Posted 09.29.2011 at 11:19 am
29 Comments
Tiangong 1 Heads for Orbit
CCTV via SPACE
At 9:16 p.m. local time--that was at 9:16 a.m. eastern time here in the U.S.--China successfully lofted its first inhabitable space station module into orbit on the back of a Long March 2F launch vehicle, marking a milestone for both the People’s space program and for the Party’s geopolitical ambitions. China--the third nation (behind the U.S.A. and Russia) to independently launch manned missions into space aboard homegrown technology--now joins the old Cold War powers as the third nation to put a space station into orbit.
The 8.5-metric-ton Tiangong 1 (it means “heavenly palace”) is slated to stay in orbit for two years. During that time, China will launch three missions to rendezvous with the orbital lab. Shenzou 8 and Shenzou 9, launching in November and early in 2012 respectively, will be unmanned missions meant to test various rendezvous and docking technologies. Shenzou 10, also slated for sometime in 2012, could be a manned mission if the first two go smoothly. It could also carry China’s first female astronaut, Chinese space officials said.
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Technology, Clay Dillow, china, chinese space program, long march rockets, Space, space stations, tiangongAnd that’s certainly true. But when you look at the window in which China has ticked these technologies off its checklist, the pace is impressive to say the least. Like nearly everything in China over the past decade or two, its space program is modernizing at a seriously ambitious pace. China launched its first man into space in 2003. Today it put its first space station in orbit, and by 2020 it aims to have a full-blown 60-ton manned orbiting station in place--the only space station belonging to a single sovereign entity.
And this is just the first step for China, whose space ambitions reach all the way the moon and beyond it to Mars. China plans to put a robot on the moon in 2014 followed by a manned lunar base sometime beyond that. And in 2013 a joint Russian-Chinese mission hopes to put a robotic rover on Mars. As the nomenclature of its booster rockets suggests, China is developing a long reach into space.
But all that depends, for now, on the success of Tiangong 1 and the three technology testing missions that follow. And how you feel about this initiative probably has a lot to do with how you feel about China. One reason China generally goes it alone in space rather than collaborating with other spacefaring nations like Japan or the U.S. is that China’s space program is closely tied into its military and therefore shrouded in secrecy. Should China become a dominant player in space over the next century--and given its current trajectory, it certainly could--the balance of power in orbit and beyond could begin shifting. Starting this morning.
Tiangong-1 Docking With a Shenzhou Spacecraft: People's Daily via MSNBC
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Its the end of the world as we know it....its the end of the world as we know it!!! AND I KNOW.....
Who wants to finish the song for me!!!
Can anyone see a MADE IN CHINA logo on the side of the rocket?
Science Is but A Continual Lesson of The Challenge To Studying The Entire Known Existence of Everything.
-Truth-
i think it's a bit interesting that anyone would consider China's space program to be home grown. Russian research and "borrowed" U.S. tech doesn't make it home grown simply because the rocket/module was assembled in China.
Congratulations goes out to China.
of course aldrons only praise ever to any thing on this site would be to China lol.....
@burnout
Like everything else
Designed in the US
Made in China
lol
2011, the US are working on an uptated Apollo capsule in a space race against a chinese version of Soyuz. Kubrick would have been laughed at if he had come up with that crazy sci-fi senario in 1968.
@TrustIsMyName
Knowing the Chinese it probably says MADE IN TIBET. Or perhaps MADE IN TAIWAN. Now that would explain the American-Soviet influence in the aesthetics of the design in the computer model.
@burnout
Everything technological is made everywhere. Several different components and the materials to make them all come from different places in the world. For this the concept of anything fully homegrown hasn't existed since before World War II. The finish product of any piece of technology comes from a number of places. International commerce makes the world go round.
@Delkomatic
...and I feel FIIIIIIINE!!
We need a national effort like this to help spur scientific exploration and new technology development, just like the space programs of the 1960's and 70's brought us microelectronics, strong lightweight materials, plus an army of scientists and engineers. What did you think gave rise to Silicon Valley? (Hint: Not Wall Street)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Wall Street brought us fail
Look forward to seeing a 60ton space station. I would like to see someone make a space station with a ring setup to create a artificial gravity lab in space. Would be nice and allow for MUCH longer manned missions in space.
I doubt the US will ever see a space program to this degree in the future, simply put, they can't afford to move forward any more, back to the stone age for the US if things keep going the way they are.
At least this might finally motivate the United states and Russia to begin giving more funding to their respective space programs.
im betting that china makes it to the moon before the US. they will set up a station there and claim it as their own. i can see a war scenario coming from this. imagine a war where its battles are fought in space. gonna have to come up with better weapons.
_________________
The people of the world only divide into two kinds, One sort with brains who hold no religion, The other with religion and no brain.
- Abu-al-Ala al-Marri
Congraduations to Aldrons Last Hope for saying congraduatlions to China. I give you the proud NON-SHEEP award of 29SEP2011. YEA NON SHEEPS! ;)
If China makes a space station or a moon station, they will soon all die from China Hacking or the lead poising on the paint of the walls of the space ships. Hello, this is China, it’s what they do! And yet they will still progress in technology, why, because they have a ka-zillion more Chinese to send up there after them. We are speaking about China right?
Ok, I will be postive. Go China, yea China, woopee China!
You know the funny thing about sheep and non sheep....there is no such thing as a non sheep...because if you are not a sheep for say America then you are going to be a sheep for something else that makes you not a sheep for America...so sorry for all of you "non sheep" you are still sheep just for a different herder.
Delomatic,
I admire people who think independently and are not afraid to speak abstract or odd perspectives. To me, this is the non-sheep.
