http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/space/10/04/space.race.ap/index.html

10/8/2007 10:49:49 AM

(big whoop, we've already been there)

10/8/2007 10:56:44 AM

Hillsborough Street will be revitalized before either country gets there.

[Edited on October 8, 2007 at 11:01 AM. Reason : s]

10/8/2007 11:00:55 AM

Technology will have been developed that teaches North Carolinians how to not act retarded in roundabouts.

10/8/2007 11:04:49 AM

We have robots on mars, we've already been to the moon, and we could get there again first if we cared to spend so much on it. But why don't we let china come up with something first if they can and steal it from them? see how they like it.

10/8/2007 11:29:11 AM

IN THE YEAR 2000!

IN THE YEAR 2000!

10/8/2007 11:33:03 AM

Quote :

"see how they like it."

ahahahahahahahhahahaa

10/8/2007 11:49:15 AM

i like how russia put a flag on the north pole and claimed it cause we got our flag on the moon first

10/8/2007 11:53:05 AM

[OLD]



tww pic:

[Edited on October 8, 2007 at 12:18 PM. Reason : red x]

10/8/2007 12:15:47 PM

The astronauts would probably just die from lead poisoning halfway into the mission.

10/8/2007 1:12:11 PM

hi-oh

[Edited on October 8, 2007 at 1:29 PM. Reason : .]

10/8/2007 1:29:25 PM

So how will they devide ownership up on the moon?

[Edited on October 8, 2007 at 1:35 PM. Reason : w]

10/8/2007 1:35:03 PM

finders-keepers

10/8/2007 2:01:57 PM

10/8/2007 2:10:48 PM

I own several acres of land on the moon. I better not find out those losers set foot on my property.

10/8/2007 2:36:16 PM

(big whoop, it's made of cheese anyways)

10/8/2007 3:02:00 PM

and more than 90% of Chinese are lactose intolerant

10/8/2007 3:59:10 PM

Quote :

"see how they like it."

lol.

you're pretty good at this.

i get the feeling you're not new here.

10/8/2007 4:14:35 PM

hello, 1969 called and wants its thread back.

10/8/2007 4:15:32 PM

Quote :

"But why don't we let china come up with something first if they can and steal it from them? see how they like it."

wins

^^you just don't like giving credit to n00bs


^^^and 50% are alcohol intolerant





[Edited on October 8, 2007 at 5:20 PM. Reason : .]

10/8/2007 5:15:43 PM

Looking forward to the new "Lunar Garden" restaurant.

10/8/2007 5:48:20 PM

at least there will be railroads, dry cleaners, and nail salons on the moon now

[Edited on October 8, 2007 at 5:50 PM. Reason : ]

10/8/2007 5:50:19 PM

loona flied lice?

10/8/2007 5:51:06 PM

A+ thread

10/8/2007 6:45:04 PM

I wouldn't worry about it. The landing party will be killed when they wreck their lunar rover.

10/8/2007 8:43:47 PM

China has yet to do anything truly difficult in space yet. They still have several major key steps to try first.

EVA's
Rendezvous
Docking
Heavy Lift Capability

and one of the most important things

Dealing with death and disaster.

The Soviets lost people, but they were able to cover it up pretty easily.
We lost people, but the drive to beat the Russians outweighed the public outcry for reform
With Columbia and the Challenger, look how long it was before we got the STS program up on its feet

Lets see how the Chinese can handle death

10/8/2007 8:55:05 PM

Considering an average of 50 of their people die each day in their coal mines I'd say pretty good.

10/8/2007 9:00:24 PM

^^ The first Chinese manned mission was announced beforehand, but there was no live coverage of any part of it and it was only after the pilot was back on the ground that any word of the launch was released.

Thats fairly in step with early Soviet launches.

10/8/2007 9:02:41 PM

you're betting on china being held back by the high value they put on human life?

10/8/2007 9:05:24 PM

subject tittle is right. good thing the nasachief remmebered to put "back" in his statement. he almost blew the conspiracy.

10/8/2007 9:33:25 PM

With almost 1.5 billion people, China can afford to lose a few.

