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China launches first moon rover mission

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Get ready for China to claim that it owns huge swathes of the moon and that it will treat any other countries' moon missions as sign of hostile intent.

6 ( +11 / -5 )

Don't be sour grapes. A nice person would share the joy of neighbour.

4 ( +7 / -3 )

America will be in trouble if there's another race to put humans on the moon. They'd have to re-develop the expertise to do it, I bet China would get there first.

Get ready for China to claim that it owns huge swathes of the moon and that it will treat any other countries' moon missions as sign of hostile intent.

If they can eventually get people there why shouldn't they claim it? Fair game.

1 ( +5 / -4 )

Unlike US, PRC is not only doing for scientific research, they want to explore the minerals from the ground. My childhood dream is about eating Moon cake with Sushi and Kim-chi on the Moon. On the earth, they are tasteless.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Moon is full of helium 3, first to mine it wins!

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

@AKBfan: Didn't the US make a claim of the moon as American property several years ago?

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

America will be in trouble if there's another race to put humans on the moon. They'd have to re-develop the expertise to do it, I bet China would get there first.

What...? Why would there be another race to put someone BACK on the moon? The US was putting people on the moon back when computers were less powerful than your cellphone. This isn't lost a lost capability... it's been abandoned for more important things like mars exploration and asteroid mining. The age of earth orbit and moon exploration is long past.

This is, however, a good start for China's space program. I just wish they'd direct it toward things that weren't done before. (does earth really need a SECOND space-station?) I'm looking forward to a potential space race in the future if China picks up its game. Competition drives technology, and nobody has been able to fill the void following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson once jokingly said: "If China said, “Let’s put a military base on Mars,” we would be on Mars in 10 months."

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Didn't the US make a claim of the moon as American property several years ago?

They signed the Outer Space Treaty in 1967 which prohibits such claims, China also signed. But in essence its meaningless and untested as no human has been beyond low earth orbit since 1972. I doubt China will ever claim or mine the moon but if they do good for them, if anyone goes again its a win for the human race.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

If they can eventually get people there why shouldn't they claim it? Fair game.

The United Nations sponsored 1967 "Outer Space Treaty" established all of outer space as an international commons by describing it as the "province of all mankind" and forbidding states from claiming territorial sovereignty.[2] Article VI vests the responsibility for activities in space to States Parties, regardless of whether they are carried out by governments or non-governmental entities. The Outer Space Treaty of 1967 has currently been ratified by 102 countries,[3] including all the major space-faring nations. It has also been signed by 26 other nations but not yet ratified.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

I'm looking foward to when humans will travel to a hospitable planet in another solar system. In order to live that long, I am cutting down on junk food and get more exercise!

1 ( +2 / -1 )

This rocket is going to the moon???...oh yeah, right! If you believe that, then I got some beachfront real estate to sell you on Titan. The so called 'landing' will take place in some huge secret TV studio made up to look like the surface of the moon! LOL! Remember the movie Capricorn One with OJ!

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

JoeBigs: "Hell, they will even provide maps if need be!"

Someone's a wee bit bitter, no? This is something to celebrate, not to make shallow, racist remarks. Success in this field is success for humanity, not the kind of racism you like to portray. There is no way I would ever hope China fails in this because it is China, nor would I wish them luck for the sake that it is China. I wish them luck because it could give humanity a bit of a much needed boost.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

The US was putting people on the moon back when computers were less powerful than your cellphone. This isn't lost a lost capability... it's been abandoned for more important things like mars exploration and asteroid mining. The age of earth orbit and moon exploration is long past.

You've fallen for the illusion that just because one technology is progressing rapidly so is everything else. They put landers on Mars in the 70s. For humans going beyond Earth orbit, it doesn't matter how small or fast computers get if you still need something the size of a Saturn V rocket packed with fuel to go. Its prohibitively expensive and may always be. The age of going to the moon not so much over.. a handful of people once went, it never really began.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

China is polluting Earth very much, so China would move to Moon someday! Hope happy days over there.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

When China was preparing for the Apollo Project, it took the astronauts to Tibet for training.

One day, a Tibetan elder and his son came across the space crew walking among the rocks.

The elder, who spoke only Tibetan, asked a question.

His son translated for the Chinese people: "What are these guys in the big suits doing?"

One of the astronauts said that they were practicing for a trip to the moon.

When his son relayed this comment the Tibetan elder got all excited and asked if it would be possible to give to the astronauts a message to deliver to the moon.

Recognizing a promotional opportunity when he saw one, a Chinese official accompanying the astronauts said, "Why certainly!" and told an underling to get a tape recorder.

The Tibetan elder's comments into the microphone were brief. The Chinese official asked the son if he would translate what his father had said.

The son listened to the recording and laughed uproariously. But he refused to translate. So the Chinese people took the tape to a nearby village and played it for other members of the tribe. They too laughed long and loudly but also refused to translate the elder's message to the moon.

Finally, an official government translator was summoned. After he finally stopped laughing the translator relayed the message:

"Watch out for these jerks. They have come to steal your land."

1 ( +4 / -3 )

As happy as I am that someone, anyone is going back to the Moon, I just have a feeling that it will be annexed by the PRC.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Any scientific discovery China finds, if any since a lot of it is controlled by the military, doubtful it'd be shared with the rest of the world.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

The Chinese design lacks originality. The rover shows little technological innovation, and borrows heavily from American and '70's Soviet-era designs. The rover looks similar to Nasa's Opportunity, which has roamed Mars for nearly a decade. The outcome had dampened Chinese scientists' enthusiasm for innovation.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

You've fallen for the illusion that just because one technology is progressing rapidly so is everything else. They put landers on Mars in the 70s. For humans going beyond Earth orbit, it doesn't matter how small or fast computers get if you still need something the size of a Saturn V rocket packed with fuel to go. Its prohibitively expensive and may always be. The age of going to the moon not so much over.. a handful of people once went, it never really began.

Launching a Saturn V rocket + lander with all costs associated is 300 million dollars cheaper then the curiosity rover we recently landed on mars. An illusion that technology doesn't increase the rate at which we progress?? These days we have PRIVATELY OWNED COMPANIES developing and launching rockets off a pad and LANDING them back on the exact spot it took off from (See SpaceX Grasshopper)

NASA's current budget is the equivalent of each person in the US paying HALF of a penny. Maybe we should kick them up to a whole penny? Hell... if we each paid 25 cents a year to NASA I wouldn't be surprised if a man was on Mars next year. It took merely 10 years to put a man on the moon 30 years ago; and that was when we were just beginning to learn how rockets worked.

There is absolutely 100% nothing that a human can do that an instrument packed rover can't. Putting a man on the moon to do what exactly?? It's only for prestige points. NASA already did it and they've gone on to more important things. Asteroid mining is the future (and much much much harder then flying a rocket for 3 days and landing a tin can in low gravity.)

0 ( +0 / -0 )

It also sent probes to orbit the moon in 2007 and 2010, the first of which intentionally crashed into the lunar surface at the end of its mission.

Oh, so China has already begun polluting the moon.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

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