China sends man into orbit

[DaGaffer]

Originally posted by Testin da Cable
hmm, I'd say co-operation is the best way to get off the planet quickly, ...<snip>

Well, it wasn't the first time around - we'd still be talking about going to the Moon today if it wasn't for the one-upmanship of the cold war.

I just don't think co-operation is sexy from a public point-of-view; you have to appeal to basic human nature - greed and patriotism (as in 'my tribe's better than yours and we're going to grab the good stuff first') because "the spirit of scientific enquiry", despite 30-odd years of Star Trek (and lets be honest we all prefer the episodes with fighting in them), doesn't get the public all aquiver with excitement.

 

[~Lazarus~]

Originally posted by DaGaffer
Well, it wasn't the first time around - we'd still be talking about going to the Moon today if it wasn't for the one-upmanship of the cold war.

I just don't think co-operation is sexy from a public point-of-view; you have to appeal to basic human nature - greed and patriotism (as in 'my tribe's better than yours and we're going to grab the good stuff first') because "the spirit of scientific enquiry", despite 30-odd years of Star Trek (and lets be honest we all prefer the episodes with fighting in them), doesn't get the public all aquiver with excitement.

so...I assume that you are of the mind that we DID send someone to the moon (and ultimately landed on the moon)

 

[DaGaffer]

Don't start. Just...don't

 

[~Lazarus~]

Originally posted by DaGaffer
Don't start. Just...don't

:lol:

 

[Testin da Cable]

lol

I'm just not commercially orientated at all. I know matters have to be viable and all that, but I prefer to think of going to space for the good of humanity rather than it happening to be an ideal place to make a profit.

a good example would be the space lift article posted earlier in this thread. one of the first things mentioned is the cost, directly followed by the potential for massive returns and that the operator of the first lift will "own" space for a period of 50 years or so. By "owning" I guess they mean that they set the price, which means that even the janitors will drive lambourginis. I just can't get with that. Perhaps I should become a communist

 

[~Lazarus~]

Originally posted by Testin da Cable
lol

I'm just not commercially orientated at all. I know matters have to be viable and all that, but I prefer to think of going to space for the good of humanity rather than it happening to be an ideal place to make a profit.

Jeez tdc, you make it sound like you think they are only going to space to open the first Chinese restaurant.

 

[kameleon]

Trust DaGaffer to think of commercial purposes. I have to say I'm with you TdC, but to be honest until the planet realises we a earthlings and not nation states then it will allways be about one-upman(space)ship.

 

[SilverHood]

well done to the chinese.

maybe the yanks are gonna pull their finger out now that they have real competition in space.. couldn't have the U S of A being second best, could we?

 

[Testin da Cable]

Originally posted by ~Lazarus~
Jeez tdc, you make it sound like you think they are only going to space to open the first Chinese restaurant.

sure they are! they're also going there for a myriad other reasons, some of which will benefit us. space is the place to be.

Originally posted by kameleon
Trust DaGaffer to think of commercial purposes

and rightly so. building and operating a spacefaring industry isn't somehting that happens magically however much I wish it to be. the costs involved are unimaginable, as are the difficulties and dangers. It's logical that there should be a return or we will not be able to make it happen. by the time someone gets on a spaceship as easilly as someone today gets on a plane costs should have normalised somewhat, but now we're really talking about the future.

 

[Any]

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

Could this be because it is based on the Soyuz and not becuase the Chinese think they will be docking with the ISS?

 

[rynnor]

Originally posted by Any
Could this be because it is based on the Soyuz and not becuase the Chinese think they will be docking with the ISS?

Surely it makes sense if everyone uses pretty standard docking equipment in case of emergencies anyway?

On space I think the main goal should be to develop other self sustaining biospheres wherever we can through the solar system - Mars being the obvious first target though some of jupiters moons may be usable also.

The ISS could enable the assembly of a suitable craft though the distance is tremendous compared to the quick hop to the moon.