10/8/2007 9:37:04 PM

Quote :

"Thats fairly in step with early Soviet launches."

Intelligence today > Intelligence in the 60s

10/8/2007 10:34:27 PM

Quote :

"you're betting on china being held back by the high value they put on human life?"

bwahaha

10/8/2007 10:36:00 PM

the embarrassment of sending up missions and having them fail

10/8/2007 10:37:33 PM

regardless of intelligence improvements

government secrecy = government secrecy

10/8/2007 10:51:03 PM

why can't we get back quicker? i mean, its not rocket science

10/8/2007 11:14:50 PM

Quote :

"you're betting on china being held back by the high value they put on human life?"

No, but I do bet them that they put a high value on saving face, particularly when their national pride and joy, their trumpeted taikonaut heroes and the pride of Chinese engineering and science is scattered across the four corners of the globe.

10/8/2007 11:19:22 PM

That's where they're building their new bomb factory.

10/9/2007 12:09:45 AM

Quote :

"why can't we get back quicker?"

We don't have the technology or the experience to send a crew up quickly. Lets take it step by step

Crew - Every single astronaut we have right now has been trained extensively on the Shuttle, thats what they know. The Orion spacecraft is a different kind of bird all together. It will require extensive training on and call for different skills than the shuttle.

Technology - Any technology that we send up will have to be tested again, and again, and again etc...We're going to launch this thing 6 times before we actually put a crew in it. This is assuming that every thing works well, if not, we keep repeating steps until all the kinks are worked out. Once we get a crew into the thing, we still gotta do more tests with it. We'll even send it around the moon once without even landing like with did with Apollo 8 and 10. Keep in mind, while all this is going on, we still gotta send crews to the ISS, so thats going to cut into the supply of spacecraft..funding is a bitch.

Also, We've never gone to the moon like this before. Everything in the Apollo days was sent up on one massive rocket. Now, we're sending up the Orion and the Lunar Lander on two different rockets, join them in orbit, and then sending them to the moon.

10/9/2007 12:14:19 AM

BREAKING NEWS!! In the Moon's very first McDonald's, serious contamination of the drinking supply has occurred. Local sources are reporting that, in an effort to play a joke, Chinese employees put pee pee in the Coke.

10/9/2007 1:08:05 AM

Quote :

"Keep in mind, while all this is going on, we still gotta send crews to the ISS, so thats going to cut into the supply of spacecraft..funding is a bitch. "

well, funding is a bitch, but the shuttle will have been retired ?two? years before orion ever has a single launch.

10/9/2007 1:17:07 AM

More like 3

10/9/2007 1:06:31 PM

they'll never make it

halfway there they'll all jump out of the spacecraft and try to run around it really fast and jump back in

in space, no one can hear you scream

10/9/2007 1:09:37 PM

Quote :

"We don't have the technology or the experience to send a crew up quickly."

wtf are you talking about??? we definitely have the technology, and we're the ONLY ones with the experience.

what we don't have is the political willpower, which really means we don't have the money. Iraq is draining our nation's bank and soul.

10/9/2007 3:39:18 PM

No current astronaut has the skills/experience to get to the moon.
All technology that could send us to the moon right is still development

10/9/2007 3:41:36 PM

if there was some impetus for us to get to the moon in five years, we could. there's no doubt in my mind. hell, we could probably do it in three.

10/9/2007 3:42:29 PM

If we absolutely had to get to the moon as quickly as possible, I'd say 7-10.

10/9/2007 3:46:19 PM

that's ridiculous. it took us less time to get there the first time.

10/9/2007 3:54:08 PM

Took 8 years from Apollo on paper to Apollo on the moon.

Also back then astronauts were training on similar systems of the Apollo craft on Mercury and Gemini systems.

Astronauts will required completely new training than the shuttle.

10/9/2007 4:05:47 PM

i just really don't understand how you could think it would 7 years if it was a national priority.

hell, if we had to, WE ALREADY HAVE APOLLO ON PAPER. not that we'd do it that way again, but if we had to we could.

10/9/2007 4:29:25 PM