“We Chinese people have done something that the Americans have not dared try.”
This seems extraordinarily narrow minded, especially for a professor. As Chinese myself, I don't agree with Prof. Zhu Menghua. NASA has so many firsts in space exploration, it will continue being a worthy teacher for CNSA in coming years.
17
Sigh. Time was when this would have been a story about an American achievement. A spend of billions of dollars for something much more important than a Wall against nothing; I'm imagining the tech advance fallout China will realize from these activities similar to what American companies realized from the US space activities, even more than the pure science.
Partisan politics has made America so short sighted, it makes me cry. Poor American education of the masses fuels this ("It's my right to stay stupid if I want to!"). The countries that will inherit the Earth are the ones encouraging their children to learn as much as possible, and lauding their best and brightest, not the ones denigrating them for being "elite" and crushing them with 20 years of debt.
We're headed for trouble in the West: idiocracies controlled by a loose world oligarchy, cemented by reality-show governing based on spin and personality cults and social media fakery. In that environment, democracy is an illusion. One step towards avoiding this: take big money out of politics.
Meanwhile: China, do your thing! Glad someone is doing it.
15
Totally agree with you about our governing idiocracy, but it‘s not all doom and gloom—our New Horizons probe just visited Ultima Thule in the Kuiper Belt, an achievement several orders of magnitude more difficult than landing a moon rover.
5
Congratulations to China on this one, their ambitions and leadership in space are something ethereal in the USA are sorely lacking. Frankly I’m embarrassed by that. I hope we can begin to share in the future with them and have a global space station.
8
About the previous mission, the Chang'e 3, you wrote: "...thought it continued intermittently to transmit photographs and other information, according to Chinese officials..." Your tone of trying to downplay its accomplishments are obvious, because far from just "according to Chinese officials", the data and imagery that it continually sent back to the Earth in that more than 2 year period were shared with scientists around the world and provided profound insights into the geological formation of the moon since some of those deep scans conducted by the rover's instruments into the interior of the moon revealed geological compositions that were hitherto unseen and unknown about the moon. Yet, you failed to mention any of this in your lengthy article where being truthful about this could not possibly have made any prohibitive difference to the overall length.
Furthermore, as you can tell from the simple facts that I included above, even your insinuations about such basic aspects of that mission as the length of time during which the rover was still performing the mission, after being resurrected from "death", was grossly and therefore perhaps intentionally misleading.
I know that you journos can't be expected to comprehend the scientific discoveries that were made by Chang'e 3 in the previous mission, but at least you guys could have had the competence to find scientists who were informed or simply consulted with one of the other news organizations that covered the stories.
13
".... Last April, a Chinese space station, the Tiangong-1, fell to earth after officials lost communication with it....."
Whoa whoa whoa, wait a minute. My impression (and that of many around me) is that the Tiangong-1 has reached its end of designed commission and was programmably aborted into the atmosphere. Isn't this correct? Can someone clarify?
13
It is fair to call this an engineering success. Its scientific merit is unlikely to produce too much viable information other than to provide some insight into how the crater where it landed was impacted and when. The satellite relay is cleaver.
Silkworms? Really?
The Chinese comment that they pulled off something the Americans wouldn't dare try should be translated to mean the Americans would never put money into a mission this nearly pointless.
3
Big deal! Apollo 8 orbited the moon and took the first dark side pics 50 years ago...So the Chinese are half a century behind us! Wake me up when after they send a probe outside of the Solar System into interstellar space, a feat we have accomplished twice!
5
@David bahniuk
Just FYI.
"On October 7, 1959, the Soviet probe Luna 3 took the first photographs of the lunar far side."
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Far_side_of_the_Moon
15
China is indeed to be congratulated for this significant achievement! The next days, weeks and months will show if and how open the Chinese space program to sharing the data with the international scientific community. Being generous and open to share the data that the lander and its rover can now produce would demonstrate to the world that China has truly become one of the leaders in space exploration. Conversely, a closed, locked-down approach would signal that China is still uncertain about its role and standing in world of space exploration. Time will tell, let's hope it's the sovereign, open approach that wins out!
3
Congratulations to the Chinese for their history-making achievement. It is a magnificent accomplishment.
Such sentiments should be tempered, however, by the realization that as more and more nations send missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond, questions will arise over how we should be using the resources of these celestial bodies, and who owns territory there.
