China's first space flight

I bet the guys at SETI will detect an increase in the amount of slurping in space.

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I think it'll take them longer than that, and I'm not really convinced they have that sort of appetite.

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Could be. Then again, first person on mars... etc. Lots of possibilities in space...

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<i><font color=black>Faithless</font color=black></i> is he that says farewell when the road darkens.
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Yeah, but that would take decades for them to get their space program that far. They'd also have to launch their own probes to study the atmosphere and surface, as I can't exactly see NASA playing the friendly neighbour and letting them have access to all their documents!

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Lets see how they react when they have their first accident and people die. Will they do what NASA did or go on with thier program?

Of course they'll go on with their program. One of the advantages of having central government. Plus the reason NASA does'nt want to go on using space shuttles is because they are, were from the moment of their creation, an inpractical technology. Rockets are cheaper and safer. Untill someone develops a better system, rockets are the way to go.

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<i><font color=black>Faithless</font color=black></i> is he that says farewell when the road darkens.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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I'm not convinced that China has either the capability or desire to execute a planned mission to Mars. They're more likely to put their resources towards their military and technological capabilities.

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Personally I think it's a good thing. Some competition might fuel both Russia and the USA to spend some more money on their own programs.

The problem that I see here is that I haven't heard of China putting forth a clear scientific mission. I don't believe that they are doing this for science at all. They appear to be doing this just for national pride. That doesn't do anyone any good.

Furthermore, I don't see China spending the Billions and Billions of dollars to keep this program going. Putting one man into orbit for 21 hours is the equivalent of our mercury program 42 years ago. Just put a man on top of some fuel and let the fuel burn. It's an accomplishment no doubt, but it really doesn't do anything for mankind. We've been there and done that. What we can hope for is that China uses the momentum of this mission for more productive scientific reasearch and development.

China is by no means ready to put a man on the moon let alone mars. Russia and the USA will have a man on Mars within a decade if all goes well. This isn't about putting your mind to anything. This is about 1000's of people putting their mind to things, a huge budget, and the perserverence to survive the many accidents and setbacks that are to come.

China is more in competition with Carmack than they are with Russia or the USA. China isn't going to have a space station, a hubble telescope, or anything that is particularly usefull within our lifetimes. That doesn't impress me. I just hope it spurs the USA and Russia into action.

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This is not true. The orbiter program was revolutionary since each unit could be reused. What they have been doing since then is trying to develop a one stage orbiter that is even more practical. Right now it costs roughly $10,000 per pound of cargo. X programs like the X33 was supposed to lead to the Venture star orbiter which would cost $1000 per pount of cargo but funding was cut and the program was put on hold. The orbiters were designed in the 70's and never were planned to have been used for so long.

We're trying to get beyond rockets. Not go back to them.

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Science or national propaghanda?

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I'm just curious, but what does any of what you wrote above have to do with putting a man in orbit?

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It is a statement to their people. Saying we are becoming technologically independent. It is also a step towards building what I mentioned in my post.

If you could think beyond your prejudices, you'd understand that.

My prejudices? What exactly is China doing besides making a political statement? How does putting a man in orbit for 21 hours help with any of the projects you stated before?

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<font color=red>12 bit... The way games are meant to be played!</font color=red><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by dhlucke on 10/15/03 12:52 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

Damn Right they are!

The new systems is supposed to be better though, as in it takes less bandwidth, gives quicker responses and is more accurate. It will also be under civilian administration, so no BUSH saying I wanna attack Bulgeria. I nearly choked on their unamerican chocolates. <font color=purple>*WHISPER* Thats belgium sir! They make the chocolates *WHISPER*.</font color=purple> Well, bomb both of them, and bomb france too. They must have known those chocolates are unamerican.

American General: You heard the man! First turn off their GPS access!

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LOL. The onion is great. Haven't been there in a while.

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We should, of course , move beyond rockets. But so far, no other system is more practical. The shuttles sucked plain and simple. The reason they kept going was political more than economical.

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<i><font color=black>Faithless</font color=black></i> is he that says farewell when the road darkens.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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<A HREF="http://www.futron.com/pdf/FutronLaunchCostWP.pdf" target="_new"> Link </A>
Even if you don't take into account chinese and russian rockets. The Shuttle is 2x the price per pound of the Ariane and Atlas rockets.
The shuttle is reusable, but needs a major overhaul after every launch. A rocket is cheap to build and the module for astronauts is reusable. All you need to build is a big cylinder. Plus, you use less fuel. The big advantage of the shuttle is it's space, you can do experiments etc. But we have a space station for that.

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<i><font color=black>Faithless</font color=black></i> is he that says farewell when the road darkens.
J. R. R. Tolkien
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I don't have acrobat installed but I believe your cost figures. The russians couldn't afford their own shuttles and cosmonauts went with the orbiters for scientific missions. I'm not sure how important the versatility of the shuttle is for the construction of the space station but I think you're right that the shuttle isn't going to very usefull when the ISS is complete. I would hope that they could do satelite repairs etc from the station.

I'm personally against both the rockets and the orbiters. I really wish they wouldn't have scrapped the x33 program. I loved that thing.

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