China's Space Program News Thread

[akinkhoo]

Re: China’s Manned Military Space Ambitions

It appears the chinese miscalculated the impact of having a manned space program. they were hoping to gain recognition but instead the rest of the spacefaring countries seem unimpressed, only sending congratz but never any shift in policy; in other words, the cooperation china is seeking was simply not there...
:coffee: <-- rest of world <-- china

i say the leadership of china need understand real world politic and "play the game like a player". USA didn't get respected because of capability, but rather real power. showing off a 5 warship fleet is lame compared to a CVN battlegroup. china should be more humble and build up now rather than showing off it newly found strength like a kid with a new toy. it draws too much attention and cause other to be jelousy while not powerful enough to make it present felt.

oops, going off topic...

 

[walter]

Re: China’s Manned Military Space Ambitions

Well, it's probably true the US won't invite the Chinese to participate in any of its near- or midterm projects, and infact from the US standpoint, China's ambitious manned (and unmanned) space program provides a bit of needed impetus to US programs for competitive and national pride reasons.

But I wouldn't say China didn't gain recognition or that other space fairing nations were/are unimpressed. Quite the opposite in my mind. I hope China wasn't expecting an immediate invite to the ISS or anything like that, though. I think other countries are probably quite open to the idea of cooperating with China in space including manned missions, but let's be realistic--China's manned program is just at its beginning. They have much to accomplish, and the rest of the world wants to see more than two manned flights before undertaking any sort joint manned space operation with the Chinese. So I would just say to anyone who expected more at this point to be patient. While any cooperation between NASA and China in manned space operations must be approved by the White House (unlikely), the Europeans and Russians would probably be quite happy to have a Chinese visit at the ISS, or, more likely than the ISS visit, cooperate with them in future manned missions. It will happen, but it will take its due time.

 

[Roger604]

Re: China’s Manned Military Space Ambitions

It appears the chinese miscalculated the impact of having a manned space program. they were hoping to gain recognition but instead the rest of the spacefaring countries seem unimpressed, only sending congratz but never any shift in policy; in other words, the cooperation china is seeking was simply not there...
:coffee: <-- rest of world <-- china

i say the leadership of china need understand real world politic and "play the game like a player". USA didn't get respected because of capability, but rather real power. showing off a 5 warship fleet is lame compared to a CVN battlegroup. china should be more humble and build up now rather than showing off it newly found strength like a kid with a new toy. it draws too much attention and cause other to be jelousy while not powerful enough to make it present felt.

oops, going off topic...

You greatly miscalculate!!! China is a country that is particularly susceptible to 'morale effects.' By this I mean that when people perceive the country is weak, they jump ship rather quickly. One could argue that every single overseas Chinese (or their ancestors) jumped ship at one point or another. When people perceive the country is strong, they bandwagon and support the motherland again.

If the current pulse of optimism falters, people would resume working for and trying to curry favor with the "old master"... the developed western countries.

Never forgot that China's soft-power is extremely weak. Imagine how much more powerful China would be if we had a true analogue to Hollywood... if we could ship our culture all over the world and have people falling all over themselves to come to China to work at near-slave labor wages.

THIS is what the space program is about: boosting the morale and demonstrating to "the people" what the modernization project has accomplished. People are autonomous, thinking beings... you just can't order Chinese people to "modernize the country" and then keep them in the dark about everything. And then quietly store your strength for the day when you pull a Sun-Tzu.

You could argue that America's REAL strength is built entirely on its PERCEIVED strength. The perception attracts people and capital and that in turn makes the perception a self-fulfilling prophecy.

 

[tphuang]

Re: chinese satelittes

alright, I figure this is probably the best place to post this. I just found this on one of the Chinese forums. It actually describes DFH-3, which is China's currently most advance communication satellite.

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

The article in the picture is actually describing DFH-3A, but you can read more from the underlined material.

Make a note, it talks about future projects in the form of the 4th Beidou-1 satellite to be launched. It also mentionned about the Beidou-2 project, which will consist of 12 satellites.

 

[PLAfan]

When will China go to the moon?

Really, we haven't been to the moon since 1974. This is a shame. US doesn't plan to go back there until 2020.

When will Chinese technology bring the first Chinese person to the moon?

 

[Sea Dog]

Re: When will China go to the moon?

It's hard to tell how fast China's space program will progress. And what steps they will take if they choose the moon as a goal. Hard estimates are difficult to assess simply because they've only had two manned flights so far. If you are asking for guesses, I think I'll take 2030 as an estimate.

BTW, the last man to stand on the moon was U.S. astronaut Eugene Cernan (USN) in 1972. The U.S. is currently looking at designing a rocket called ARES-1 that is bigger and more powerful than Saturn-V. President Bush actually set the date for a return to the moon at 2018 as a goal.

 

[LiLaZnMaGiCsCt]

Re: When will China go to the moon?

It's hard to tell how fast China's space program will progress. And what steps they will take if they choose the moon as a goal. Hard estimates are difficult to assess simply because they've only had two manned flights so far. If you are asking for guesses, I think I'll take 2030 as an estimate.

BTW, the last man to stand on the moon was U.S. astronaut Eugene Cernan (USN) in 1972. The U.S. is currently looking at designing a rocket called ARES-1 that is bigger and more powerful than Saturn-V. President Bush actually set the date for a return to the moon at 2018 as a goal.

I read from a report in Yahoo! News (can't find the link now) that Chinese military academy officials predict that China will reach the moon by 2018-2020.

 

[Sea Dog]

Re: When will China go to the moon?

If they achieve this, I say good for them. What's interesting is China's next step. Aren't they looking on putting a docking vehicle up to practice rendevouz and docking?

 

[Finn McCool]

Re: When will China go to the moon?

Space is the future, and there is no better way to get there faster than through competition. Unfortunetly, we (the human race) have lost so much ground in the area of manned space flight that we might lose the will to continue before we actually push the boundries of exploration. That is why I hope the Chinese beat the US to the moon, because it will motivate the US to go farther and thus better all of mankind.

 

[Sea Dog]

Re: When will China go to the moon?

Space is the future, and there is no better way to get there faster than through competition. Unfortunetly, we (the human race) have lost so much ground in the area of manned space flight that we might lose the will to continue before we actually push the boundries of exploration. That is why I hope the Chinese beat the US to the moon, because it will motivate the US to go farther and thus better all of mankind.

Uh. The U.S. has already been to the moon. The U.S. has already beaten everyone there.

But yeah. You're right. Competition is good. I'm actually hoping for a future of cooperation in manned spaceflight. I actually think we as humans could accomplish alot more in space exploration with shared resources, and a cooperative approach. But I do also think that's a few decades off.