The Outer Space Treaty was a good start when no one had the capability to exploit the resources of the solar system or use the Moon and other bodies for strategic advantage. That time in human history is coming to an end, and we should agree in advance on new ground rules for the exploration, exploitation and colonization of the Solar System.
Otherwise, we will be looking at something akin to the imperial rivalries that erupted after the discovery of the New World -- except that the potential dangers of conflict and confrontation will be far worse.
8
The lunar farside is an excellent place to conduct nuclear weapons tests. No one can see it, and no one can prove anything.
1
Who else thinks they intend to stealth build a military base on the far side of the moon just like they did on those Philippine reefs they made into islands?
1
It saddens to read all the comments dismissing this achievement as no more than China following in our footsteps using stolen technology. I don't know whether the technology used was in fact stolen, but that is not the point at all. What saddens me is what the US *choses* to do with what we have. How a once great nation of diverse peoples bound by lofty ideals has been reduced to what we are today. We have taken to jeering from the sidelines while others have begun to take the lead. If it is indeed our technology, why are we no longer leading the way?
So sad....
11
@The F.A.D. We are currently receiving pictures from an American spacecraft from some four billion miles away. So what are you talking about?
3
@The F.A.D.
Can't agree more. Imagine the Germans jeering Americans for stealing all the German rocket technology after WWII to establish NASA and its space enterprise....
10
@John F. Harrington
Do we share those pictures from some four billion miles away to the chinese as they are sharing theirs to international scientific communities?
4
A conundrum for far right commentators: Rant against China or claim it's a hoax?
7
What an accomplishment!
Now I wonder what the conspiracy theorists will say about the "alien space stations" that are anchored on the dark side of the moon? I guess a picture is worth a thousand words...the image the Chinese machine sent back makes the back side look like a pretty empty place.
4
RE: “We Chinese people have done something that the Americans have not dared try.”
Or maybe just too cheap to try.
@Marie
No not too cheap, the people in charge fear demonstrating that self governing people can organize and effectively do things which they want you to think is impossible or only best done by private enterprise.
Never forget they think You are the problem to be overcome not their boss. "government is the problem" that means You are the problem as far as republicans are concerned.
Why is it that when people organize together for profit its better than them organizing together for the benefit of all?
@magicisnotreal
Since the Republicans didn't want to spend money on exploration I took that as too cheap to try.
3
Marx was right. Capitalism will hang itself by its own rope.
How many of the Chinese scientists and rocketeers involved in this process, were educated at MIT, Caltech and Stanford, happy to export their learning to a nation sworn to defeat us? And how many Intel chips were on those spacecraft?
By enabling our enemies through our callous disregard of the value our crown jewels - the best educational system in the world which we happily make available to all, and the world's most innovative technology companies products - the day that rope is knotted around our necks quickly approaches.
3
@Thomas
Wake up. Without these immigrant scientists, 90% of the US national labs would be empty. China is getting back maybe 5% of these talents educated in the US. The majority of it is propping up science research in the US, while the cream of US natives is busy trading stocks, writing movie scripts, or litigating for multinationals.
I am not sure you know what you are talking about, but go take a tour of these labs yourself and get real.
14
They plan to have the first moon baby by 2023. It has been said the child will have powers and abilities we can't even imagine.
2
Congratulations to all the Chinese on this remarkable achievement. Hope we Russians can be helpful. Long live the Chinese Communist Party, which is leading the movement towards the progress of all mankind.
7
Guided by the thought of Marx and Engels!
1
Everyone: there is no dark side of the moon, just a far side.
6
This is an achievement for all humanity, just like Neil Armstrong. We are to be proud and happy for the Chinese, but I can't help but think if Reagan had not destroyed NASA to encourage private effort, and spent billions of weapons systems instead, we would have accomplished this decades ago.
15
What!?
Outrageous!
An act of war!
All humanity knows the moon belongs to the USA!
3
Pink Floyd already beat the Chinese to the Dark Side of the Moon
3
Of course, the "dark side" of the moon is only dark when the near side is fully lit, during a full moon.
