Chinese moon base

[Onefella]

Read with interest about yesterday's Chinese Moon Rover launch. Apparently they're pretty serious about a manned mission by 2020 and a permanent base not too far in future.




From

Chinese scientists are hopeful the moon may offer up other treasures such as rare metals and Helium-3, a potential fusion energy source. China's ultimate aim is to use the moon as a "springboard" for deep space exploration, said Luan Enjie, a senior adviser to China's lunar program, in the China Daily newspaper.

That should stir the Yanks up. Might be just the impetus they need to renew interest in their space program. Hell, for the money they've spent on wars since 2000 they probably could have had a shuttle service to Mars by now.

[trash]

If they're sensible about it they won't bother and they will actually offer the Chinese some help.
Let the Chinese have the glory, let them take the risk and spend the money.
In return, they get the science. Its better than sending monkeys to the moon. Errrrr.

Reality is we're pretty much stuck on this planet. I'm cheering for the Chinese and hoping that they can do something.

The question was asked by the Planetary Society, if you had $10 billion to spend on space exploration.... How would you spend it ?

[AKRYPTO]

Yep there is a lot of bad stuff out there beyond the magnetosphere, different types of particles to bombard your body and cells. 10 billion ? hey why not build a new wing on the ISS.

[Onefella]

Let the Chinese have the glory

Somehow I don't think the USA would be that magnanimous. Their all-pervasive 'national pride' would get in the way.

It will be interesting to see if the Yanks are happy to rest on their laurels.

I see the European Space Agency is happy to work with the Chinese though.

Good luck to the Chinese. I don't care who gets into space exploration, as long as they're out there doing it.

I might go and enroll in Mandarin classes.

It is useful to distinguish among four factors which give importance, urgency, and inevitability to the advancement of space technology.

The first of these factors is the compelling urge of man to explore and to discover, the thrust of curiosity that leads men to try to go where no one has gone before. Most of the surface of the earth has now been explored and men now turn to the exploration of outer space as their next objective.

Second, there is the defense objective for the development of space technology. We wish to be sure that space is not used to endanger our security. If space is to be used for military purposes, we must be prepared to use space to defend ourselves.

Third, there is the factor of national prestige. To be strong and bold in space technology will enhance the prestige of the United States among the peoples of the world and create added confidence in our scientific, technological, industrial, and military strength.

Fourth, space technology affords new opportunities for scientific observation and experiment which will add to our knowledge and understanding of the earth, the solar system, and the universe.

Dwight D. Eisenhower 1958

[gordon_s1942]

This venture explains why they have altered the 'One Child Policy'.

[trash]

I tend to think of it in terms of what do we want most and why ? Or, What gives us the best returns for the money or the best probability of results ?

Without unrealistic Star Trek type expectations I generally break it down.
If we ignore the cost of getting into space; What would you do then with $10 billion if you didn't have to pay for launch costs ?

The search for extraterrestrial life would be high on our list of priorities. And I don't mean little green men or other classical alien stereotypes.
Just the recovery of extraterrestrial microbes has huge potential to yield a lot of information.
So my priority would be on attempting to find any other life in our own solar system. The obvious candidates are Mars and the moons of Jupiter and Saturn.

The various space agencies are obviously well on top of this already. Though I'm not sure about what experiments they have on board the rovers or probes for it.
Results haven't been promising to date. I would think one of the experiments might be a simple optical microscope on a robotic arm that can extend to the ground or the surface of a rock.

My focus would be Europa. While it would be nice to put a probe under the ice, putting a lander on Europe close to a place where subsurface water vents to the surface and then collecting samples from there.
I'd even consider multiple landers for each of the candidate moons. The first sign of any kind of life and I'd ramp up the priority for a sample return mission.

It's easier to get samples off the moons than it is to get them off the surface of Mars, but it's easier to return them from Mars orbit than it is from Jupiter or Saturn orbits to get the samples back to Earth orbit.

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I'd also consider a high velocity gravitational slingshot experimental satellite. It would require some careful planning, but sling shoting a small probe with a larger fuel payload.
Something like using an earth-moon-earth kick and then multiple earth kicks off to Jupiter/Saturn/Sun kicks before a final big kick from Jupiter.
The point to get the probe to leave the solar system at the highest velocity possible. Experiments on board like high accuracy clocks to help keep very accurate track of where the probe is.
Some other interesting small experiments like having on board lasers for experimental deep space communications. Also a simple deep space cosmic ray observatory on board.

Cheaper probes that can do lots of interesting science and get big results if they do pay off.

[CDNeely]

My focus would be Europa. While it would be nice to put a probe under the ice, putting a lander on Europe close to a place where subsurface water vents to the surface and then collecting samples from there.
I'd even consider multiple landers for each of the candidate moons. The first sign of any kind of life and I'd ramp up the priority for a sample return mission.

I think Europa is a good choice. I don't know if you caught the news today, but Hubble observed water jetting from the surface of Europa. This is the first visual evidence for large bodies of water under the surface of Europa. .

I think the Chinese are going back to some good plans for space exploration. They are working on a stepping stone approach which we should have been working on a long time ago. Unfortunately, America has lost any real interest in doing anything other than arguing it seems. I am very fond of the space station, Moon, Mars, Asteroid idea of expanding. To be really effective you need an infrastructure in space instead of bringing everything from here. I have always told people that Joss Whedon had the right idea for having a lot of Chinese influence in Firefly.