You apparently missed my point but thats ok...not being able to see views past ones own is a fault of man its hard to enlighten past the bulb in your own head somtimes
@prime
the US may not be the only player in the game anymore but, dont count us out just yet.
@JediMindset
War will eventually expand to space and there is nothing anyone can do to stop it. The more players that come to play on the field will not follow the rules convened by the international conference which regarded the use of space.
As for China getting to the moon, they won't get there first because the U.S. has already been there. If they have exponential trends in their aerospace endeavors then they might just get there the same year NASA gets back there. Otherwise it's more likely NASA will head back to the moon before China ever gets there for the first time.
--
"The person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it. Fifteen hundred years ago everybody knew, the Earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago everybody knew, the Earth was flat, and fifteen minutes ago you knew we were alone in the universe. Imagine what you know, tomorrow."
--Tommy Lee Jones as Agent K, Men In Black, 1997
@phoenix1020
i think the issue for me here is the idea that China's space program is homegrown. international commerce in order to spur progress, at least to me, would imply some sort of collaborative effort with willing partners which, again to me, doesn't seem to exist.
if you review China's technological leaps over the past 20 or so years, they've seemingly managed to do this by 1) the U.S. opening manufacturing facilities in China, 2) using the proceeds to purchase materials and designs from Russia, and 3) using the tech brought in by the U.S. to achieve their goals. this doesn't seem homegrown to me. i'll admit they've made strides in their own rights, but there's a substantial difference between doing the R+D to get the knowledge yourself and buying the parts to simply build your desire. i can buy a kit to build a plane but that doesn't make me Boeing.
i suppose my issue is with the author's choice of words.
@pheonix1012
yes and war in space would not only be very dangerous but also very expensive. trillions of dollars would be spent. within 20 years i see this happening. The US supposedly went a long time ago but why haven't they gone back? i smell coverup. my theory is that ET told us to never go back.
"All these worlds are yours, except Europa. Attempt no landing there. Use them together. Use them in peace"-2010 A space odyssey 2.
if we do enter "space" warfare i see a lot of misfortune for humanity.
_________________
The people of the world only divide into two kinds, One sort with brains who hold no religion, The other with religion and no brain.
- Abu-al-Ala al-Marri
@Dellkomatic, lol, that’s not true, I praise where praise is due. I just wanted to put it out there that it’s not a bad thing that China is heading to space. After all it was ”one giant leap for Mankind”. As a human, I’m happy to see other humans in space.
We are all sheep, the difference is some of us are awake.
[ SOS ] Complaint with IBM China CSR on Centenial
Please Google:
Tragedy of Labor Rights Repression in IBM China
Interesting side info.
China has successfully launched the Tiangong-1, its first space lab. It's the first of a series of small test stations, and the first step towards the country's goal of having a 60-ton space station in orbit by 2020.
60 TON SPACE STATION! But.....
Even if China manages to get a complete space station up by 2020, those 60 tons are dwarfed by the International Space Station's 449 tons or the old 130-ton Soviet MIR. Even Skylab, the US space station launched in 1973, was 77 tons.
Still, China is pushing forward towards space.
They stole the capsule and space suit design from Russia. They stole the navigation equipment from the US. The launch vehicle design was sold to them by an American company. There is not much Chinese about this except the people who will be wearing the space suits. In order to go beyond what they have now, they either have to steal more or buy more. China does not have the environmental systems for an extended space station. All they can do is link up two pieces of stolen equipment and turn on some storage bottles of compressed air. I would not want to be a pilot of one of their craft to the moon. It would most probably be a one way trip.
@JediMindset
When it comes to national security, people will be willing to spare no expense. If the key to winning wars in the future rest in cyber operations, and space network assets for ISR supremacy, then we are bound to expand into space for resource aquisition and management, production, and network centric national defense.
As far as space travel, while it's highly possible the U.S. and Soviet Union possibly stumbled upon a truth that would limit human spaceflight to LEO, the most logical reason is the national focus of both countries. It just hasn't included interplanetary space travel since the mid 1970s. It probably won't be a focus until the survival of the human race issue becomes dire. In the meantime, let's just leave the alien conspiracy theories in Apollo 18, and the latest Transformers movie.
@burnout
The concept of homegrowing probably comes from the fact that their assets are not 100% purchased or "borrowed." Sure the knowledge they've obtained comes from business transactions and cracking government firewalls (let's be real, they are responsible for hacking several national systems across the globe; you can't just leave your fingerprints at the scene of a crime to declare I didn't do it and expect it to be the truth), but that's just how they obtain their knowledge (government officials and advocates that is).
My statement points out the fact that original concepts come from several different places and manufacturing for a given product also takes place in several other places across the world. If you think about it, The U.S. and Russia's rocket technology is born from the scientific pusuits of German scientists working for the respective governments following WWII. Their work is based on the brilliance of Robert Goddard who was only reworking the design of something that was already used for fireworks or militaristic bombs of 13th century Chinese descent. In this regard there is very little in this world that is original.
With that, regardless of how they obtained the knowledge, they've obtain the knowledge to backwards engineer their own space program. Everybody does it. Why would they be any different. The biggest issue is when and whether or not they might decide to join the international community in a collaborative effort to explore space and perform scientific research for the benefit of all mankind. I don't care how powerful they eventually get, they can't do this sorta thing on their own. We're living proof of that right now.
"The person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it. Fifteen hundred years ago everybody knew, the Earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago everybody knew, the Earth was flat, and fifteen minutes ago you knew that we were alone in this universe. Imagine what you know, tomorrow."
-- Tommy Lee Jones as Agent K, Men In Black, 1997
@pheonix1012
i believe that the apollo movie is based on actual events.
_________________
The people of the world only divide into two kinds, One sort with brains who hold no religion, The other with religion and no brain.
- Abu-al-Ala al-Marri