It would be a tragedy if our species was wiped out due to a single natural or man made catastrophe - to spread through the solar system would allow us to avoid any single extinction event (except the sun going supernovae but I dont think its likely).

edit - typo

 

[DaGaffer]

errm, I'm not thinking of commercial purposes! I desperately want us to go in to space for all the 'just coz its there' reasons. I also think the economic arguments alone won't cut it (for now) but that baser human instincts like pride and jealousy probably will

 

[mr.Blacky]

Instead of using conventional cargo rockets (which will still cost lots of money) a cheaper way would be just to shoot it up with a canon (see the supergun designer of Sadam) or using lasers to shoot up the cargo (already been worked on but lowbudget)
Both would mean lower cost (no need to take the fuel with you)

 

[SilverHood]

there was a thing on BBC the other month, about terraforming. Said it would take a couple of hundred years to make mars a green planet with oceans and an atmosphere.

The thing with exploration is - the people who do it, do it for fame, and money.

The people who sponser it, do it for the money only.
But it's still cozy on earth... I'd give it another 50 years before we see big orbital space stations in the works

 

[Lester]

They should put all the equipment on the end of a see-saw and get the Chinese to jump on the end of it.

 

[Delboy]

I desperately want us to go in to space for all the 'just coz its there' reasons.

Aye, but there's nothing there at all!

It's just space.

Right?!? (/me scratches head)

 

[Delboy]

Does anyone know how extensive the technology transfers where from the western countries to China? If that's the case then were talking about cooperation after all, it just isnt as obvious.

 

[ECA]

The chinese have a 4 stage space plan.

I can't remember if they intend to have a space station or intend to go straight to moonbase from manned flights, but moon base is definately #4.


MOONBASE OMG! UFO/CAPTAIN SCARLET/ETC :X

 

[~Mobius~]

Wont somebody think of the martians?!

 

[mr.Blacky]

Women are from Venus and men are from Mars...If China would colonize Mars would that make us all chinese

 

[Ch3tan]

Originally posted by Lester
They should put all the equipment on the end of a see-saw and get the Chinese to jump on the end of it.

LOL. You realise although the the resulting Earthquakes would be devastating

It's good that another nation has joined exploration of Space, maybe things will progress a bit faster now. Lets just hope they don't put even more junk and debris in orbit before the figure out a way to make it all pay.

 

[sad_mung]

It wouldn't suprise me if they are only doing it because they found out it's cheaper to stick all their political prisoners on a big asteroid heading for the sun, or something.

 

[dysfunction]

Originally posted by SilverHood
there was a thing on BBC the other month, about terraforming. Said it would take a couple of hundred years to make mars a green planet with oceans and an atmosphere.

You wouldnt have to terraform the entire planet in one go. You would create small bio spheres to live in. A bit like the Eden Project. And while you live in those you get working on transforming the planet.

 

[Embattle]

This really isn't exploring space to be honest, even the missions to the moon are hardly anything when compared to the scale of our Solar system let alone the Galaxy.

The moon is only some 235,000 miles from the Earth which seems fairly huge but if we compare that to the distance of the Earth from the Sun, which is 93m miles (1 AU), its not that fair at all. In fact lets go to Jupiter which sits some 390m miles (4.2 AU) from Earth and to reach the last planet, Pluto, you would have to travel some 3580m miles (38.5 AU) from Earth. Only a few spacecraft have been past here and it took Voyager 2 12 years travelling at 38,000 mph to reach Neptune (29.1 AU from Earth), which was only possible due to the way the planets were aligned so the spacecraft could use the slingshot effect.

 

[dysfunction]

Warp drive required.

Pls thx

 

[DaGaffer]

Originally posted by dysfunction
Warp drive required.

Pls thx

Nah - this'll do for now: http://www.space.com/sciencefiction/space_battleship_000121.html

 

[Embattle]

http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/m2p2_winglee_010621.html

 

[DaGaffer]

"Most of the solar sail technologies we are looking at now are at tech readiness level four, which means we have some laboratory demonstrations of the technology," he said. M2P2 is at a lower level of readiness for the moment,...

Too far away. We want ATOM BOMBS as fuel and we want them NOW!

 

[Sichama]

I hope this planet explodes before we find another place to go.

 

[Delboy]

Maybe the Vogons WILL make that Hyperspace bypass sooner than you think......