China on Moon 2012

[Nesti (Mark)]

Originally Posted by snas

Mark
Think I have to agree with you there re the reasons for China going to the Moon. But I'm still looking forward to see what they discover. Hmm....if they discover nothing new, do they lose face???
Regards
Stuart

Nope, just getting there is all that they need to do to say "hey, we can do that". I reckon they'll do something quite amazing, like explore a site or two on the dark side.

The space race had little, if anything, to do with science...it was all about communism versus capitalism. It wasn't until later missions (Apollo 15) that they really started to stretch the engineering in order to accommodate more serious [science related] equipment. The first two missions to Mars for the Chinese will be the same...purely for spectacle.

I think a nice Red flag of China would look pretty smart on Mars...but nobody's going there for a long while yet.

[renormalised (Carl)]

I think a nice Red flag of China would look pretty smart on Mars

That'll be no good...no one will see it. It'll be camouflaged!!

[Nesti (Mark)]

Originally Posted by renormalised

That'll be no good...no one will see it. It'll be camouflaged!!

Carl's back and posting like a mad-man!

[renormalised (Carl)]

And in Mars' thin atmosphere, their national anthem will sound more like a mouse squeaking than a song...if you could hear it at all!!

[renormalised (Carl)]

And they'll probably have prepared one of their long winded "Communist Party Approved" rants, extolling the virtues of the proletariat and collectivism (or capitalism, Chinese style)...rah rah rah. All in that wacky, overemphasised way they give speeches.

That'll get up Congress and NASA's nose, no end!!!

[renormalised (Carl)]

What NASA and the ESA should do is completely bypass the moon and head straight for Mars. Russia, ourselves and the Jap agencies could pitch in as well and go there by 2025-2030, say. Make it one big international project, and then build on it from there. Forget about the political nonsense of before and the "Cold War" mentality. Then when China decides to play fiddle too and grows up, they can join in too.