China sends man into orbit

[dysfunction]

China has successfully launched its first manned space flight, becoming only the third country to put a man into orbit.

Until now only America and Russia have put men into space.

http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-12826292,00.html

 

[Munkey-]

[15:23] <gremlin> Once aloft, he was said to be "reading a flight manual in the capsule of the Shenzhou V spacecraft and looked composed and at ease". <-- uh, shouldn't he of read the manual *before* being blasted into space?

 

[Sharma]

heh.. Go China! :great:

 

[Testin da Cable]

read about this on cnn. personally I want to see humans realizing the potential that space offers. I hope china will pull finger and work together with other groups and nations that have goals in space. the costs are staggering though (but not as staggering as say....a war :/)

 

[throdgrain]

Well said TDC

 

[darthshearer]

Thats what Buzz Aldrin said this morning

 

[Munkey-]

oh yeah. and the quote i posted was said after reading the BBC one

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/3192330.stm

 

[Deadmanwalking]

But TDC everyone can get involved in a war

 

[~Mobius~]

Exactly TDC ... there is a whole other universe out there and tbh no one seems to give a shit. I saw a programme, 30 things to do before you die and going into space was 25th, swimming with Dolphins was number 1. I cant believe going to space wasnt no.1

 

[Jonny_Darko]

We can't even get someone in a tracksuit up a ladder.

 

[Testin da Cable]

Originally posted by darthshearer
Thats what Buzz Aldrin said this morning

great minds really do think alike then I mentioned the war/cost thing because Mr. Bush intends to have spent One Hundred and Sixty Six Billion dollars in his little war. Ignorant as I am to what it actually costs to build and maintain a space laboratory I imagine that you can get a pretty neat one for the price of a war.

I have no wish to belabor the point too much, but there are things we can do in space and nearby places like the moon and mars (I say nearby, but the time factor due to the distances involved is nearly silly with current technology). We should push for space with everything we have.

 

[Jonny_Darko]

Originally posted by ~Mobius~
Exactly TDC ... there is a whole other universe out there and tbh no one seems to give a shit. I saw a programme, 30 things to do before you die and going into space was 25th, swimming with Dolphins was number 1. I cant believe going to space wasnt no.1

Which'll be all well and good when we can easily get to enough of space for there to be any point. I wouldn't go the way things currently are even if I did have a chance. Yes, seeing Earth from orbit would be amazing, but not amazing enough imo to risk sitting in a tin can surrounded by nothing in the way of atmosphere.

Personally I think we need to find out what's at the bottom of our seas first.

Gimme dolphins any time.

 

[Testin da Cable]

Originally posted by Jonny_Darko
Which'll be all well and good when we can easily get to enough of space for there to be any point. I wouldn't go the way things currently are even if I did have a chance. Yes, seeing Earth from orbit would be amazing, but not amazing enough imo to risk sitting in a tin can surrounded by nothing in the way of atmosphere.

ah, but that's not all of it. you see, personally I have no wish to go up on a rocket just to have a wee look at earth. I'd like to go up because there is work to be done up there. An example may well be the building of a space dock or launch system on the moon or what not (wildly speculating isn't my strong suit).

an example: I hear that 99% or the difficulty of space travel is getting off of earth ie. building craft that are capable. If production could be moved to an orbital station, manpower and materials could be shot up on small, re-usable thingies while the real transporters get built in orbit. with no need to have launch-capable engines that have to function in our atmosphere more on-board space could be given over to living-room, lab-room, spaceflight capable engine room excetera.

it always boils down to cost. cost cost cost. the reason I'm so pleased that China is now manned space-launch capable is that I have a tiny hope that some bright-eyed persons will realise that if all the nations who have space-flight capabilities pull together and work everyone on this planet stands to benefit from the results. my fear is that China will pull into it's shell like they tend to do and keep their cards close to the chest. the scientists all seem to know what should be done, I hope to god that politics doesn't get in the damn way.

 

[Xtro 2.0]

If the cold war hadn't ended we'd probably have had a manned mission to Mars by now, maybe at a slight push have a permanent scientific base on there.

Good on the Chinese, although its strange to think that sometime in the near future the US might still be acting as the daddy of planet Earth and meanwhile China was busily colonising Mars...

Interesting development.

 

[Embattle]

Originally posted by Testin da Cable

an example: I hear that 99% or the difficulty of space travel is getting off of earth ie. building craft that are capable. If production could be moved to an orbital station, manpower and materials could be shot up on small, re-usable thingies while the real transporters get built in orbit. with no need to have launch-capable engines that have to function in our atmosphere more on-board space could be given over to living-room, lab-room, spaceflight capable engine room excetera.

The first real hurdle is the fact it takes so much energy just to get off this planet, as you point out, but there are many more which you run into after this one has finally been conquered.

Well done China but I question the value of this launch.

 

[Testin da Cable]

Originally posted by Xtro 2.0

Good on the Chinese, although its strange to think that sometime in the near future the US might still be acting as the daddy of planet Earth and meanwhile China was busily colonising Mars...

not too far off the mark there I think. I'd have a good laugh if China thumbed their noses at everyone and started large space operations.