1
China leads the way to man's destiny in the stars! Time for the U.S. to catch up with a massive investment in space exploration as we did after the Soviet Union launched Sputnik. That was the best money this nation ever spent, and we can do it again! All it takes is will and a sense of mission that we had when Kennedy was President. If we are to compete with China, let's do it in a way that benefits both countries! If only we could focus on this instead of the kind of partisan politics we are going to see in Congress for the next two years!
7
@Tony Wicher
Agreed, but let's not forget the incredible accomplishment of our scientists at NASA and associates who guided the New Horizons spacecraft to Pluto in 2015 and just visited Ultima Thule, the farthest object visited by spacecraft. Add to that the current Juno mission to Jupiter....Cassini which finished its mission to Saturn. I'd say the USA is the leader in space exploration.
1
The Chang'e-4 lunar probe landed close to von Karman crater. Dr. Theodore von Karman was a Doctoral adviser to Chinese scientist Dr. Tsien Hsue-shen at Cal Tech. They were the founder of Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Dr. Tsien was deported in 1945 back to China in exchange for American Korean POW during the McCarthy's era. Dr. Tsien started the space program in China and later became the Father of China Space Program.
It comes in full circle. May be this is a tribute to Dr. von Karman from Dr. Tsien by landing a lunar probe near to a crater named after him. Congratulation.
6
Amazing that Americans were the first and last to walk on the moon but have no ability to do that today. While the Russians charge us $ 75 million per astronaut to ride to the International Space Station. China has no role nor right to ride to the ISS.
NASA's current annual budget of $20 billion is 0.50% of the federal budget. While the size of of the budget is the same as the 1960's and 1970's peaks the percentage of the federal budget is significantly lower. Ranging from 1% to 4.5% of federal budget for most of those years right through the 1980's and 1990's.
The real question is where do we go from here? Mars looms as too costly and deadly for our one nations currrent treasury and technology.
3
@Blackmamba - Let's please stay focused on the rapid loss of forests on Earth... think, no water, crazy climate catastrophes - it will be like Mars right here with a few bombs thrown-in.
Why go to Mars is the real question; it can't be sightseeing, and anything that costly is well, it's more than just another extreme sport of manhood, like climbing a mountain just because it's there. It's simply going to be about corporate profits and military advancement and/or advantage.
When will people have this discussion?
2
China in 2019. Scientists progressing, leaders regressing. Same here. The difference is that we have a proven mechanism in place to save ourselves. Over the next twenty four months we’ll see if we remember how to use it. Nonetheless, I hope that the true innovators in China are someday able to create one for themselves.
4
When I was a kid in Buffalo, all my friends belonged to the astronomy club at the Science Museum. I had my own telescope & was out every night watching the stars. Now I’m old & see things differently. I see that science serving industry has brought humanity to the brink of extinction. Chinese cities are so polluted the people can’t see across the street, but they can see the far side of moon. Some exchange! We were healthier & happier as hunter-gathers. And smarter.
3
@JGSD
"Chinese cities are so polluted the people can’t see across the street"
Pollution was caused by the lack of science and technology, not the other way around.
1
The American space program should greatly benefit from
China creating competition which has always always been
a necessary element for U.S. space program funding. Thank you China !
6
It is pitiful that space is just another competition.
Imagine if ALL the countries on earth worked together. Won't happen, but it should. Maybe it will take the threat of extinction by as yet undiscovered aliens, to get cooperation.
4
@kaydayjay Who needs aliens to drive us to extinction when we are well on the way to handling the chore ourselves?
1
Will the Chinese government pay royalties to Pink Floyd? After all, it was their idea.
6
I’m a PF fan and chuckled at your comment, but... to clarify, the far side of the moon is the face that is always pointing away from earth so we don’t see it from here. The dark side of the moon is the face that points away from the sun - which does change continually. For example, when we see a thin crescent moon, the far side is almost entirely lit - it’s hardly dark at all.
1
@susan The dark side of the moon was called the dark side of the moon long before Pink Floyd.
2
No tweet from Trump on Russia's supersonic missiles, and none on his Space Force after China's accomplishment on this landing on the dark side of the moon. Perhaps he should ask for funding on that as well during the shut down negotiations, what's a few billions when the GOP already wasted trillions in the tax cut!
6
Let Trump be the first to call for a big beautiful wall on the Moon - and we'll make China pay for it!
14
Congrats China on being the first to do this! Meanwhile, our president want to build a wall.
