Now that Obama can rest assured that the whole of the Middle East is in the process of being consumed by rabid Islamists, why stop there? The legacy of the malevolent, Jew-hating malignant narcissist in the White House (or, more often, the golf course) has now led the Chinese to calculate that the Moon is up for grabs. Why not take the literal high ground while America remains under the boot of a spoiled, angry and incompetent chief executive? So while the Dumb Bastard works on his golf swing, the Chinese “will develop new satellites, accelerate efforts to build a space station and strengthen its research in space.” Great job liberals!
China push to put astronaut on the moon
China has declared its intention to land an astronaut on the moon, in the first official confirmation of its aim to go where Americans last set foot nearly 40 years ago.
While Chinese scientists have previously discussed the possibility of a manned lunar mission, a government white paper published on Thursday is the first public government document to enshrine it as a policy goal. China will “conduct studies on the preliminary plan for a human lunar landing”, the white paper said…According to the white paper, which serves as a blueprint for the next five years, China will develop new satellites, accelerate efforts to build a space station and strengthen its research in space. Laying the foundation for a mission to the moon, the government also plans to launch unmanned lunar probes and make “new technological breakthroughs” in human space flights by 2016. The last time an astronaut set foot on the moon was in December 1972 as part of the US Apollo 17 mission.
Doesn’t America own the moon? We spent all those resources so that other earth nations can establish their own territories on the moon? Why didn’t America make the moon our 51st state or another American territory? Isn’t this the same argument the natives of North America, South America, and Australia contend? That they “own” the land because they were there first.
Pssssst….Don’t tell the Commies the Moon is made out of cheese, OK?, because Wallace and Gromit went there because they had run out of it.
posted 12/29 945pm Texas [Pass the Wheat Thins] Time.
The picture at the top of this blog post says it all: China is about to rewrite history so that the valiant Chinese people, not the Americans, really did the hard work of first exploring the Moon. The whole exercise makes my blood boil.
First. One learns that when developing a technology it is often as important to know that something can be done as it is working out the details of your particular implementation of the idea. Think about 25 May 1961 when President Kennedy told Congress that we were going to the Moon by the end of the decade. At that time the US had only managed to launch Alan Shepherd into a short sub-orbital hop. There was no template or demonstration that a man could actually walk on the Moon, no indication which of the rendezvous schemes was best, what the shape of the lander should look like, etc. We attacked each of these problems, many in parallel, with only the knowledge that we want men to walk on the Moon and return to earth. The Chinese have a huge advantage in that the US did much of the initial research and development – all the Chinese need to do is evolve known technologies and techniques – with the benefit of almost four decades of technological development. Back in the US, the hundreds of thousands of 20-something engineers that performed the feat of landing Armstrong and Aldrin on the moon are either retiring or recently retired. We allowed our knowledge base to degrade over the years.
Second, the timing of the Chinese announcement was probably no mistake. Last week, 21-27 December, was the anniversary of the first manned flight to the Moon by Apollo 8. They already are starting to lay claim to important dates and time periods needed to establish the priority of their claim. This is no different than the victory mosque being built at Ground Zero in New York.
Lastly, it’s not just that the Chinese know that America is “under the boot of a spoiled, angry and incompetent chief executive.” They know even worse things: Americans have gone from being a people who “go places and do things,” while accepting calculated risk, to one of the most risk-averse societies on the planet, and we no longer make things. The first point addresses the four decades of legal, governmental, and cultural effort devoted to the wussification of Americans. Going to the Moon was dangerous with tremendous calculated risk. It will be exceptionally dangerous to go back there. If we ever want go back, we will need to scrape off four decades of leftist corrosion to our courage and sense of national purpose. The second point has to do with our scientific and engineering base: we may still create paper designs, but we have been steadily losing the ability to create extremely large complex systems from scratch. (For example, the US failure to build the Superconducting Super Collider, the rival to CERN’s LHC in the search for the Higgs boson.)
There is one quick way out of this dilemma: show Obama the video of Alan Shepherd taking his lunar golf shot on Apollo 14. Then tell him that the Moon is the ultimate golf course with plenty of holes to play, and we’ll be glad to see that he gets the first tee time.
Cartoon Idea:The Commies playing golf on the Moon and the DFB is their caddy.
posted 12/30 910am Texas[Fore!]Time
Sorry Tammy, you said most of the above in your Daily Briefing. 🙁 Need to listen to you before getting on my high horse about things.
Good idea Dennis. I’d do it for you but my drawing ability is limited to stick figures.
G’day.
The United States does not own the Moon , nor do the Chinese or any other nation. The Outer Space Treaty settled that back in 1967 (I think). They may have plans for eventual lunar missions but thats years away. Its true NASA’s manned space program is a joke . There have been eight Presidents since 1969, none have been able to get American astronauts out of Earth orbit. Despite spending billions on various projects they haven’t been able to launch a new rocket into space since the Shuttle in 1981. They are an aging government bureaucracy whose main interest is self preservation. Interest in Space is limited. Look at ,Gringrich he is pro space but Romney and the Democrats have used it against him However ,in the mean time American commercial space efforts are leaving NASA and the Chinese in the dust. Google SpaceX, Xcor, Stratolaunch for starters. There main interest is not the Moon as such but lowering the costs of getting into Space. If they succeed there will be Americans and others all over the Solar System. If Space remains expensive theres not going to be much activity up there by the Chinese or anyone else.
ta
Ralph