Chinese moon base

[OVERKILL]

China to develop two super-heavy launchers for moon missions - SpaceNews

China will work on development of two types of super-heavy launch vehicles for future lunar projects, a senior official said Wednesday.

spacenews.com

HELSINKI — China will work on development of two types of super-heavy launch vehicles for future lunar projects, a senior official said Wednesday.

Jiang Jie, chief designer of the Long March 3A series of hypergolic launchers, told press (Chinese) in Beijing March 3 that the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT) would continue development of both a heavy launch vehicle and a new generation crew launch vehicle over the next five years.

*snip*

China last year tested a new-generation crew spacecraft capable of transporting astronauts beyond low Earth orbit, demonstrating a commitment to developing crewed lunar capabilities. The Chang’e-5 lunar sample return also adopted a complex mission profile involving a lunar orbit rendezvous and docking, verifying some of the techniques and technologies needed to get astronauts home from the moon.

China is also discussing the possibility of establishing an International Lunar Research Station with Russia. The project would build on the planned Chang’e-6, 7 and 8 missions and potentially lead to long-term human stays on the moon, suggesting China has serious, solidifying plans for using the new launchers.

In-line with my posts in buster's Infrastructure thread, China's ambitions are what Western ambitions were before the great "woke" revolution, rise of political correctness and policy crafted around electability not long-term goals. Before we outsourced a large portion of the middle class and gutted our manufacturing sector.

 

[buster]

I'm hoping this wakes us up. Warren Buffet recently said "Never bet against America". Sometimes we need a fierce competitor to get our act together.

 

[gman2304]

I suspect their ambitions are NOT to gather lunar rocks and dust, plant a flag, and then come home!

 

[Davejam]

They just want to harvest cheese.

 

[CKN]

It's not easy to land men on the moon-and bring them back. It's a GIANT WELL SEE.

 

[Al]

Whats the point of spending big money to send HUMANS to the moon or other planets.

 

[samven]

I dont understand why this is such a big deal. It should be an everyday happening, after all we put a man on the moon 52 years ago. This has to be the slowest technological advancement since the wheel, other than the electric car.

 

[buster]

SpaceX and other private space companies want to go back to the moon and be the first to send humans to Mars.

 

[buster]

Speaking of the moon, I found this interesting. I wonder if this possibly why some today say the Van Allen belts are a problem.

 

[PandaBear]

Whats the point of spending big money to send HUMANS to the moon or other planets.

Bragging right. This is important if you want to get into the too big to fail club. In the old days you get nuclear weapon and you are in, but now when India and Pakistan have them, you need something that not everyone can do. This is why we are doing Mars and China is trying to do moon.

Our money printing scheme requires us to be too big to fail to work. If you want to write checks that nobody else cashes, that's important.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Whats the point of spending big money to send HUMANS to the moon or other planets.

Once we gut this planet, where else are we going to be getting natural resources from? And where else can we live once this planet becomes unlivable?

 

[PandaBear]

Speaking of the moon, I found this interesting. I wonder if this possibly why some today say the Van Allen belts are a problem.

View attachment 47765 View attachment 47766

There is nothing wrong with 90s technology. It is proven by now and it has a radiation hardened design. It is good enough.

I like my 90s cars and 90s houses, I don't get rid of them like 90s fashion (oh wait, I'm still wearing my 90s stuff, it is back in fashion).

 

[Pelican]

I'm hoping this wakes us up. Warren Buffet recently said "Never bet against America". Sometimes we need a fierce competitor to get our act together.

Also NEVER underrate the stupidity of politicians!

 

[Wolf359]

Oh, I just started watching the series For All Mankind which is an alternate history of where the Russians got to the moon before the US. They have a few Saturday V launches in it. Basically it's sound in the sense that one theory is that there's ice on the moon hidden in craters that don't get sunlight so they didn't burn off. Lots of comets are just made of ice. Anyway if you can mine the ice, you can have a refueling station not so far deep in a gravity well.

 

[y_p_w]

Whats the point of spending big money to send HUMANS to the moon or other planets.

It's a prestige project. For the most part other countries abandoned manned moon missions because it's ridiculously expensive. However, the space race in the 60s did lead to extreme advances in electronics and computing technology.

I did find it interesting that NASA used to have almost a "money no object" approach to electronics. In the commercial sector, building custom chips was done even if only for a few parts. But in the commercial sector it's not economical unless millions of parts are made. However, these days a lot of that can be done with FPGAs and commercial chips are often good enough for the applications.

 

[andyd]

2/3 of the planet is covered by oceans that average 13,000 deep. Loaded with all sorts of useful stuff. Surely easier to exploit than Mars

 

[simple_gifts]

RadioLab had an excellent episode exploring "cosmic rays" and how it flip bits on a computer

Bit Flip

What do a hacked Belgian election, a falling airplane and a fleet of runaway cars all have in common? The answer just might lie in the stars.

www.wnycstudios.org

 

[buster]

Does anyone know how we got through the Van Allen belts back then? NASA, today, acknowledges the challenges of the VA Belts.

 

[y_p_w]

RadioLab had an excellent episode exploring "cosmic rays" and how it flip bits on a computer

Bit Flip

What do a hacked Belgian election, a falling airplane and a fleet of runaway cars all have in common? The answer just might lie in the stars.

www.wnycstudios.org

I heard that one. Soft errors are fairly rare, but always possible. Some mission critical memories use error correction codes just in case, although most consumer grade memory doesn't. Solid state drives always contain some sort of error correction. If they didn't they simply would stop working. I understand that part of the reason why some solid-state drives or flash drives slow down over time because they spend more time correcting the data.

I talked to a few people about space electronics. Some of the ways to reduce the instances include reducing the amount of semiconductor "bulk" that might absorb cosmic rays - such as silicon-on-insulator or silicon-on-sapphire. There has to be a certain thickness of the bulk materials just for mechanical strength. Another method is shielding. There might also be redundant computing.

There's more cosmic radiation up at higher altitudes. Not sure how critical this is for the average airliner.

 

[MasterSolenoid]

I would hope that Mars (Martians) would NOT become another welfare recipient.

Once life becomes established on Mars, if they come to earth for a visit,
it will be a repeat of history (Settlers coming to America).