Space Race

[BigJon@Work]

When I worked in the miming industry, a common bumper sticker was:
Earth First!
We'll mine the rest of the planets later

[BigJon@Work]

In seriousness, the space race did eat up a good portion of the Soviet budget and brains.

[Giant Communist Robot]

I don't see that the medical issues of extended space travel have been solved, so I doubt there will be any trips to Mars or maybe even bases on the moon. Robots are cheaper, less risky, and do a better job of obtaining info than humans. Sending people into space is political theatre.

[Haggis@wk]

I don't see that the medical issues of extended space travel have been solved, so I doubt there will be any trips to Mars or maybe even bases on the moon. Robots are cheaper, less risky, and do a better job of obtaining info than humans. Sending people into space is political theatre.

Yeah, I can't tell you what a thrill it was when the first words uttered from Mars were;


001001010100011110100101010010100101010100101000111110010101010101001010
101010001001001010010101001010101010101010101001010011101001010101000100
1010101100001101010010

[Selma in Sandy Eggo]

Sending people into space is political theatre.

Remarkably good political theater, at that. Plays well in many parts of the country and is a prime favorite of all us old SF readers.

(Still wish Harriman was my grandpa, and I want a flat cat of my own.)

[Haggis@wk]

Good news; Earth in HD from Lunar orbit

Bad news; taken by the Kaguya spacecraft, a Japanese satellite.

Worse news; the Kaguya is not the newest piece of hardware at the moon. China's Chang'e 1 spacecraft was launched on October 24 for its mission to study the lunar environment and pave the way for future Chang'e missions.

Merely embarrassing news; In addition, Russia and India on Monday signed an agreement to launch an unmanned spacecraft into lunar orbit.

As I’ve repeated ad nauseum, man will go into space, the only question is what language those space-farers will speak.

More photos here

[navneeth]

Merely embarrassing news; In addition, Russia and India on Monday signed an agreement to launch an unmanned spacecraft into lunar orbit.

To embarrass you a little more, the MoU between Russia and India involves a Lunar orbiter AND lander. Chandrayaan 1 should be ready for launch by April next year.

[Haggis@wk]

Merely embarrassing news; In addition, Russia and India on Monday signed an agreement to launch an unmanned spacecraft into lunar orbit.

To embarrass you a little more, the MoU between Russia and India involves a Lunar orbiter AND lander. Chandrayaan 1 should be ready for launch by April next year.

No, that moves me into the "painfully chagrined" category. I am so unabashedly nationalistic that I don't trust any country other that the U.S. to be in a position to drop rocks on the rest of us.

Chauvinist, to be sure. But you see, unlike many I admire and respect Chauvin’s dedication.

[dai bread]

I'm inclined to agree, Haggis. India having a moon base doesn't bother me, and the same goes for Japan & China, but I find the Russians under Putin uncomfortably old-fashioned.

If the Chinese are a risk, they're playing a very long game. It's possible, though.

[barfle]

The issue, of course, is priorities. We went to the moon because it was our priority to demonstrate that we could. Once we did that, our priorities changed to more extensive earth-orbit issues.

The Shuttle was developed to make Earth orbit cheap and reliable. Clearly, it was a committee that didn't know what it wanted, so it's a terrible failure at its assigned task. I like to believe that if we had actually made a shuttle that worked, we wouldn't be spending our money trying to make it work, and instead we would actually be doing something useful with Luna.

Government projects have a way of disappointing.

[Shapley]

If the Chinese are a risk, they're playing a very long game. It's possible, though.

The Chinese are the masters of the long game. Patience was born in China.

[dai bread]

That reminds me of a cartoon I saw in the British satirical magazine, "Punch". (That dates me, doesn't it!)

It was published at a time when sailing solo around the world was a big thing, and anyone who could get enough support was doing it, or so it seemed.

Anyway, two officers are conversing on the bridge of a (British) cargo ship in mid-Pacific, while a lone Chinese yachtsman sails by. One officer says to another, "You know, that's the 400 000th lone Chinese yachtsman we've seen on this trip".