Absolutely correct and gravity does nearly all the work for getting between Earth and the Moon.
There is apparently a specific type of orbit that allows this system to work and I once had a professional Space boffin explain it to me.
China's Space Program News Thread
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Absolutely correct and gravity does nearly all the work for getting between Earth and the Moon.
There is apparently a specific type of orbit that allows this system to work and I once had a professional Space boffin explain it to me.
TerraN_EmpirE
Tyrant King
Chuck is correct, its not as easy as it seems, even when it seems a sure bet. Remember another lesson of American colonization, never bet on a sure bet. The idea that you just go to the moon and everything is ripe for the pickings has been tried. The first English colonists to the new world learned that the hard way. The British sent cons, fortune hunters and pirates to the new world thinking they would find mountains of gold to be sent back by the ship load to her majesty the Virgin Queen. This colony was based not at Jamestown but at Roanoke island. Within a year everyone was gone. The Roanoke colony had the same problems I see for a early Lunar colony. Absolute devotion to its place of origin. The first Roanoke colony had no farmers, or tools of agricultural production. That's one of the first issues, food, water, life support and power production. They were so devoted to wanting to strip mine that inside the Roanoke Colony there was only one garden, and it was more or less a flower bed maintained as a small personal hobby.
establishing a functioning mining colony on the moon is limited by the capacity of what we can do. I mean just how much material do you realistically think a mining operation in as severe a location as Luna can actually produce and reliably return to terra? Even in 2040 I would bet that its not as much as you might think my guess would be a space shuttle load but think about it how much is that vs how much would be needed? And once you start refinement how much end product would be produced vs the cost.
establishing a functioning mining colony on the moon is limited by the capacity of what we can do. I mean just how much material do you realistically think a mining operation in as severe a location as Luna can actually produce and reliably return to terra? Even in 2040 I would bet that its not as much as you might think my guess would be a space shuttle load but think about it how much is that vs how much would be needed? And once you start refinement how much end product would be produced vs the cost.
But we all have to start somewhere, right? I think nobody will deny that mankind's future lies in the Open Space and worlds beyond our own, and in order to someday get there we'll have to start from our very own moon. And to start that there's still a whole load of work that awaits to be done. But since sooner or later we'll need to do it, why not do it now? If we Chinese are not going to do it, the Americans will, or the Russians, or the Europeans, or even the Japanese and Indians.
You gave examples of some of the encounters and harsh conditions met by pioneer British colonizers (or Europeans in general), but the challenges and obstacles didn't stop the British nor the Europeans, and finally they ruled the oceans and reigned the Earth, cashed in money and commanded an Empire like no other in the history of man.
You need to look further and beyond. During the Mind dynasty, the emperors decided that the voyages led by Admiral Zheng He was too costly and does not bring any short term benefits, hence he decided to lock the ports and abandon the ships, and dismissed some of the world's best ship builders at that time. And the story that followed there after we're all pretty much familiar.
The current generation of Chinese all feel pitiful and upset over what our forefathers did hundreds of years ago. Should we let our children and our children's children feel the same way hundreds if not thousands of year later? I don't think so.
TerraN_EmpirE
Tyrant King
Nationalist movements don't colonies make. You have been pointing to the Americas to justify the position that China should build colonies on the moon. But the Americas broke from European rule. And in fact eclipsed the European powers. To truly establish a colony you need to instill a level of autonomy. That's not something a nationalist movement can allow. Nationalist movements at best explore and then pack up and head home. Apollo was a space race, they went there to first prove a point, that they could beat the Russians in space. The scientific community was let to draw the cart, and allowed to play a bit. But really when things started getting interesting what happened? The Nationalist cart became a anchor. The Russian space program was also seriously looking moonward, they had the resources and interest right up until Neil Armstrong took his one small step. Then game was up, why have American sloppy seconds?
time and time again National space programs have proved this over and over again. The financial input is less to real long term and more to the quickie plant the flag and take the postcard photo. Its pageantry. Soon as it becomes close to mundane its over.
Commercial interests build Colonies, they do because they have a vested interest in the maintaining and expansion of the business. When run properly its highly successful. There interest may not be as "Nobel" as the nationalist. But the truth is they are more then happy to turn the mission into the new 9-5 commute.
time and time again National space programs have proved this over and over again. The financial input is less to real long term and more to the quickie plant the flag and take the postcard photo. Its pageantry. Soon as it becomes close to mundane its over.
Commercial interests build Colonies, they do because they have a vested interest in the maintaining and expansion of the business. When run properly its highly successful. There interest may not be as "Nobel" as the nationalist. But the truth is they are more then happy to turn the mission into the new 9-5 commute.
One giant assumption by Westerners is that the market always does better than the government and that motives driven by profit will last long. Well I agree to a certain extent, but this is not always true.
Space exploration involves way too much risk and too little foreseeable return that it would almost be certain that if governments were to let go, not a single company will go out there and start the first step. In the early stages of space exploration the efforts MUST be led by government institutions, be it in the US or China. Only the governments have the kind of resources and will to push through something as risky as exploring the space.
