This is not a NASA Website. You might learn something. It's YOUR space agency. Get involved. Take it back. Make it work - for YOU.
China

IAC2012 – China and the Moon

By Marc Boucher
NASA Watch
October 2, 2012
Filed under ,

China’s Chang’e Missions – to the Moon and Beyond, SpaceRef
For the 63rd International Astronautical Congress held in Naples, Italy, Meng Linzhi from the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST) presented a paper for the Moon Exploration session held on Tuesday 2 October.

SpaceRef co-founder, entrepreneur, writer, podcaster, nature lover and deep thinker.

12 responses to “IAC2012 – China and the Moon”

  1. Anonymous says:
    0
    0

    You really can’t have it both ways.  Either IAC is a boondoggle (as previously implied in a past post) or it’s a good place for NASA professionals to speak with their fellow explorers to help understand and shape future efforts.  Which is it?

    • kcowing says:
      0
      0

      What is your problem? Are you saying that NASA Watch should ignore what is happening at this meeting?  Goofy.

  2. John says:
    0
    0

    Marc,  I apologize a priori for the comment…

    Why is Nasawatch reporting anything from the IAC when it is the editorial policy of this website that this unique annual international conference is just a boondoggle or NASA employees?

    I repeat, sorry for the comment, but fair is fair…

    • kcowing says:
      0
      0

      So, “John”, are you saying that NASA Watch should not cover the IAC? Why?  

    • Marc Boucher says:
      0
      0

      The post we had about the IAC was about the cost of conferences and the number of NASA employees attending in context of congressional questioning of conference costs. Nothing we said stated the congress was a boondoggle. In fact I think it’s a great conference.

      • Anonymous says:
        0
        0

        Marc, I hesitate to criticize you given it was Keith who made the original post about IAC, but this doesn’t cut it.  If it were only the first post, maybe it would be OK, but the second one that trumpeted that Rep. Wolf sending a letter to NASA because of NASAWatch reporting indicates to me you were happy to have this examined by Congress. 

        Yes, Keith, as stated many times on the previous threads, IAC is a fantastic conference.  It should be covered by NASAWatch.  It should also be _attended_ by NASA employees. 

        Now, before you get too offended, as a long time reader of NASAWatch, I commend you on maintaining this invaluable site.  However, just as you show NASA doesn’t always hit the mark, you missed it on the IAC posts.  Targeting sending a mere 50 people from the largest and (hopefully still) most important space agency in the world to a conference attended by thousands was wrong.

        • kcowing says:
          0
          0

          I did not “trumpet” anything from Rep. Wolf. He wrote a letter and mentioned NASAWatch, and I mentioned that. Period. FWIW personally I find little – if anything – that Rep. Wolf does that I agree with (he represents a district a few miles from me). 

          As for being “offended”, gee, it takes a lot more  than an anonymous post from someone to offend me, rest assured. “Annoy” me, oh, that’s much easier to do. 

          I stand by my original posts. Many NASA employees treat offshore meetings as vacations. I have seen it with my own eyes.

  3. guapoman2000 says:
    0
    0

    What they *China* is not telling anyone “is” they already have a planned Man Space Flight mission to the Moon!  What do we (USA) have?  Nothing!

    • mattmcc80 says:
      0
      0

      This stuff cracks me up.  Let’s assume for the moment that they do have a secret manned program.  Who cares?  Are we obligated to race them to the moon just because they’re going that way?  While they’re in the process of growing their space program from some combination of 40 year old Soviet technology and homegrown R&D, NASA is exploring Mercury, Mars, Saturn, Pluto, asteroids, comets, the Sun, finding exoplanets and observing galaxies being born, colliding with each other, and finding stars being eaten by black holes.

      There’s more to space exploration than putting boots on other rocky bodies in our solar system.  But if NASA was given the proper funding and allowed to actually complete a manned lunar program without being jerked around by every election cycle, I don’t see any reason to doubt they could get it done, even if all they do is call up SpaceX and order a Dragon lander (since they’re already developing propulsive landing)

  4. dogstar29 says:
    0
    0

    China has no interest in a new moon race with the US. If they lost, they would look incompetent. If they won, they would irritate their biggest customer. 

    The goal of the Chinese human spaceflight program is to build national pride and confidence in their citizens and market their commercial aerospace capabilities to potential customers. Their preferred path forward is not manned lunar flight or even an independent space station, but rather to be invited to join the ISS program as a full partner, to demonstrate that China has “joined the club” of world leaders. China’s slow human spaceflight launch rate (four missions in nine years) in the absence of any significant technical problems is sufficient for their purposes but clearly demonstrates they are not in a race.

    To quote a Chinese friend, “If you want to race to the moon, go ahead. We will not race with you. You will be racing by yourself.”

  5. Anonymous says:
    0
    0

    Clearly a program aimed at building up capability to go where they want and do what they want in order to stake out their claim to space.

  6. Anonymous says:
    0
    0

    > getting the technical folks face-to-face

    Would that be kind of “hazardous?” Techies know their company’s trade secrets and other stuff a private company does not discuss outside their circle of employees. Talk to engineers that are doing the real work, you might learn some specific techie stuff, i.e. this chip is better than this other, but not what the company’s technical plans really are except what they post on press releases.