16
Congratulations to China with her successful reverse side moon landing of a probe called Chang’e-4. Indeed, it is a stupendous achievement – a first of its kind – to land the probe deep into one of its deepest craters on its other side, and then to establish successfully a communication relay type system with other secondary satellites to reach earth.
While we a congratulate China on her phenomenal success in space, let us also remind ourselves of an equally important, if not a more difficult task, of reaching Ultima Thule, a tiny object some 4 bn miles away from earth, by a NASA spacecraft accomplishing the moist distant fly-by so far. These two achievements, most staggering in our recent space exploration history, point to a wonderful possibility of joint cooperation between the two giants. Both USA and China are truly advanced science and technology communities; together they can indeed take mankind to a new threshold of synergy and peaceful existence for the entire world to benefit.
20
Pink Floyd beat China to the Dark Side of the Moon!
4
Meanwhile our government is shut down because of the fool trump.
6
I'm sorry they politicized it. The ISS is a world asset, and those participants, which include Russians, do not make snarky remarks. This landing is also a world class achievement, and should be considered as a step for humanity, not for only one country. Congratulations all around.
12
@hMax Orbit
Sorry but the ISS Ceased to be a world asset when the US Refused to let China to participate.
Dark Side of the Moon was a great album, I'll say that.
3
Probably looking for a location for the next Starbucks.
Pink Floyd would be proud of this accomplishment
21
But what country provided the technology? They asked for it.
2
So while the republican congress and president are shutting our borders and killing any and all science research, including space exploration, the Chinese are reaching out and engaging with the world and the universe. Which strategy do you think will be more successful?
12
Lest we forget, China does NOT have a free press, a free internet, or a fair and reliable justice system. Just SLOW DOWN!
6
This accomplishment by China is not about who landed what on the moon fist. The same historical achievements, being first in exploration, are always just a side notation in the history books. Yes, the U. S. landed on the moon first but lost its commitment to fully follow through on that achievement. Without follow through, you leave leadership in space exploration to others. The impact of pressing onward is sustained and true world leadership. This country traded the full commitment to space exploration for tax cuts and will surely cede leadership without a change in commitment.
There are many arguments about who stepped on America's shores first. History always proves, first is not the end of the mission merely the beginning.
5
Another leap forward for mankind.
Thank you, China
16
Though I find the article fascinating, and I am happy for the Chinese space agency, I really wish we would stop using the phrase, “space race.” These words simply continue to elicit a mindset of separation and competition, when, ultimately, the human race needs to come together on every level.
19
Congrats and all that, but..."“We Chinese people have done something that the Americans have not dared try.”" - Hardly accurate. We prioritized our goals and the dark side of the moon ended up lower on the list than the budget would allow.
We are 50-60 years passed this accomplishment. So to discount the Americans only makes you look foolish.
8
The gloating of Professor Menghua in this article is very telling:
"We Chinese people have done something that the Americans have not dared try.”
After laughing at it for a while, you realize that this is all part of Xi's nationalistic push. The professor here wasn't talking about an engineering/scientific accomplishment (which would have been appropriate), but supposed Chinese superiority.
Would be interesting to see just how many scientists and engineers on this mission were educated in the US.
11
@True Norwegian I think it's more a matter of translation. The Chinese word "gan" does not have nearly the heavy emphasis as the English wotd "dare." It's more like just a commitment to doing something and following through on it.
14
@True Norwegian
I'm sorry, they cannot get visa to be educated in the US.
1
@True Norwegian Go research for the facts if you are that "interested." Space programs need vast and continuous amount of money and resource, regardless of where the scientists got their educations from. It is okay to swallow some pride sometimes, there is a bigger world out there.
4
Congratulations to the people of China. It's a monumental moment in China's history. They embraced technology and used it. Hopefully with mutant cooperation all nations can work together for more.
3
Shroedinger's cat has green cheese.
A waste of money and for what?
“We Chinese people have done something that the Americans have not dared try.”
1
The absence of any official US government congratulatory remarks for this scientific achievement is concerning. Instead it's all about fear mongering. When US achieves something, it's always touted as good for mankind as though NASA was never a defense military effort. When the Chinese did exactly the same thing, it's all about subduing other people.
Can we show some magnanimity and swallow a tiny bit of pride? Please don't drag the world into the Thucydides trap. We are playing with the survival of humanity this time. Treasure our neighbors. Save our planet.
