China in space.

On Fri, 17 Oct 2003 19:00:48 GMT, "Ed Majden"
wrote:


"Kevin Brooks"
I am much more impressed by the Chinese effort to compete in the
commercial launch business than I am in this
reminiscent-of-the-early-sixties propoganda ploy.If they were really
interested in scientific advances, they would continue with their
launch business and join the ISS effort, instead of repeating the
feats of others forty years after the fact.

I somehow doubt that they were asked or invited to join the ISS effort.
As for progress, you must learn to crawl before you can walk. ESA in Europe
did this with their launch facilities. Indeed, they have not put a man in
space but they don't have the deep pockets that the USA has. If news
stories are correct China plans on building their own space station and
perhaps sending a man to the Moon. The USA program to do this was a
propaganda stunt at the time. Beat the Soviets at all costs. There were of
course scientific spin-offs but if science was the primary goal, why did
they only send one planetary geologist to the Moon?

The moon flights were certainly propaganda. There is nothing left to
learn from manned lunar shots. I certainly hope that the Chinese will
not waste the human lives and tremendous resources that such a mission
would entail.

Al Minyard

"Ed Majden" wrote in message news:A%Wjb.114508$9l5.38880@pd7tw2no...
"Kevin Brooks"
I am much more impressed by the Chinese effort to compete in the
commercial launch business than I am in this
reminiscent-of-the-early-sixties propoganda ploy.If they were really
interested in scientific advances, they would continue with their
launch business and join the ISS effort, instead of repeating the
feats of others forty years after the fact.

I somehow doubt that they were asked or invited to join the ISS effort.
As for progress, you must learn to crawl before you can walk. ESA in Europe
did this with their launch facilities. Indeed, they have not put a man in
space but they don't have the deep pockets that the USA has. If news
stories are correct China plans on building their own space station and
perhaps sending a man to the Moon. The USA program to do this was a
propaganda stunt at the time. Beat the Soviets at all costs. There were of
course scientific spin-offs but if science was the primary goal, why did
they only send one planetary geologist to the Moon?


Can't blame the Chinese for this one. They've asked repeatedly to
join the ISS but they were rejected with a prompt "No Chinese allowed"
dismissal, mainly from the US.

The Europeans are sidestepping American disapproval of any
cooperation with the Chinese by engaging them in the European-led
Gallileo project instead of ISS. It's a shame really.

http://msnbc.com/news/979759.asp?0sl=-43

"China charts
its next steps
in outer space
Beijing lays groundwork for
spacewalks, experiments
and its own space station
COMMENTARY
By James Oberg
NBC NEWS SPACE ANALYST"

In article ,
Kevin Brooks wrote:
I am much more impressed by the Chinese effort to compete in the
commercial launch business than I am in this
reminiscent-of-the-early-sixties propoganda ploy.If they were really
interested in scientific advances, they would continue with their
launch business and join the ISS effort, instead of repeating the
feats of others forty years after the fact.

Eh? You mentioned "scientific advances" and "ISS" in the same sentence.
I'm not entirely sure I see any relationship between scientific advances
and Fredovitch.

OTOH, China is launching Double Star as a joint mission with ESA
in the fairly near future as an add-on/follow-on to Cluster II, and
that is a mission which should provide significant scientific gain.

OTOH#2, Long March looks to be shaping up to being one of the more
useful launchers, possibly trailing only Vostok and Proton.

--
Andy Breen ~ Interplanetary Scintillation Research Group
http://users.aber.ac.uk/azb/
"Who dies with the most toys wins" (Gary Barnes)

In article ,
ANDREW ROBERT BREEN wrote:
OTOH#2, Long March looks to be shaping up to being one of the more
useful launchers, possibly trailing only Vostok and Proton.

oops.

s/Soyuz/Vostok.

--
Andy Breen ~ Interplanetary Scintillation Research Group
http://users.aber.ac.uk/azb/
"Time has stopped, says the Black Lion clock
and eternity has begun" (Dylan Thomas)

(ANDREW ROBERT BREEN) wrote in message ...
In article ,
Kevin Brooks wrote:
I am much more impressed by the Chinese effort to compete in the
commercial launch business than I am in this
reminiscent-of-the-early-sixties propoganda ploy.If they were really
interested in scientific advances, they would continue with their
launch business and join the ISS effort, instead of repeating the
feats of others forty years after the fact.

Eh? You mentioned "scientific advances" and "ISS" in the same sentence.
I'm not entirely sure I see any relationship between scientific advances
and Fredovitch.

Check for myopia, then. ISS is already providing scientific data; see
spaceflight.nasa.gov/station/ for info on current and past research
conducted on the station. It is a whale of a lot more likely to
provide scientific advances than the PRC's spam-in-a-can propoganda
ploy.


OTOH, China is launching Double Star as a joint mission with ESA
in the fairly near future as an add-on/follow-on to Cluster II, and
that is a mission which should provide significant scientific gain.

Wonderful. Maybe had they invested some of the resources dedicated to
this little pointless jaunt into this and similar programs, they might
be getting better results.


OTOH#2, Long March looks to be shaping up to being one of the more
useful launchers, possibly trailing only Vostok and Proton.

You must have missed the "I am much more impressed by the Chinese
effort to compete in the commercial launch business..." bit I
mentioned earlier. And BTW, Vostok is not a launcher.

Brooks