The Chinese Moon Landing

[xrunner]

Found this buried on a newspage. I hadn't even heard this happened. We better get our act together or they'll take over the Moon!

Chinese lunar probe makes successful landing

An unmanned Chinese spacecraft, carrying a suite of instruments and a small rover named Yutu, or "Jade Rabbit," settled to an on-target touchdown on the moon Saturday, the first such lunar landing in 37 years and a major achievement for the ambitious Chinese space program.

As the four-legged Chang'e-3 spacecraft descended to its landing site in or near Sinus Iridum, the Bay of Rainbows, a downward-pointing camera sent back pictures of the surface all the way through touchdown around 8:12 a.m. EST (GMT-5), prompting cheers and applause in China's mission control center. A few minutes later, the lander's two solar panels deployed.

Named after a mythical Chinese goddess, Chang'e-3 is the first Chinese spacecraft to land on another extraterrestrial body and the first moon lander since the former Soviet Union's Luna 24 sample return mission in 1976.

Chang'e-3 is equipped with a stereo imager, a telescope and an extreme ultraviolet camera for astronomical and Earth observations. Its solar panels provide electricity to power its systems while a radioisotope thermoelectric generator provides the heat needed to keep its electrical systems warm during the two-week-long lunar night.

...
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/chinese-lunar-probe-makes-successful-landing/

[Abstr7ct]

Did they take a permission from the US government to land on the moon?

[jancumps]

Cool that someone is picking up space age duties. 

[all_repair]

Found this buried on a newspage. I hadn't even heard this happened. We better get our act together or they'll take over the Moon!

NASA actually wanted to collaborate with the Chinese.  It is the US congress trying to find an enemy.  Anyway the Chinese is not approaching as a race with anyone.  Just like Dave proceeding with his uCurrent project, they are proceeding slowly as they see fixed.  Maybe others may want to join in as it is a more predictable engineering project.  I am always impressed by the big thinking of the UK.  After UK lead the way, maybe all can join in later. 

[nctnico]

The Chinese are proving their copycat skills again: to boldly do what everyone has done before.

[jancumps]

Ah, has the Netherlands been on the moon then ?

[xrunner]

Did they take a permission from the US government to land on the moon?

No! The U.S. has already claimed it for ourselves, as we will the rest of the solar system. Mars shall be the next piece of solar system property we will inherit!

[SeanB]

The best ex equipment ones they could get from the recycling yard of course.

[rozeh]

I think its a toy.

Iran successfully sends second mokey into space

[Wytnucls]

Iran has a modest ambition: a man in orbit by 2020. India wants to send humans to the moon in the same year!

[sdg]

I think its a toy.

Iran successfully sends second mokey into space

Dear Iran,

Here in France, we have some useless politicians. We would gladly donate them to your space program, should you ever run out of test monkeys. Please help yourself. No need to return them after use.

Best regards, etc...

[staxquad]

Did they take a permission from the US government to land on the moon?

No! The U.S. has already claimed it for ourselves, as we will the rest of the solar system. Mars shall be the next piece of solar system property we will inherit!

chuckle, they can't even afford to have a spacecraft go to the International Space Station,
they need to hitch a lift from the Russians every time they go there.

you've got military spending, can't afford anything else

[MatCat]

Did they take a permission from the US government to land on the moon?

No! The U.S. has already claimed it for ourselves, as we will the rest of the solar system. Mars shall be the next piece of solar system property we will inherit!

chuckle, they can't even afford to have a spacecraft go to the International Space Station,
they need to hitch a lift from the Russians every time they go there.

you've got military spending, can't afford anything else

Perhaps JFK needs to come back from the dead?

[nctnico]

Ah, has the Netherlands been on the moon then ?

Neither have the Belgians (no, Urbanus doesn't count!)

[lemmegraphdat]

Did they take a permission from the US government to land on the moon?

I think the US sold them the rocket tech. during the 90's. Should have had to steal It, like in the old days.

