Buckdog

Its funny how a news release about the successful completion of the space walk was released before the rocket was even launched...stuff like this is why the West still distrusts China.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article4826302.ece

still....congrats to the middle kingdom!

That's actually hilarious! I am sure that the communications personnel who jumped the gun got reprimanded.

To me, the reason I have interest in this story is because it really does focus on China as a rapidly rising superpower. With the demise of the USSR, the US was the sole superpower in the world and that is changing. I was surprised to learn that the largest holder of American currency outside of the USA is also China.

As to the West distrusting China, many Canadians also don't trust the current American powerbase ... after Bush Jr - Cheney - Rumsfeldt and Rove ... it is hard to call the Americans 'trustworthy'.

Back to space stories, I will find a link for you on the rapidly expanding space program that India is mounting. They are already launching commercial satellites at a fraction of the cost of the Europeans or Americans ...

The world is changing. China is a reality we deal with.

The difference is Bush and his cohorts are out of a job in a few weeks, thanks to the democratic process. China is an authoritarian capitalist country - the worst system possible in my opinion lol.

Space programs, im iffy with them. We have huge problems first on this dirty little rock to solve. India for example wants to be a superpower, hence the space program. The kicker is there are still tens of millions of Indians living in abject poverty.

The Americans, with their massive space program have 40 million citizens without health care options who have to rely on charity when they are in medical crisis. Go hard on a country like India, but with the Americans, millions of black, hispanic and anglo Americans live in serious poverty as well - this the richest nation on the earth.

Can someone tell me the point of all of these space missions? If China (or the U.S. for that matter) have untold billions to pour into a program that materially accomplishes nothing for humankind, why do we let so many people on Earth live so miserably?

Let me speak altruistically for a moment. I am of the opinion that our humans species has an intrinsic desrire to travel and explore. Throughout our history, our species has ALWAYS wondered what lies over the next horizon. As a result, humankind has spread itself across the planet. It is how Europe and Asia and the Americas were colonized.

Flash forward to today. Although we maintain over 100 separate 'nation's .. that human desire it travel is still VERY MUCH in our psyche.

As any nation is able to advance themselves technologically to travel over the next 'horizon' ... they do it!

No less with space travel.

But clearly each individual nation that can achieve space travel is redundantly repeating what their fellow humans have done under a different national banner.

If there is an activity that merits a unified 'EARTH' co-operative effort, it would be for humans to jointly contribute and extend ourselves off of this planet.

However, one has to wonder if our maturity level as a species is capable of such a joint venture.

To quote 'Monty Python's Flying Circus':

"Let's hope that there is intelligent life in outer space ... cause there's bugger-all down here on Earth."

feat... not feet... ;)

LOL ... good catch! (fixed) Thanks! ;)

That intrinsic need to explore and conquer the next horizon is in fact not at all intrinsic; it arises from necessity. When we explore and seek out new lands, it is always with the hope of finding greener pastures. But what is there to find in space? How is getting a little bit closer to Jupiter going to improve our lives? What the desire to explore space tells me is that our species is very bored and unsatisfied with our lives. Such is the human condition.

Now it's a two-way race between the US and China to see which nation will lead the world downward and backward to a more survival of the fittest planet.

Noam, I disagree! I think our species has a genetic responsibility to infect the universe with our kind. Establishing human life off of this planet vastly increases our chances of survival and continuing evolution. Maintaining the entire number of our kind on this one planet risks extinction.

Many would have no problem with the human species going extinct, but I like to think on a slightly larger scale.

I am talking about something that will occur over hundreds of years. But even the longest journey starts with the first few steps.

Think larger.

Even if you want to 'think larger' and believe that maybe all of this space exploration will lead to practical benefits for humanity (though some might accuse you of watching too much Futurama if you do), there is still no way that this is what motivates national space programs. These pointless endeavours are nothing more than geopolitical pissing competitions; except it's not piss that's being wasted, it's valuable capital and resources.

Did y'all check out this video?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVbBFwdmldA&annotation_id=annotation_820913&feature=iv

Pretty weak stuff there Richard!