.
What good to get us there first?
Political points and prestige.
Will the GOP raise the NASA issue, will they promise to restart Space Exploration or will they fail even to point out that we can’t even launch a freakin website under REGRESSIVE DEMOCRATS.....REGRESSIVE AS IN REGRESSING FROM FAMILY TO HOMOSEXUALITY, FROM LEADING TO FOLLOWING ...FROM BEING THE FIRST TO WALK ON THE MOON TO REGRESSING TO SPECTATOR STATUE.!!!!!
What good did it do us to get to the moon first?
We got the good parking spots.
My complaint is that we have squandered the opportunity that we had, and they are going to establish bases that will give them military advantages over us.
We really should beat them to this. I know there are more terrestrial matters on all our minds, but, come on.
No.
There is little doubt about that.
A lunar station would have been the next logical
step.
I always wanted to fly Pan-Am to the moon.
We can thank LBJ for ending all that with his
“Great Society” scheme.
“What the moon landings ought to have taught us (and indeed did at the time) was that where there’s a will, there’s a way. A compelling reason to Mars ought to get mankind there in some way.”
The problem is there’s no compelling reason to send humans to Mars. We’ve got robots there, which are vastly increasing our knowledge. Human exploration would contribute little more, at vast expense for another “we got there first moment” with no commitment or followup. With the current state of space technology, a Mars colony is a pipe dream.
People need to stop seeing the Moon as a worthless destination. The Moon is a natural space station that’s conveniently nearby, and an ideal spaceport for interplanetary travel. It’s also graced by unlimited energy, and no concern about pollution from heavy industry. We really have little idea what natural resources may be there (treasure!), but we know there’s significant water. Due to its lack of atmosphere, the Moon is an ideal platform for shipping cargo to Earth, just as described in “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress”.
The Moon is just as inviting a habitable world as Mars, the only drawback being 1/6 G instead of 1/3 G. Due to NASA incompetence, we still don’t know how much gravity is required for reasonably good human health - but centrifuges could take up the slack at least during sleep.
The compelling reason to colonize the Moon first and then go from there, is the Moon is anywhere from 145 to 530 times closer than Mars, depending on where the Earth and Mars are in their orbits. Transit times are just too long to Mars until we have nuclear powered spacecraft. Colonizing the Moon would give us the experience and technology to take the next step.
“Unfortunately, we seem to have lost much of that national will since the long, cold slide into liberalism started in the 1960s.”
I think it will take a partnership between the government and private companies like SpaceX. The Moon is a compelling destination, when you’re relaxing in your below-ground lunar hotel suite the only way you’ll know it’s not Honolulu is the delightfully low gravity... ;-)
I think a purely government effort to start a permanent base due to military needs is also justifiable - particularly given the stated intentions of the Russians and especially the Chinese.
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