So, Jade Rabbits?

[Morrus]

Named after a Chinese legend, I hear.

So China has landed on the moon - the first in a long time. (Though Mars has had a few recently...)

They won't be sending people there until the mid-2020s.

Anyone else follow this?

 

[Nellisir]

I lost my regular news feed when igoogle shut down, so news is only trickling in. That said, I did read about this on Reddit. Good for them.

 

[Kramodlog]

Anyone else follow this?

Yup. I'm curious about space exploration. I wonder if at some point we will need to exploit its resources. Maybe that can lead to space colonies.

 

[Kramodlog]

Vid from the moon.

[video=youtube;cFb1E63AxNI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFb1E63AxNI[/video]

 

[Morrus]

Lots of people online bemoaning the fact that China has a rover on the moon while America hasn't had one for nearly 40 years.

Am I missing something? The US has rovers on *Mars*. So did the UK, and India will have soon. Mars!

 

[Kramodlog]

Maybe because it is more "realistic" to envision humans traveling to the moon and colonies on the moon?

Maybe it is just nationalism and the US shouldn't be betten at anything. Especially by China.

 

[Morrus]

Maybe it is just nationalism and the US shouldn't be betten at anything. Especially by China.

But that's what I mean. US, UK, India on Mars, China on the Moon. I'm seeing China a long way behind in that race.

 

[Kramodlog]

I must be clearer. The US can't be beaten in away, thus it needs a Mars and a moon project.

 

[Scott DeWar]

. . . . . edit . . . . . I'm seeing China a long way behind in that race.

Not so long considering how easy it is for china to steal u.s. secrets.

I must be clearer. The US can't be beaten in any way, thus it needs a Mars and a moon project.

sounds accurate.

 

[Morrus]

Not so long considering how easy it is for china to steal u.s. secrets.

I'm pretty sure rocketry like this is a question of resources, not secrets. I'm sure a million* physicists and engineers around the world could do it given the money. India just sent something to Mars they other week. It's 50-year old technology (and that Apollo technology in the 60s was based on the German V2 rockets just after the war, IIRC).

Pretty much everyone's sent orbiters to Mars. Landing stuff there is more tricky - lots of attempts, lots of failures, I believe. NASA's managed it a couple of times.

Then again, that's just an assumption. I could be wrong. Probably am!


*I exaggerate massively.