Not only that, I hear that they'll kidnap you, drug you, and then you'll end up in a bathtub full of ice with your kidneys missing.
By my calculations, we're at about the same relative stage in space travel as we were in the 1980's. China is where we were in the 1960's. Both us and China have other more pressing needs, military and domestic, between now and battlestar galactica, not to mention that our government does not have the money to fund these big expensive programs you seem to advocate. I wouldn't start worrying about the sky falling down and shooting lasers at you just yet.
"China has a LONG way to go...I mean, we've already blown up TWO shuttles and killed 14 people!" Hey, comeon! That's not very cool, especially here in Houston.
speaking of militarisation of space. it has been reported the orbital portion of the Shenzhou V, which will remains in space, contains 2 high-resolution cameras which may be used to track US carrier groups moving in the Pacific. it's not the first time China has launched spy satellites, nor will it be the last. but it's not like America's got a monopoly on these things in any case.
I'd agree on our position (we've pissed away 20 years' worth of lead), but disagree on the Chinese. They are further ahead than that. If you'd look at their module, you'll see that it is far more sophisticated than our -60s era modules. It is designed for three people. Its electronics are state of the art. It is actually more capable of a lunar mission than anything we're flying today (no, the shuttle can't do a lunar mission). In fact, put that module on a more powerful rocket and it is lunar capable. They are not as far behind as you think. According to the PLA, China's most pressing military need is to counter US technological superiority. By taking space they can do that. (if you understood our current military, you would understand that our control of space is one of the largest reasons our military is as capable as it is - space is absolutely vital to our current military operations) What if they develop a viable ASAT technology? Then they could destroy GPS (rendering our bombs useless and our nav systems impotent) and totally blind us by destroying our satintel capabilities. Take away our teeth and our eyes, all in a single day. That ASAT capabiliy, assuming it was space-based, would also be capable of destroying any shuttle or payload we tried to send up. Do you see the implications of this? You just don't understand why we fund these pricey military toys in the first place. As a Democrat, that doesn't surprise me; military matters are usually beyond your grasp. Let me put it simply: What do you think would be more expensive - to arm shuttles (and create and arm their successors) and develop an ASAT capability, or to allow the PLA to defeat us in a war, or give aid to enemies such as NK that would render our bombs useless and our sats blind? We have time to deal with this potential threat. But we do not have forever.
I was sitting in front of Janelle Onizuka (El Onizuka's daughter) when Challenger exploded. It couldn't have been more than an hour before the guys at Clear Lake High School were telling jokes (how many astronauts in a VW bug, what was the last thing McAuliffe said) about the accident. It is human nature for some people to respond to tragedy with humor. Don't take it seriously.
You lost me right there. As a partisan shill, it doesn't surprise me that you are too narrow minded to see the forest through the trees. Bye.
Putting the two together, sounds like Americans already "militarized" space or used space-based tech for military purposes. China is just playing chatchup together. Isn't it?
Treeman There's a nice debate going on in the thread about the 60 Minutes II report last night about Colin Powel's speech to the U.N. Instead of starting arguments in this one, why don't you hop on over to that and give us your opinion.
