The landing of the Space Shuttle Atlantis marks the unofficial passing of the baton of space exploration to China. The United States may still send the occasional scientist to the International Space Station hitchhiking aboard a Soyuz. And there will be unmanned probes blasting off every so often. But the era begun 50 years ago by John Kennedy is over.
The Chinese are the ambitious explorers now. The Chinese have sent
unmanned missions to the moon as a prelude to having men plant the flag of the People's Republic on the moon's surface. They are also planning to build
their own space station. China will most likely be the first country to
colonize the moon, perhaps as early as 2025.
2 comments:
We don't choose to do these things, not because they are easy, not because they are hard, but because we renounce science and everything about it as all made up, and we reject exploration of the unknown as an artifact of a former time.
Long before 2020' more than one private US company will have significantly more advanced space tech than the chinese government program. If the Chinese stick to their timetable by the time they get to the moon they'll be able to eat at McDonald's there.
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