59
@Agostini
The American leadership has nothing but pride for this achievement, it shows the superiority of American design and the triumph of American technology. That our leadership did not congratulate the Chinese for their thievery of American design and technology would seem to axiomatic.
1
@Agostini - What pride can China ever have after "stealing" so much of the technology.
That is the bottom line for most of China's achievements in technology - They ascended the ladder of success on the US and E.U. technology they stole. They will rise to invent new ideas - but for 50-100 years, the PRC (if it survives another 10 yrs) is always going to be seen as thieves flourishing on stolen property.
5
@friend for life What technology exactly were you referring to? Landing on the far side of the moon? Oops we just don't have it and they did it before us.
7
Sounds like they’re thinking of a mining operation to get precious metals and maybe even terraforming if the biology experiments work
3
I use to look forward to what the U.S. would do. Now days, I look forward to what the Chinese are doing. We have become a country of whining invalids. Not feeling great as an American.
6
At this rate, unless we kill the jobs program called the SLS rocket and fully sponsor SpaceX instead, China will beat us to Mars with a manned mission.
2
What a breakthrough! And the American president is throwing a tantrum because no one wants to spend $5-billions on his wall.
Donald Trump is certainly making America great again while our competitors are kicking our behinds. America once had a president (John F. Kennedy, 1961-63) who was literally dying to see an American spacecraft land on the moon first. We did there first but China got there last and landed on the far side of the moon—a tremendous major first in space exploration.
This is what happens when a country invests in science and education and technology and space. This while the conservative evangelical “Christian” Secretary of Education (Betsy DeVos) wants to dumb America down and privatize education for the plutocracy. But all her silly boss wants is a wall to keep people out. “We Chinese people have done something the Americans not dared try,” they rightly taunt.
This is a major humiliation for America. Yes, Mr. President, expend all your energies and all the money in the U.S. Treasury and “build that wall” while our enemies are busy accomplishing something that’s really worthwhile. Or will you tweet tomorrow and tell us that we beat China to the dark side of the moon last week but waited until later to tell us?
17
So China may have stolen intellectual property (other nations have never done that, right?) but how come they do things with those ideas that others haven’t done or can’t do? As Steve Jobs said, quoting Picasso (maybe incorrectly) “good artists copy, great artists steal”.
1
I would bet Stephen Curry believes that China is faking the whole thing.
3
"Well, Ricky Bobby is not a thinker. Ricky Bobby is a driver."
Sure, this was a grand accomplishment for the Chinese space program. Why denigrate it? Why not use this opportunity to work to form a joint program to build a base and even mine the moon--but first to take care of trade issues and global warming. That triangle would be a foundation for improved relations, but it would take a sophisticated forward thinking executives on both sides. And that would open things up for other forward thinking countries; people who want the human race to survive.
@David Hoffman - no need to race into space to mine new frontiers... In South Asia, Canada, Eastern Russia, the Congo and Brazilian Amazon, the forests are being cut faster than ever in history - while I write these words in fact.
All this new land will be savaged, I mean mined, and support humanity until the end of the century; at which time, humans should just fade into the history books with other extinctions. We've righteously earned it, ...well most have. And the people that did not earn membership into the collective bad Karma, those humble people would not enjoy Mars' terrible affront to what we call life.
I think it's very exciting. Those who treat this like a game show or football game with winners and losers (including, sadly, too many in China and elsewhere like in Congress) are missing the importance of this accomplishment.
Way to go, Space Exploration !!!!
6
China continues to invest in the future and all sorts of terrestrial and extraterrestrial infrastructure.
GOP-Trumpistan continues to invest in billionaire welfare.
Wake up, America.
The Republican Party is Making America A Greedy Loser.
35
This is a neat achievement by the Chinese space program, which deserves respect and congratulations. Their attitude about it is a throwback to the 1960's by seeing it in terms of a great power competition. The other two great powers learned better than that during the course of exhausting their budgets pursuing it, and I suspect the Chinese will hit that same wall eventually too. The talk of resource extraction and using the moon as a base for further exploration are the same things we've been hearing from futurists for decades, but are meaningless balanced against the enormous cost of getting to the Moon in the first place. I don't think we should say "so what" to what the Chinese did, but neither should we start shivering at what they may be doing above our heads, as this article tries to tease us into doing. Every single effort in space exploration will benefit all in the long run, including what the Chinese find out about the dark side of the moon.
