The New Space Race? U.S. vs. China

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  • January 3, 2009 at 12:28 am #5158
    Rob_Hugo@PortNW
    Keymaster

    For those of us who are old enough to remember the space race between the U.S. and the Soviet Union several decades ago, the online article at the link below speculates that the space race is about to be revived but with a new player: China.

    The article speaks about President-Elect Obama's potential decisions concerning U.S. space travel. Specifically, the article says that Obama's transition team is exploring the possibility of having NASA partner with the U.S. Defense Department to facilitate space exploration while a new generation of NASA spacecraft is under development.

    The idea is to use DOD rockets to help NASA missions travel to space and minimize NASA's current dependence on hitching a ride into space on Russian spacecraft. The motivation is that China is becoming increasingly successful with space travel and could become too proficient for U.S. comfort while U.S. space vehicles and missions are treading water (so to speak).

    Here's a link to the article for those who are interested.

    Chuck

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomberg/20090102/pl_bloomberg/aovrno0oj41g%5BEdit by="cmayfield on Jan 3, 8:29:01 AM"][/Edit]

    January 4, 2009 at 9:12 am #29635
    Anonymous
    Guest

    No complaints on more funding for NASA!

    But, I like the comment: “If China puts a man on the moon, that in itself isn’t necessarily a threat to the U.S.,” said Dean Cheng, a senior Asia analyst with CNA Corp., an Alexandria, Virginia-based national-security research firm. “But it would suggest that China had reached a level of proficiency in space comparable to that of the United States.”

  • Threat to the US? What will the future, theoretical, Chinese moonwalker do to the US--look at North America?
  • Comparable to the US? Yeah, but it will take us something like 10 years to return to this level of proficiency.
  • Useful for the US to compete in this way? Probably not--I think the unmanned missions have a lot more scientific usefulness
January 8, 2009 at 8:45 pm #29636
Anonymous
Guest

I think that the exploration of space, or China sending a man to the moon, is exciting. Technology is taking leaps and bounds, and the last ten years has just been an explosion of technology is amazing. And like most developments or inventions, the more who get involved the further we go. There is always the new and improved, and there is always another way to look something. The new and improved is often more cost effective and more effecient.

January 9, 2009 at 11:24 am #29637
Anonymous
Guest

Well I have issue with so much talk and fight over space travel when we are plagued with so many issues on the earth. If China is doing well as a country, let them have at it. What good are we if we have starving people in our midst, and yet we are planning to spend time and money trying to - explore other venues - all for what? We (America) should set the standard and let well enough (not even well enough) - leave competitive space exploration alone.

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