original here From the Guardian (UK): I'd be intrested to know how people feel about this. Is it something we should be worried about? How does it differ from the 'space race' between the US, and the USSR in the 60's? Should we try to compete? Would it have any significance if the Chineese dominated the moon and, perhaps, even Mars?
I'm not so worried about their space program.....but if there's a country you want to keep your eye on, it's China (leads all nations in satellites launched, buying up weapons and technology at a frantic pace, etc.)......imo, they'll test their might in the next 10-20 years. One of China's biggest problems is that they lack oil....their solution? Maybe take control of some of Russia's oil fields? They've sent warships to a disputed island with Japan... And of course, there's always Taiwan. It'll be interesting to see how it all plays out over the coming years.
Its great. Our Space program gets little respect and has been squeezed for years; maybe this will wake-up some legislators. From a more global perspective, any additional human endeavours in Space are a step forward for all of us (short of military endeavours).
i'm not sure any of the heavy hitters will take this all that seriously....china has it's own set of real problems...i'll believe it when i see it.
The weirdest part is all the astronauts will have to wear diapers. They won't have enough room to have some sort of toilet system, but they will have enough for a trash receptacle ( to outer space?), so they have a bunch of 110 pound five foot six to five foot seven pilots in training to fit inside a barrel. That picture could be their entire rocket. They are going to out minaturize the Japanese and Taiwanese! Pretty soon their ICBM's will be the size of pencils.
OH GREAT JOB China reall smart?~??! What will the aliens think when they open up our spaceship and it is full of monkey dogs . Huh? Right. THIS PLANET IS RAN BY DOGS!!!! The ALIENS will be bringnig us leashes and water dishes. OK haha, DUKE made a joke there. DUKE is really more worried about CHINA sending DUMMIES into space. DUKE will miss you, Almu.
