China's and others' missions to the Moon

[ARF]

Today, The Chang'e 6 touched down in the South Pole-Aitken Basin at 06:23 Beijing time on Sunday morning (22:23 GMT Saturday), the China National Space Administration (CNSA) said.
Launched on 3 May, the mission aims to collect precious rock and soil from this region for the first time in history.
The probe could extract some of the Moon's oldest rocks from a huge crater on its South Pole.

China says its Chang'e-6 mission successfully landed on Moon's far side

The mission hopes to bring rocks back to Earth from the far side of the Moon for the first time.

www.bbc.com

Also, in the next 15-20 years, China and Russia aim to build a base on the Moon.

Russia and China announce plan to build shared nuclear reactor on the moon by 2035, 'without humans'

The proposed nuclear reactor would provide energy to a lunar base that Russia and China have agreed to build together.

www.space.com

Great to see this happen.

 

[Onasi]

I, uh, have reasons to be rather skeptical of the current state of the Russian space program. Roscosmos has been badly mismanaged for years now.

 

[freeagent]

But.. but.. the firmament

I guess that is another topic

 

[P4-630]

And then "Russian satellite launched with onboard nuke".....

 

[natr0n]

But.. but.. the firmament

I guess that is another topic

Their space faith will fall apart one day when all is revealed.

 

[Ferrum Master]

Did they find the Nazi base?

 

[basco]

let´s ride china's elevator to space and find them

 

[the54thvoid]

This is the science forum, so please try to contribute. China landing on the moon is an achievement. Logical discussion is welcome - trolls will be ejected.

 

[JWNoctis]

Something to put the thread back on the rail, and some food for thought: The Moon has more or less looked the same, for anything that has ever lived on this planet, and had eyes capable of resolving it, and the neurons to perceive it.

Except for it looking larger in past times, and the youngest, barely naked-eye craters with rays. By "youngest", we are still talking about ~100M years here. I'm sure the dinosaurs - and for that matter, our presumably little fuzzy ancestors - enjoyed the firework when that impact hit.

Surely there are, or will be, something worthwhile up there. Hopefully.

 

[basco]

i was not trolling with china's space elevator :

Space elevators are inching closer to reality

Tremendous progress has been made developing the materials necessary for a space elevator — but our need for one could soon disappear.

www.freethink.com

 

[WonkoTheSaneUK]

Apparently, it's already on the way back, with lunar samples.

China: Chang'e-6 far side of the Moon probe begins journey back

Chang'e-6 will bring home rock samples that could help scientists study how planets are formed.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[natr0n]

We all know what video games/renders look like. Nothing looks real from anything China showed.

 

[Vayra86]

Something to put the thread back on the rail, and some food for thought: The Moon has more or less looked the same, for anything that has ever lived on this planet, and had eyes capable of resolving it, and the neurons to perceive it.

Except for it looking larger in past times, and the youngest, barely naked-eye craters with rays. By "youngest", we are still talking about ~100M years here. I'm sure the dinosaurs - and for that matter, our presumably little fuzzy ancestors - enjoyed the firework when that impact hit.

Surely there are, or will be, something worthwhile up there. Hopefully.

Personally, I view the moon as the easiest staging ground and testing facility for longer distance space travel. We've been using it as such, anyway. I think truly accessible space travel is a baby steps affair. Its so difficult, we can't even perceive all the things we might need for it yet. Not even Musk has the faintest idea.

 

[ty_ger]

Not even Musk has the faintest idea.

He never did have the faintest idea about it other than figuring out the words required to please investors and get grants. That's why reality is so separated from idea.

 

[Kapone33]

Personally, I view the moon as the easiest staging ground and testing facility for longer distance space travel. We've been using it as such, anyway. I think truly accessible space travel is a baby steps affair. Its so difficult, we can't even perceive all the things we might need for it yet. Not even Musk has the faintest idea.

There would have be something Star Trek Enterprise for that to happen. We do not even understand the laws of matter moving at the speed of light. Thing is we would have to move even faster to get anywhere in just the Galaxy. Like Andromeda the concept of the Galaxy we see with the naked eye is not capable of rationalize the distance involved. I know we quote 2 million light years and that is an insane amount of time.

He never did have the faintest idea about it other than figuring out the words required to please investors and get grants. That's why reality is so separated from idea.

When it comes to space Musk is no smarter than Von Braun when it comes to space travel. It is still the same technology.

 

[R-T-B]

When it comes to space Musk is no smarter than Von Braun when it comes to space travel.

I can't believe you just compared the intelligence of Musk to Von Braun.

We all know what video games/renders look like. Nothing looks real from anything China showed.

Polar shadows are a bitch like that. Space looks unearthly, who'dve thunk it. Science man.

 

[Kapone33]

I can't believe you just compared the intelligence of Musk to Von Braun.


Polar shadows are a bitch like that. Space looks unearthly, who'dve thunk it. Science man.

Intelligence of Rocket technology is what I am talking about. Of course Van Braun did not have the luxury of the computing power that is and was available to Musk.

 

[WonkoTheSaneUK]

Reminder - Unlike Von Braun, Musk is not a rocket surgeon, he just knows how to hire good ones.

 

[xtreemchaos]

congrats to China. i think to do well in space we need to get past sides and be one people, then we would do much better. "they say on the moon we can get so high we can never come down " next Friday"

 

[xtreemchaos]

not with me it don't it gets in the way of Astronomy.

 

[Fourstaff]

Ladies and Gentlemen, last reminder to stay on topic and try not to get yourself entangled with earthly matters.

 

[R0H1T]

get yourself entangled with earthly matters.

So very <Martian of you

As for the topic at hand isn't Moon a lot more inhospitable than Mars? Or it's just closer hence the greater interest

 

[R-T-B]

As for the topic at hand isn't Moon a lot more inhospitable than Mars?

Sorta. It has a higher harvestable solar output which is good for us, less dust storms also. But it is also atmosphereless which is kinda bad. It's just way way closer.

 

[ty_ger]

Would it be harder to fly equipment/materials to
1) the moon to build a vessel to create and contain an atmosphere and then maintain that atmosphere chemically, electrically, and/or organically
OR
2) mars to build a vessel to contain an atmosphere that you convert from mars' existing atmosphere


Honest question.

Anyone know the science and numbers?

It seems the moon would be the obvious place to start, but I don't know.

 

[Shrek]

Reminder - Unlike Von Braun, Musk is not a rocket surgeon, he just knows how to hire good ones.

As I recall von Braun proposed a single rocket rather than the multistage solution that went to the moon.