[FPSPACE] PRC to beat USA in return of humans to the lunar surface, NASA official says

[Paolo Ulivi]

so what?
if we really want to go back to the moon, isn't it time to find some 
good reasons to do it beyond cold war logics and competition?


Peter Pesavento wrote:

> http://www.mcclatchydc.com/science/story/39784.html
>
> NASA’s associate administrator says so.
>
> Posted on Wed, Jun. 04, 2008
>
>
>     * China likely to beat U.S. back to the moon, NASA says *
>
>
>       * Robert S. Boyd | McClatchy Newspapers *
>
> / last updated: June 04, 2008 07:49:10 PM /
>
> WASHINGTON — Here's one Olympic-style event that China is likely to 
> win: landing the next humans on the moon.
>
> Chinese astronauts are on schedule to beat the United States back to 
> the moon by two or three years, the head of NASA's lunar exploration 
> program said Wednesday.
>
> ``If they keep on the path they're on, they can" land before Americans 
> do, said Rick Gilbreth, NASA's associate administrator for exploration 
> systems.
>
> The goal of NASA's Constellation program is to return astronauts to 
> the moon by 2020, as proposed in President Bush's Vision for Space 
> Exploration. Gilbreth said the Chinese could accomplish that by 2017 
> or 2018.
>
> The Chinese lead will be even longer if the American schedule slips, 
> as some space experts predict.
>
> Beating the U.S. back to the moon would be a feather in a resurgent 
> China 's cap with psychological as well as military implications. Last 
> year, China became the first nation in the world to shoot down a space 
> satellite, setting off alarm bells in the Pentagon. Some defense 
> analysts foresee a long-range competition between the U.S. and China 
> for future military control of space.
>
> America is still far ahead of China in space. The Chinese are aiming 
> to duplicate a feat that this country accomplished almost 40 years 
> ago. The first two Apollo astronauts landed on the moon in 1969, when 
> Richard Nixon was in the White House.
>
> In addition, NASA's back-to-the-moon program is substantially bolder 
> than China 's.
>
> ``They're taking an Apollo-like approach,'' Gilbreth said. ``Our 
> program is much more ambitious than Apollo. We're going to put four 
> people on the moon for seven days, eventually for six months. China is 
> looking for a minimum capability. We're looking to put an outpost on 
> the moon.''
>
> He called China 's space program ``very impressive,'' but said, 
> ``We're not in a race. We're going for the long haul.''
>
> China 's interest in space dates to the 1950s. It sent up its first 
> satellite in 1970, lofted its first astronaut into space in 2003 and 
> launched a mission to orbit the moon in 2007.
>
> Russia has landed robots on the moon but not humans.
>
> NASA's new Lunar Reconnaissance Orbit is scheduled to launch this 
> November. The first unmanned test flight of Orion, the next lunar 
> lander, won't come until 2015.
>
> As for the 2020 target for U.S. astronauts to land on the moon, a 
> blue-ribbon panel of space experts recently expressed doubt that the 
> timetable will be met.
>
> ``Human missions to the moon by the year 2020 ... are exceedingly 
> unlikely,'' Kathryn Thornton, a member of the panel and a University 
> of Virginia engineering professor, told the House Science Committee on 
> April 3.
>
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>
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