[jancumps]

... (no, Urbanus doesn't count!)

He does count. I have evidence:

[Monkeh]

Iran has a modest ambition: a nuclear warhead in orbit by 2020.

Fixed that for you.

[all_repair]

The only way to stop the Chinese and the German is to replace their leaders with non-engineers.  Engineers make very bad politicians.

[johansen]

i would say good on them.
either man is going to get of this planet permanently or we're going to destroy ourself, we should have had a manned moon base already.
there is not much time left, either mankind makes it to 9 billion people, or we end up at around one billion left alive. or we go to the moon and do the other things, again.

lol, iran.. they could launch a nuke into orbit if they wanted to.. the support structure needed to keep a monkey alive is about the same weight as a medium warhead...
and any idea that they haven't bought a number of nukes on the black market is nonsense.. if they want to start a nuclear war they can, but that would be suicide.

[Frenchie]

Did they take a permission from the US government to land on the moon?

No! The U.S. has already claimed it for ourselves, as we will the rest of the solar system. Mars shall be the next piece of solar system property we will inherit!

There's no American flags on the moon any more . If the nylon is still intact, those flags have long been bleached white by the Sun (less than a year after they were placed by most estimates). The poetic thing is it makes the engraving on Eagle's landing leg more truthful Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the Moon, July 1969 A.D. We came in peace for all mankind.

There are, however, two steel pennants with the Hammer and Sickle stamped on them from when the Russians impacted the moon in 1959 with Luna 2. As I understand it, there's only one surviving example left on Earth, the one given as a gift to Eisenhower.

[nctnico]

i would say good on them.
either man is going to get of this planet permanently or we're going to destroy ourself, we should have had a manned moon base already.
there is not much time left, either mankind makes it to 9 billion people, or we end up at around one billion left alive. or we go to the moon and do the other things, again.

lol, iran.. they could launch a nuke into orbit if they wanted to.. if they want to start a nuclear war they can, but that would be suicide.

Political suicide that is... If they would kill their 'enemies' they would have to fantasize hard to come up with new enemies to keep their subjects ignorant.

[JohnnyGringo]

i would say good on them.
either man is going to get of this planet permanently or we're going to destroy ourself, we should have had a manned moon base already.
there is not much time left, either mankind makes it to 9 billion people, or we end up at around one billion left alive. or we go to the moon and do the other things, again.

  Johansen, how is having a manned moon base going to help solve some of our problems that could destroy civilization? I'm having a hard time making that leap of faith. 

  It won't reverse or slow global warming, prevent Iran from going nuclear, fix the US health care fiasco, etc..  I suspect that we could do any or all of these things with the same amount of money and time as it would take to build a permanent self-sustaining habitat on the moon. EDIT: (moon habitat is also doable in short term, but I don't see how that's going to solve other problems back home).

  Serious inquiry, not a bust on your post.

[staxquad]

Iran has a modest ambition: a nuclear warhead in orbit by 2020.

Fixed that for you.

 

The USA has over 7,700 nuclear warheads
Russia has over 8,500
The United Kingdom has over 225
France has over 300
China has over 250
India has over 110
Pakistan has over 120
North Korea has over 10
Israel has over 200

Iran has 0

The US has already used 2 nuclear weapons. 
The US, UK, France start most wars, most overthrows, Iran none.

The US, UK, France steal resources, Iran has them.

Iranian nuclear warheads is a red herring, BIG OIL is after Iranian OIL (and their access to the sea for Caspian OIL)

Iran is way down the list as the next country who might use a nuclear weapon.

[JohnnyGringo]

.... 
The US has already used 2 nuclear weapons.   

Those were mere firecrackers compared to today's WMDs.

[staxquad]

.... 
The US has already used 2 nuclear weapons.   

Those were mere firecrackers compared to today's WMDs.

If only we could put the genie back into the bottle, nuclear is mutual assured destruction (and it's a toss which will get us there first, nuclear arms or nuclear reactors for power)