China lands Jade Rabbit robot rover on Moon

[dipsydoodle]

Source: BBC News



China says it has successfully landed a craft carrying a robotic rover on the surface of the Moon, a major step in its programme of space exploration.

On Saturday afternoon (GMT), a landing module underwent a powered descent, using thrusters to perform the first soft landing on the Moon in 37 years.

Several hours later, the lander will deploy a robotic rover called Yutu, which translates as "Jade Rabbit".

The touchdown will took place on a flat plain called the Bay of Rainbows.

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25356603

[DavidDvorkin]

1. This makes me happy.

[humbled_opinion]

2. Yes but the right..

Is going to go nuts about how far an advance the Chinese are becoming and how that military threat means we cannot cut a single dime from defense and must instead cut social welfare programs to deal with the debt.

[DavidDvorkin]

4. Ouch, yes

That's probably inevitable.

[Cirque du So-What]

7. I'm not so sure

The RW have an incredible capacity for turning a blind eye toward the trading partner of their corporate masters, from from they receive their marching orders.

[Populist_Prole]

9. I think you're right

With corporate interests having such an increasingly firm hold on US policy, they would never so much as vex china and lose out on their cash-cow trading partner. China could come and sever Alaska from it's mainland moorings and float it back to Asia for it's oil use and the corporate shills will "sush" any calls for diplomatic or military response and remind us of the absolute importance of cheap shit from wal-mart.

Second sentence is deliberate hyperbole on my part for sure, but going forward it's not hard to see US policy morphing toward this direction.

[CatholicEdHead]

12. Current GOP will still not change their anti-science stances

Which is needed, we need more STEM training but also STEM jobs that are kept in the US and not outsourced all the time. We can easily do another moon shot if we choose to.

[daleo]

33. They would say that about anything, though.

China does seem rather like the U.S. in the early postwar era - growing, optimistic, advancing technologically, future oriented. By contrast, the west seems crabbed and pessimistic. Our one percenter class seems more interested in keeping everything for itself than in having society advance generally. I guess China's one percent class hasn't caught that bug yet.

[tabasco]

3. Just think how far we would be if mankind worked together,

rather than competing as nations.

[valerief]

8. But then no one would be richest! nt

[QuestForSense]

11. I like the way you think (I feel the same way).

[FSogol]

5. Chinese rover escapes Chinese smog in Beijing.

Pretty cool.

[hunter]

6. Good for them. This is cool.

Much of the commentary drives me nuts -- I've never had a fluent understanding of U.S.A. football dialect.

Someday I hope to live in a cooperative rather than a competitive world, but I'm not optimistic that will ever happen.

[Blue_Tires]

10. LBJ is about to rise up from the grave after hearing this...

[Uncle Joe]

13. Congratulations to China on their successful landing.

Thanks for the thread, dipsydoodle.

[Jesus Malverde]

14. Interesting...nt

[go west young man]

15. Good for China.

Imagine what we could do if we worked together.

[Ghost Dog]

16. Very soft, hovering landing:

... At 9:14 pm local time (1314 GMT), the official Xinhua news service reported that the spacecraft had touched down in the Sinus Iridum, or the Bay of Rainbows, at 9:12 p.m. after hovering over the surface for several minutes seeking an appropriate place to land.

A soft landing does not damage the craft and the equipment it carries. In 2007, China put another lunar probe in orbit around the moon, which then executed a controlled crash on to its surface.

The rover will be manipulated by Chinese control centres with support from a network of tracking and transmission stations operated by the European Space Agency.

In China's most recent manned space mission in June, three astronauts spent 15 days in orbit and docked with an experimental space laboratory, part of Beijing's quest to build a working space station by 2020.

/... http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/dec/14/chinese-spacecraft-lands-moon-china

[daleo]

34. I recall that it took Armstrong a few nail-biting moments to find a nice spot

That was during the Apollo 11 mission. That's the moon, for you.

[awoke_in_2003]

17. K&R, and good for them. nt

[question everything]

18. Good. Perhaps this will result in another race

that will revive physics and engineering research.

The truth is that Sputnik sent many young bright kids to study math and science.

The truth is that many technological inventions that we take for granted started in NASA and aerospace labs.

The truth is that once Reagan took office, the only funds for basic research was for "star wars" once once the Soviet Union fell, all these funds dried up.

So let's hope for new encouragements for America kids to choose math and science.

[CFLDem]

26. We can only hope nt

[penultimate]

19. Hopefully they will be able to finally prove the moon landings were a hoax.

They are going to drive the rover over to the supposed moon landing spots and find a hollywood set with fake rovers and landers

[DavidDvorkin]

20. They'll find a Hollywood set with fake rovers and landers on the moon?

That would be even more impressive than the actual manned landings.

[penultimate]

22. But it would be proof that it was done in a movie studio....

[DavidDvorkin]

24. A movie studio on the moon!

If only we had had the ability to set something like that up in the 1960s. Or even now.

[Politicalboi]

28. LOL!

But of course. We went to the moon with an entire set and made it look "more real". But, this may end doubt either way. Going to be interesting for sure.

[daleo]

35. How would we know the weren't faking their moon landing

To give fake proof that our moon landing was fake?

[Hekate]

21. Good for the Chinese. Bad for us -- for dropping the ball. nt

[penultimate]

23. How does this mean we dropped the ball?

Are we supposed to shoot their rockets down? The Chinese or anyone else going to the moon does not mean the US dropped the ball. If the Chinese do something like build a colony or something equally impressive on the moon, then it would make sense to say the we dropped the ball by not pushing our space program further.

We also recently launched some stuff toward Mars and some other places. We're very much sending out unmanned missions to far flung parts of our solar system.

[DavidDvorkin]

25. We dropped the manned lunar flight ball

at the end of Apollo.

[penultimate]

27. No one has picked up that ball though...

For all we know the Chinese will come to a similar conclusion about manned missions to the moon. I'm sure they'll send some people there in the future, but they might decide it's too expensive for such little gain too. It seems like the US space program is mostly focused on Mars at this time.

[DavidDvorkin]

32. That could happen, of course

Right now, though, they look very determined, and they seem to have more public support that the US program had, even in its early days.

The US didn't abandon manned lunar flight because it was deemed impractical but because of politics, war, and loss of public interest. We don't know if the same will happen in China.

[Hekate]

29. The US stopped spending money on manned flight beyond the Earth's orbit, stopped pushing science....

... stopped pushing mathematics and sciences in high school, which would prepare students to become scientists themselves in college. The US Congress and State legislatures gave lip-service to education, but allowed themselves to be bulldozed by those who object to spending money on public education and those who object to teaching real science on religious grounds. The space-race with the USSR was, paradoxically, good for US public education. Both my husband and I had outstanding public school education in the 1960s, in widely separated states -- we were shoved into accelerated classes in math and science.

More power to China -- and Japan and India, for that matter. And shame on the US for devoting our tax dollars to circling the Earth and launching satellites devoted to entertainment, while ignoring the stars and planets that are still waiting out there.

[struggle4progress]

30. Robotics is the future of space exploration

[Baclava]

36. I agree - robots will rule space - radiation and humans don't get along

we are weak and they are strong in space - and we cost too much to keep alive

send out the drones!

[Baclava]

31. nice rims