Once the technologies are developed and fully matured, and the foundations have been laid, the private sector can of course take part and participate. SpaceX is one great example.
Do not brush down space exploration efforts just because they could be "nationalistic" or "to prove a point". Without this kind of reasons Men perhaps would have never landed on the moon or developed so much technologies that benefit every single person on earth today. No space exploration isn't just to show off, the R&D that went into it and the products are now enjoyed by even ordinary men like us.
This is not entirely true...at all.
Right now, commercial entities are already cropping up to do just what you have indicated. In fact the US governmental agency (NASA) is depending on them, and the manner in which they can produce very good equipment at good prices because they have to maintain a bottom line, to produce several of the next steps in the US Space program.
Commercialism does not build shoddy to fail in these types of projects. It is too costly to do so, and they have a bottom line to maintain or they go out of business. So they find very good talent, subject their investments to extremely good testing, and then produce something they are very sure will succeed and also produce for them. Long ago the US agencies should have pursued this type of course. A governmental agency pulling things together and providing oversight, but turning lose the entrepreneurial genius of the market.
As they do, not only will the government agency's goals be more apt to be met on time and on budget, but those same companies will branch out and further explore and make use of their resources to enable mining, research, and all manner of ideas, investments, and projects related to space.
Quickie
Colonel
Yutu wakes up and goes straight to work!
• China's moon rover "Yutu" and the Chang'e-3 lander have just "woken up" after a period of dormancy.
• It has started its rove around the moon surface and scientific missions.
• During the lunar night, the lander and the rover were in a power-off condition.
BEIJING, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- China's moon rover "Yutu" (Jade Rabbit) and the Chang'e-3 lander have just "woken up" after a period of dormancy that lasted two weeks, or one lunar night, in a move designed to ride out harsh climactic conditions.
Yutu was awakened autonomously at 5:09 a.m. Beijing Time on Saturday and has finished necessary setting procedures and entered a normal working mode following orders from the Beijing Aerospace Control Center (BACC), according to a statement issued by the BACC on Sunday.
It has started its rove around the moon surface and scientific missions.
Chang'e-3 has also been awakened automatically at 8:21 a.m. on Sunday, and is currently in normal condition, the statement said.
One night on the moon lasts about 14 days on Earth, during which the temperature falls below minus 180 celsius and there is no sunlight to provide power to the instruments' solar panels.
"During the lunar night, the lander and the rover were in a power-off condition and the communication with Earth was also cut off," said Zhou Jianliang, chief engineer of the BACC.
"When the night ends, they will be started up with the power provided by sunlight and resume operation and communication according to preset programs," Zhou said.
The awakening of the rover and lander marks the success of Chinese technology in surviving the lunar night, and the center will instruct the two instruments to carry on scheduled exploration missions, the chief engineer added.
Chang'e-3 soft-landed on the moon's Sinus Iridium, or the Bay of Rainbows, on Dec. 14 last year, and Yutu later separated from the lander.
The rover fell asleep on Dec. 26 as the mission's first lunar night arrived.
• China's moon rover "Yutu" and the Chang'e-3 lander have just "woken up" after a period of dormancy.
• It has started its rove around the moon surface and scientific missions.
• During the lunar night, the lander and the rover were in a power-off condition.
BEIJING, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- China's moon rover "Yutu" (Jade Rabbit) and the Chang'e-3 lander have just "woken up" after a period of dormancy that lasted two weeks, or one lunar night, in a move designed to ride out harsh climactic conditions.
Yutu was awakened autonomously at 5:09 a.m. Beijing Time on Saturday and has finished necessary setting procedures and entered a normal working mode following orders from the Beijing Aerospace Control Center (BACC), according to a statement issued by the BACC on Sunday.
It has started its rove around the moon surface and scientific missions.
Chang'e-3 has also been awakened automatically at 8:21 a.m. on Sunday, and is currently in normal condition, the statement said.
One night on the moon lasts about 14 days on Earth, during which the temperature falls below minus 180 celsius and there is no sunlight to provide power to the instruments' solar panels.
"During the lunar night, the lander and the rover were in a power-off condition and the communication with Earth was also cut off," said Zhou Jianliang, chief engineer of the BACC.
"When the night ends, they will be started up with the power provided by sunlight and resume operation and communication according to preset programs," Zhou said.
The awakening of the rover and lander marks the success of Chinese technology in surviving the lunar night, and the center will instruct the two instruments to carry on scheduled exploration missions, the chief engineer added.
Chang'e-3 soft-landed on the moon's Sinus Iridium, or the Bay of Rainbows, on Dec. 14 last year, and Yutu later separated from the lander.
The rover fell asleep on Dec. 26 as the mission's first lunar night arrived.
escobar
Brigadier
report on that tech
[video=youtube;a2dEB4BEqJw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2dEB4BEqJw[/video]
CE-3 electronic components manufacturing
[video=youtube;A_qLnJn6xCA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_qLnJn6xCA[/video]
escobar
Brigadier
[video=youtube;rqGHixlx8ME]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqGHixlx8ME[/video]
[video=youtube;pmqTx4GFzKU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmqTx4GFzKU[/video]
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