China lands lunar rover

[Sentry]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/china-lands-rover-on-the-moon-1.2464171

Pretty incredible. Even nearly 50 years after the Russians did it, it's no small feat. I think they will eventually land a man on the moon, they seem to be working toward that goal.

[lilmira]

Yet, they still couldn't figure out where to urinate in a mall.

[ZenOps]

Meh, mostly a waste of money IMO.

Why bother to be the second guy to climb mount everest? Why bother be the 20,000th? Does anyone anyone really care about the second guy to make it to the top? BTW: We are at that point in time where people even start to forget the name of the first person to make it to the top of Everest, as well as the first person to land on the moon.

Besides, it doesn't actually produce anything. Its like the US building 40,000 nukes only to dismantle them because they never used more than two.

At least when China produces knock off watches and copies of sunflower paintings, its productive. The entirety of NASA could be categorized as a make-work project, for China to copy Nasa is a bad road to follow.

Although at this rate, they could probably shoot for a man on the moon mission - by 2055 (about the same time that a barrel of oil should cost $3,000 if the US dollar is still around)

Drone pizza delivery is probably far more productive and useful than a real or faked moon landing.

Theoretical headline: China 2056, lands man on moon. US Nasa sues $20 Quadrillion for patent infringment. Yes..

[roll_over]

Maybe this is China's way of preparing for the apocalypse

[revelations]

They are just looking for new places to build high rise condos.... or corner stores.

[Unknown303]

They are going to start mining the moon.

[MGCM]

Originally posted by lilmira
Yet, they still couldn't figure out where to urinate in a mall.

or a toilet to take a shit either lol, those fukurs piss and shit anywhere they want:dunno:

[bob9979]

Well done China!

FYI£ºThere're rumors about China may abandon their manned lunar expedition.

[clem24]

What they SHOULD'VE done is try to land where the US landed in the past and prove or disprove that landing...

[BigMass]

Originally posted by clem24
What they SHOULD'VE done is try to land where the US landed in the past and prove or disprove that landing...

and driven over Armstrong's footprint lol

[Sugarphreak]

...

[Mibz]

Originally posted by Sugarphreak
Or at least knock down over the flag and replace it with their own, haha Pretty sure the original flag has been sun-bleached pure white by now.

I guess France can now claim they were on the Moon.

[ga16i]

Originally posted by clem24
What they SHOULD'VE done is try to land where the US landed in the past and prove or disprove that landing...

Agreed. Or remove any evidence of the US landing while retrieving the US technology for them. Of course, this is only the landing that's publicized and made available. Who knows what other stuff all the other countries has sent up and for what purpose. There's been suggestion that Yuri Gagarin wasn't the first person in space, but just the first person who survived while doing so and the USSR let us know about. :D If they have the technology and know how to place something that big that far away, it's a safe bet that they can deliver a nuke anywhere on Earth.

[Kloubek]

Way to go China! I mean, about 50 years late... but way to go!

[DeleriousZ]

Originally posted by ZenOps

Why bother to be the second guy to climb mount everest? Why bother be the 20,000th? Does anyone anyone really care about the second guy to make it to the top? BTW: We are at that point in time where people even start to forget the name of the first person to make it to the top of Everest, as well as the first person to land on the moon.

Personal achievement?

[ZenOps]

Originally posted by DeleriousZ
Personal achievement?

Thats all fine and good, as long as one spends only personal money to do it.

If Canada tried to spend a Trillion dollars to go to the moon, I'd also say - stupidest waste of money ever.

If Canada wanted to startup a US counterfeit factory, or even trying to counterfeit China products, I'd be all for it. Canada could use a CanaSamsung HDTV (although I'm pretty sure we would never get to the quality of China)

Canada could also use two nukes. It doesn't have to be thousands, but two would probably be enough.

[spikerS]

Originally posted by Unknown303
They are going to start mining the moon.

This makes so much sense! Popular theory is that the moon is actually a large chunk of the earth that got knocked off during a collision with a large asteroid or another rogue planet. If that theory holds true, there are is probably a ton of valuable resources buried under the surface, and probably overall easy to get to. Lunar composition is largely unknown, as are exploration on the moon, up until this point, has only been on the surface, or the first foot or so of moon dust.

The moon really is a completely unknown factor. All it was, was a race to get there. Once they did, they snapped a few pics, jumped around, shrugged and said "now what?"

We really know nothing about the moon.


Originally posted by Kloubek
Way to go China! I mean, about 50 years late... but way to go!

Exactly! It is really about time a nation starts looking upwards with curiosity, and the means to explore. It is really exciting!

[Mibz]

Originally posted by spikers
there are is probably a ton of valuable resources buried under the surface, and probably overall easy to get to. The cost of bringing materials back to Earth alone would likely offset the value of whatever could be found up there. Let alone the cost of getting surveying and mining equipment up there.

Exploration for science? Fuck yeah!
Mining for profit? Nope.

[ZenOps]

The argument can be made for going the first time. Might have been worth it (but not really)

c0FCE4H0Dro

They did figure out what the moon was made of, and it wasn't cheese... It was the *exact* same stuff as the earth as it actually is earth that go sheared off long ago, which scientists have melded theories around why - and explains why only one side of the moon always faces the earth, is because it is earth.

So there is zero reason to mine it really, as its the exact same stuff as the bedrock here - except its infinitely cheaper to get it here.

Add: Since the earth was the larger mass of the two to survive the impact technically, there should be slightly more heavy elements like gold and platinum on earth, and slightly more light elements on the moon like aluminum.