I get goosebumps thinking about what the US may do if China gets too far ahead though :/

 

[xane]

Originally posted by Testin da Cable
... and materials could be shot up on small, re-usable thingies while the real transporters get built in orbit.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/2188107.stm

 

[xane]

Originally posted by Embattle
Well done China but I question the value of this launch.

I question the reasons, with the aggressive posturing that China has display continuously over the last few decades, it wouldn't surprize me when they start coming out with ICBMs in the next few years.

Not that it would be applicable once America gets its hypersonic bombers

 

[Any]

Originally posted by Testin da Cable
[BI mentioned the war/cost thing because Mr. Bush intends to have spent One Hundred and Sixty Six Billion dollars in his little war. Ignorant as I am to what it actually costs to build and maintain a space laboratory I imagine that you can get a pretty neat one for the price of a war.
[/B]

About 120Billion dollars for the ISS.

 

[Tom]

The thing is, we don't really have the technology right now to actually do anything and make a profit in space. The only real valuable thing to do is mining, and I would imagine that that would cost trillions to set up.

 

[Embattle]

Originally posted by xane
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/2188107.stm

Read about that a good few years ago, again some of issues involved then still remain today...anchor points for example which in one of the examples is an asteroid

 

[dysfunction]

Originally posted by xane

Not that it would be applicable once America gets its hypersonic bombers

They look cool!!

 

[Testin da Cable]

indeed, possibly the future. also I read loads about spacelifts about a year ago, they're quite nifty but the problems involved are -at this time- tremendous. not insurmountable, just massive.
when I said thingies shot into low orbit, I was thinking more or less of a freight-box with a cheap rocket bolted onto one end. it sould be caught on the way up by a space-only craft, then sent back down again, or even broken down for parts. imagine that! you send up a rocket built of modular parts that gets torn apart and used for the structural components it's made of!

*curbs enthusiasm*

 

[Embattle]

Originally posted by xane
I question the reasons, with the aggressive posturing that China has display continuously over the last few decades, it wouldn't surprize me when they start coming out with ICBMs in the next few years.

Not that it would be applicable once America gets its hypersonic bombers

China has ICBMs, in fact its had them for a while now. The DF-5 with a yield of 5MT and range of 15000KM.

As for the hypersonic craft I'm fairly sure NASA ditched the commercial version so I'm not sure what the state of play would be with this version.

 

[Deadmanwalking]

Originally posted by Testin da Cable
If production could be moved to an orbital station, manpower and materials could be shot up on small, re-usable thingies while the real transporters get built in orbit.

Rather than the Spacelift there was the idea of building all the spacecraft from spacestations in orbit around the earth.

The parts and crew are fired up via reletively cheap shuttles and then assembled in space and launched from there.

 

[sad_mung]

I should imagine that still uses a lot of energy to get them up there.
Best way would be to build a whopping great catapult and whack them out to LEO. Or something. Maybe a big ladder. Or tie a carrot to a donkeys head and point it skywards.

 

[Sharma]

Originally posted by sad_mung
Or tie a carrot to a donkeys head and point it skywards.

Dont forget the mallet.

 

[DaGaffer]

Originally posted by Tom
The thing is, we don't really have the technology right now to actually do anything and make a profit in space. The only real valuable thing to do is mining, and I would imagine that that would cost trillions to set up.

This isn't actually true. The technology for solar power delivery is largely proven - of course the environmentalists would have a field day.

'Mining' doesn't just mean metals, ice and other volatiles can be mined, but interestingly, once you got going, the sheer volume of materials you could get would pay back the initial costs very quickly, but would then drive down the cost of a lot of metals effectively to zero (you can even refine/smelt in space because you've got an unlimited power source). Now, the problem is that commercial operations like the oil/energy/mining companies don't really like something that costs nothing, because it makes it difficult to justify fat profits once you've hit (the very quick) payback. Since the biggest contributors to every US government are precisely these types of companies you can see why (along with the PR hassle from environmentalists/flat earthers) real space exploitation is way down the agenda.

The Chinese thing is good news, because its competition, not cooperation, that stimulates real growth. All this 'lets co-operate in peace, love and harmony' crap justs gets you white elephants like the ISS.

 

[Tom]

Just so you all know, the chinese vehicle has a hatch designed to dock with the ISS.

 

[Testin da Cable]

hmm, I'd say co-operation is the best way to get off the planet quickly, but I agree when you (DaGaffer) say that competition (ergo commercial entities) is needed in space to force maximum utilisation.

I'm trying to get my head around the point you raise re oil/energy/mining companies hindering potential exploration of space for their own gains. I utterly dislike that aspect of commerce -guess it's the hippie in me (ooh err Will would kill me )-. I've heard the same arguement applied to hydrogen fuel cell driven cars and whatnots. It's all too plausible imo, and the shortsighted nature of the view taken by the companies involved causes me to shudder :/