9
Apollo 8 says hello (1968) and Apollo 11 (1969) has some useless moon rocks for you. Just ask.
2
@Ed L. Apparently you don't understand moon geography. We did not land on far (aka dark) side.
2
@Max Orbit
I'm not a geologist, but I'll go out on a limb and infer that moon rocks are the same regardless of which side of the sphere they're on. Or do you believe that the "dark" side of the moon (which is dark only to Earth-dwellers) is somehow radically different geologically?
1
Congratulations to China for their accomplishment.
Meanwhile, back in the US, the Great Wall of Trump government shutdown is preventing about 95% of NASA personnel from working.
https://www.space.com/42823-nasa-government shutdown-plan-2018.html
85
@Lawrence
But America will have the greatest wall on earth since the Great Wall of China! What an achievement for a man with small hands!
4
@Lawrence
For China's next great achievement, they will stop torturing their Uighur Muslims in concentration camps and their Falun Gong in re-education camps. Have we forgotten what monsters the Chinese Communists are because of some recent scientific accomplishments? Or does their ongoing ethnic cleansing pale in comparison with some American tourists being inconvenienced at closed parks and museums?
3
Please take the political ranting somewhere else. This is an extraordinary achievement from the Chinese, and I offer my congratulations to the Chinese National Space Agency (CNSA)on its success. Bravo!
94
@Jon - Why congratulate the techno thieves? Your Victorian manners may be marvelous, but regarding international security, this is easily seen more as an advance scouting mission for future wars and continuing theft of technology from beyond China's shores.
2
@friend for life
Much the same way American thievery stole the rocket technology from Germany to start the US space program, of course....
8
China is exaggerating its accomplishment.
Americans were on the Moon back in 1969, that is half a century ago and it was not a probe but a human being.
A huge difference in terms of challenge and relative available technology.
12
@Armando That's correct, China is go after the United States and shall benefited from all the pioneer from both USA and Russian, Next step of Chinese moon project is sent material back, then it is the human landing around 2022, about the same time of Chinese space station lunching.
The U.S. might have been the first to land on the dark side of the moon if we weren't so busy building the Great Wall of China.
44
@DoNotResuscitate I think a band from Britain was the first to land on the Dark Side of the Moon.
Couldn't resist. :-)
6
@DoNotResuscitate:
The photos are obviously fake. If they landed on the “dark side of the moon”, why do the images show light and shadows? I’m just sayin’ (ironic emoji here)
Wait, what? Impossible! The Chinese can only ride on the coattails of, and/or steal from, their Western betters! Impossible!
8
@The F.A.D. Are you saying they did not steal tech to get to this point?
1
The obvious question:
In its moon-obsession days, why not the U.S., long ago?
5
@srwdm Because in the 1960s, the U.S. lacked the communication capabilities to allow us to land on the dark side of the moon. The Chinese first placed a satellite on the dark side of the moon that opened up communication so they could then land a rover there.
@srwdm Because that great saint of the 60's, JFK, declared that we were going to send humans to the Moon (and return them safely), not fully explore it with remote landers. There was no need for a lander on the far side as part of the manned missions, although a comm relay on that side, similar to what the Chinese have in orbit, would have reduced some nail biting every time a manned craft was out of contact.
How can it be that President Xi of China today seems to be taking many of the same control approaches, which are based upon the belief that the leader of the nation is a god and must be allowed to make all the choices for the people, as did Mao, the founder of a new China did around 70 years ago? Why did China not want the world to see it fail, if it did, and it did not which is great for most of us on this planet when it came to the landing on the dark side of the moon? This lunar landing was hidden from even the Chinese people until it was a success. Is it that the Chinese people are so dumb that they cannot handle a failure or is it a fear amongst their leaders that any mistake would mean the end of their tenures?
4
One would think that glorious trips out into the cosmos would be enough to show us the pettiness of our nationalistic and petty squabbles. Until mankind can venture out with one voice, we are doomed to be second class citizens of our galaxy if we survive at all.
36
We are all humans. I am sick of countries viewing space as a competition. There is no reason we should not be able to work together for the good of humankind and be proud of one another's achievements.
