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China-Japan-Koreas
China's space program shoots for moon, Mars, Venus
2011-07-16
[Dawn] This year, a rocket will carry a boxcar-sized module into orbit, the first building block for a Chinese space station. Around 2013, China plans to launch a lunar probe that will set a rover loose on the moon. It wants to put a man on the moon, sometime after 2020.

While the United States is still working out its next move after the space shuttle program, China is forging ahead. Some experts worry the US could slip behind China in human spaceflight _ the realm of space science with the most prestige.

"Space leadership is highly symbolic of national capabilities and international influence, and a decline in space leadership will be seen as symbolic of a relative decline in US power and influence," said Scott Pace, an associate NASA administrator in the George W. Bush administration. He was a supporter of Bush's plan _ shelved by President Barack Obama _ to return Americans to the moon.
Posted by:Fred

#13  The space program is a waste of money until we have a cheap means of propulsion. This is the equivalent of trying to discover the Indies, back in the day, using muscle-powered Mediterranean galleys. Lavish funding to check out the military possibilities when the Soviets were investigating that frontier made sense - it wouldn't have done to have them steal a march. My sense is that we'll have to pay careful attention to what the Chinese are doing - if it is militarily significant, we may have to gin up yet another moon-landing-style effort to prevent them from obtaining a military advantage.
Posted by: Zhang Fei   2011-07-16 22:55  

#12  I don't like this idea of poten long lead times between post-Shuttle US programs - too easy for ous Space Boyz-Gals to forget + lose vital skills.

I stil would like for NASA-JPL in to inquire about bringing the Soviet shuttles ENERGIA + BURAN back to CONUS, refurbish or rewire 'em, + then use them finally for the ISS, etc.
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2011-07-16 20:57  

#11  g(r)omgoru, the Soviet Union has a lot of space history to be proud of. But in the last decade they have proclaimed Mars missions and any number of other schemes they had no money or will to follow up on. Same goes for China. Its nice to see them getting men up into space and all but claims of Mars and Venus are just propaganda for a domestic audience and a world with a short attention span.
Posted by: rjschwarz   2011-07-16 19:59  

#10  Hey BigJim hows that job working out. I wondered when you would drop in. "Que Sera Sera the futures not ours to see". The futures one day at a time thank goodness. The future is in space. I'm a big H. G. Wells fan and Jules Vern. That day will come if we survive this day. We must reach for the stars.
To be everything we could be and never ending.
Posted by: Dale   2011-07-16 17:06  

#9  I see little commercial opportunities in space travel, save giving space taxi rides to wealthy dumbassess. It is an will be primarily a military zone to be controlled for a long time.
Posted by: bigjim-CA   2011-07-16 16:01  

#8  ..wasn't so much fools for providing the Russians the cash as much as continuing the program that had no functional justification but ego.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2011-07-16 15:01  

#7  you know how many American billions [much of which disappeared] went into propping up the Russian space program in the 90s

The more fools you are.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2011-07-16 14:37  

#6  We have ceded much of our manufacturing to China. We borrow money so we can buy stuff from China. They are getting wealthier and wealthier and we are getting broker and broker and in debt to China. No wonder we are making our last venture into space. We will have to rent from the Russians, rely on the Chinese, or private business. Our space program has become a feel-good program to build muslim self-esteem. Our government has spent us into economic chaos.
Posted by: JohnQC   2011-07-16 14:01  

#5  well, it's nice that their space program is actually focusing on things like, sayyyyy SPACE, rather than "reaching out to the Muslim world"
Posted by: Frank G   2011-07-16 13:08  

#4  Our long term interests in space will be much better served by private entrepreneurs who can respond to the market or go bankrupt when they don't than by an ossifying bureaucracy that can no longer do what it could 50 years ago.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble   2011-07-16 12:51  

#3  ..you know how many American billions [much of which disappeared] went into propping up the Russian space program in the 90s? Had that not happen the last shuttle would have been turning out the lights as they departed. To turn around a phrase from the Right Stuff - No bucks, no Buck Rodgers.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2011-07-16 10:42  

#2  rjschwarz, can you tell we who launched the first (artificial) satellite, put the first man in space? Who has space station, now. You see, the thing about autocratic, nationalist regimes is that---occasionally---they pursue long national interest.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2011-07-16 10:18  

#1  Not that they might not do it, but the Chinese and Russian are always proclaiming great space plans that are never followed through until the next time they make a different announcement.
Posted by: rjschwarz   2011-07-16 09:25  

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