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| China-Japan-Koreas | |
| China plans unmanned moon mission by 2007 | |
| 2005-08-16 | |
| BEIJING - China plans to launch its first unmanned lunar flight by 2007 in a three-phase mission that aims to bring back rock samples, state media said on Tuesday. In the second stage, a lunar vehicle would land on the moon by 2012 and by 2017 the rock samples could be collected, the report said quoting aerospace officials. âScientists hope to get to know the moonâs environment and analyse the composition of lunar rocks,â the China Daily quoted Luan Enjie, chief commander of Chinaâs lunar exploration programme, as saying. China has developed an ambitious space programme since its first Long March rocket blasted off in 1970. It became the third country to successfully send a man into space in October 2003 and regularly sends up research satellites. Chinaâs lunar orbiter weighed more than two tonnes and was expected to fly for a year, collecting information for a mapping of the moonâs surface and studying its mineral content, Luan said. He did not say when China might be sending an astronaut to the moon, but said the 2017 mission would provide data for a manned expedition.
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| Posted by:Steve White |
| #13 LOL ....PD's feeling spunky today |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-08-16 20:01 |
| #12 Ya saved 'em billions. Who sez RB isn't awesome? Say "thank you", you fucking commies. |
| Posted by: .com 2005-08-16 18:57 |
| #11 âScientists hope to get to know the moonâs environment and analyse the composition of lunar rocks Okay, let me save you some money, it damn near a vaccuum, the oldest rocks are like some thingy in the Canadian Maritimes. Cold too! Unless it's real hot. The Darksides not really dark, it's more of a New Orleans atmosphere, dark, yet weird, if you catch my drift. Safe? Hardly. |
| Posted by: Bruce Sagan 2005-08-16 18:52 |
| #10 Is it unmanned both ways, or just when coming back? |
| Posted by: Laurence of the Rats 2005-08-16 17:46 |
| #9 Is 2007 the Year of the Loon? |
| Posted by: Captain America 2005-08-16 17:14 |
| #8 Well. Thirty-seven years after we landed unmanned probes (Surveyor) on the moon, the Chinese are about to follow? What progress! |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2005-08-16 15:48 |
| #7 I don't understand why they just don't steal our moon rocks. It'd be faster and cheaper, and illegality has never stopped them before. |
| Posted by: Spot 2005-08-16 10:12 |
| #6 anee nyoos on em iranian spase proegrams? |
| Posted by: muck4doo 2005-08-16 01:57 |
| #5 NASA's pretty ho-hum. To my mind, the race is between a private US corporation and the Chinese. |
| Posted by: Dishman 2005-08-16 01:01 |
| #4 Hoo-hum for the NASA, but the real prob for China is its rigid Socialist econ supp such lunar ambitions without effective de-regulation. America will be on Mars or beyond by the time China is capable of affording routine space flight to Terra Luna. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2005-08-16 00:36 |
| #3 I'm wondering why Japan hasn't jumped into this race. Its unmanned program is a lot like NASA's and the ESA's. They are also ahead in several key technologies, like small nuclear reactors. http://www.jaxa.jp/index_e.html |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2005-08-16 00:36 |
| #2 The key word is "unmanned". Unmanned is easy - it's the manned part that is tough. Note that the manned version has a target date of 2017. That's almost 50 years after the Apollo missions. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2005-08-16 00:18 |
| #1 Hey...they bought it from the Clinton administration fair and square. The reason I voted against Al Gore in 2000 was the Clinonistas' dismal record regarding China and technology sales... |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2005-08-16 00:14 |