62
@JS27, I think space exploration provides grand potential for "good competition." We can race for results and also support each other. When nations begin actively undermining each other's space exploration efforts and/or concealing general scientific findings, then we'll have a problem.
4
Congratulations to China on their achievement. I hope in the not too distant future their wisdom matches their knowledge. To quote one of your sages: "Ruling a big kingdom is like cooking a small fish." - Lao Tzu
8
Would I be wrong to assume there is an inscription on the side of the rocket "made in China" ? of course with a lot help from America omitted.
2
There was a reason why, during the Cold War, nations did not land or make plans to build on the other side of the moon. Can anybody guess what it was? China, from Belt and Road, to op-eds by Xi Jinping extolling Confucianism over democracy, to military build-up, to moon colonization out of sight, is interested in empire.
You mentioned that Chang-e is a moon goddess. Magpie Bridge (Queqiao) is the connection formed by the tongue in Daoism, which completes a cosmic orbit.
1
While the United States is bickering amongst itself, the Chinese have for years stolen or coerced intellectual property that made this possible. Another small step for mankind and a giant leap for internet thievery.
5
@Thomas G
Advances in science and technology are always based on "stolen" ideas. As Isaac Newton said, "If I see farther, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants."
Perhaps the Chinese can pick up on exploration of the Far Side where NASA left off when it decided that Apollo 17 would not land on the Far Side at Tsiolkovsky Crater as Harrison Schmitt proposed. NASA thought it was "too risky." As soon as Trump leaves office, maybe we can get on with a joint project with China to explore the Far Side. There would seem to be many benefits, especially for radio astronomy.
2
@Thomas G
It is sickening to realize that there are still people keep saying China "steal". Remember, it was the Russian that sent the Sputnik up first, so did the US stole the Russian technology for the apollo program?
Despite all the issues with our NASA, it has to be one of our great tech growing resources ever.
How many technological advances have come from the space program? To many to count.........so why did we kill it?
Why
4
@John M Given the rapid advancements in robotic and computer technology, it is probably unethical to risk human life on space voyages now. The days of planting flags on the moon in nationalistic displays are over for the
West at least. I suspect the Chinese event was largely for local consumption.
4
Hard to believe it’s been 47 years since Americans visited the moon.
We’ll have to go back now, else China will “own” the moon. Expect them to establish a military presence—as they’ve done on their artificial “islands” in the South China Sea—to protect the mining operations they’ll establish.
The new “space race” is on.
13
@MR
They're also staking their claims on the Arctic. Where are the USA and Canada in all this?
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@MR Trump will instead say "been there; done that. Gimme a Wall like what China has!"
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Congratulations to the Chinese scientists and engineers! They are picking up speed in what should be a productive, collaborative effort to advance mankind's knowledge of the world around us.
If only our political leaders could take a forward-looking, progressive perspective on technical leadership. Instead, Trump's "business" types want to cut funding to the ISS, further weakening our role in the advancement of humanity's knowledge base. I guess they don't see anything except this quarter's profits as worthwhile investments.
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Let's hope that this doesn't lead to land grabs and territorial disputes on the Moon. China has signed the Outer Space Treaty, which states that "outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means."
I do like the idea of a manned base on the Moon, though. A great peaceful and useful scientific project would be to build a large astronomical observatory, taking advantage of lower lunar gravity.
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I wonder whether this accomplishment will spur on the United States as much as Sputnik. The danger is, of course, is that it will only spur on....SPACE FORCE!
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This Moon space exploration will benefit mankind. It opens room for imagination and challenges if the Chang'e-4 can bring back more concrete data and evidence to unravel the myth of the Moon.
Sometimes it is better to offer help first when opportunity arises. We refused and rejected China's request to join our Space station program many years ago due to security reason. They now have developed their own space research. And in the not too distant future we will have to ask China for the use of their Space station.
Timing is right for us to cooperate with China in space exploration since we still lead in many other areas in the space expedition. Both country will benefit from the use of manpower and limited money.
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A succinct summary of the developments and ramifications. Thanks! Meanwhile, one must wonder whether all this will concentrate minds of climate change. Why venture ro the Moon if there will not be an Earth to which to return? Ecological measures on this planet would bring a meaningful economy for one and all: an example to whoever else might be out there.
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Congratulations China! A great technical achievement and steps to furthering knowledge about our universe should be properly respected.
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