If you want to spend trillions to mine the moon for alumimum - well thats a choice. Thanks to the Nasa for wasting all that money to find out for sure though. And I'd like the $54,000 debt per US citizen to be paid in nickels thankyouverymuch.

[Mibz]

Originally posted by ZenOps
Add: Since the earth was the larger mass of the two to survive the impact technically, there should be slightly more heavy elements like gold and platinum on earth, and slightly more light elements on the moon like aluminum. Do you have a source for this? I don't think that explanation pans out.

[spikerS]

Originally posted by Mibz
The cost of bringing materials back to Earth alone would likely offset the value of whatever could be found up there. Let alone the cost of getting surveying and mining equipment up there.

Exploration for science? Fuck yeah!
Mining for profit? Nope.

While bringing it back to earth may not be a feasible proposition, it does make sense if they have plans to build some sort of outpost there.

I dunno, I am excited at the proposition of space exploration, and I know it is not going to happen in my lifetime, but the build up to it has me wound up. I have been really disappointed of space progress made in the past 20 years, minus the Space X challenge, so China doing this has me doing backflips.

[bob9979]

Originally posted by ZenOps
The argument can be made for going the first time. Might have been worth it (but not really)

c0FCE4H0Dro

They did figure out what the moon was made of, and it wasn't cheese... It was the *exact* same stuff as the earth as it actually is earth that go sheared off long ago, which scientists have melded theories around why - and explains why only one side of the moon always faces the earth, is because it is earth.

So there is zero reason to mine it really, as its the exact same stuff as the bedrock here - except its infinitely cheaper to get it here.

Add: Since the earth was the larger mass of the two to survive the impact technically, there should be slightly more heavy elements like gold and platinum on earth, and slightly more light elements on the moon like aluminum.

If you want to spend trillions to mine the moon for alumimum - well thats a choice. Thanks to the Nasa for wasting all that money to find out for sure though. And I'd like the $54,000 debt per US citizen to be paid in nickels thankyouverymuch.


FYI£ºHelium-3

[revelations]

Helium 3 would be a huge deal, if they would figure out a viable mining solution for it.

[01RedDX]

.

[01RedDX]

.

[spikerS]

Originally posted by Mibz
The cost of bringing materials back to Earth alone would likely offset the value of whatever could be found up there. Let alone the cost of getting surveying and mining equipment up there.

Exploration for science? Fuck yeah!
Mining for profit? Nope.

just saw an interesting fact that mythbusters put up on their page and I immediately thought of you Mibz.


Did you know that a typical asteroid, like Eros, contains $20 trillion in rare minerals?

Get more, here → http://dsc.tv/sJVSa

$20 trillion...that sounds like it could be profitable in the not so distant future. Who says the moon is out of reach?

[Mibz]

Originally posted by spikers
$20 trillion...that sounds like it could be profitable in the not so distant future. Who says the moon is out of reach? Haha, just because $20 trillion is a really big number doesn't mean the cost to bring those resources back to Earth is smaller.

[ZenOps]

Well, thats a lot longer than I expected the rover to live.

-180 celsius kills nearly every battery known to man, even in the year 2013. Although its definitely possible to just wrap the batteries in nuclear waste.

It does say something about the US missions though, the astronauts must have been plenty crazy to attempt it when the chances of a robot surviving for more than a few days is quite small.

If battery technology is indeed moving that fast, I'd push up my timeline for China to try a man on the moon mission by 2040.

[Cos]

.

[ZenOps]

Originally posted by spikers


just saw an interesting fact that mythbusters put up on their page and I immediately thought of you Mibz.

$20 trillion...that sounds like it could be profitable in the not so distant future. Who says the moon is out of reach?

Completely unfeasable, and not even anywhere near as profitable as many existing mines on earth. Eros is 34.4×11.2×11.2 kilometres according to google.

It would be less valuable and less profitable than the Bingham mine in the US, even if Eros were laying on the earth as a lump of rock. Bingham having already extracted over $100 Billion in copper alone (although its really bad to quote dollars instead of million tonnage)

"Bingham Canyon has proven to be one of the world's most productive mines. As of 2004, ore from the mine has yielded more than 17 million tons (15.4 Mt) of copper, 23 million ounces (715 t) of gold, 190 million ounces (5,900 t) of silver, and 850 million pounds (386 kt) of molybdenum."

If you are going to take a 3 hour commute to work, you'd better be sure you are actually making enough to cover the gasoline. And the space shuttle is a heck of gas guzzler that really only can move a few hundred pounds of excess cargo (maybe 10 standard goodbars of gold weighing 25 pounds apiece)

Cost of a space shuttle flight per trip: $1.5 Billion to go 250 miles up and back down. Maximum weight payload to GTO 3810 kilograms. The Apollo moon program was infinitely more expensive than the space shuttle.

Did occasionally deliver pizzas (by far the most expensive delivery ever) to the space station. Waste of money? IMO, absolutely.

I wouldn't even look at an asteroid unless it had 10,000 tons of gold on it ;)

[msommers]

Originally posted by Mibz
Pretty sure the original flag has been sun-bleached pure white by now.

I guess France can now claim they were on the Moon.

:rofl: Nice

[m10-power]

-f_DPrSEOEo

[95EagleAWD]

Originally posted by clem24
What they SHOULD'VE done is try to land where the US landed in the past and prove or disprove that landing...

There's plenty of pictures of the lunar modules sitting on the moon, along with tracks and footprints.

[Feruk]

Originally posted by ZenOps
Cost of a space shuttle flight per trip: $1.5 Billion to go 250 miles up and back down.
Since when? Last I heard it was $400 million, a quarter of your quoted cost.