China has announced plans to land an unmanned probe on the Moon next year, the first such planned landing since the 1970s.
Back to the Moon: China has announced plans to land an unmanned probe on the Moon next year, the first such planned landing since the 1970s.
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Back to the Moon: China has announced plans to land an unmanned probe on the Moon next year, the first such planned landing since the 1970s.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
And yet people keep saying they are not going to the Moon or are incapable yet the Chinese steadily march along reaching milestone after milestone.
You’re right, Wodun! Coming soon will be the Google Lunar X Prize (GLXP), of which each privatly-funded contestant might well equal or surpass the Chinese lander in capabilities. However there is a big difference between “big space” (manned landings and bases, shuttle-sized spacecraft, etc.) and “little space” (rovers, cubesats, etc.). Each plays a vital role, but it will be the “big space” race which we either join or lose by default; and that race could decide for decades whether space will be friendly or hostile to freedom. China’s lander is a precursor for their manned lunar base.
The Chinese flags on the South China sea far beyond their territory, and now their recent claims on the Japanese island of Okinawa set a terrible example if we are to believe they will not similarly claim the moon. Control and use of outer space as defined by China and other dictatorships will be hostile for private ventures and free nations.
There are essential reasons to return to the moon beyond just establishing that free nations and private ventures have the right to peacefully coexist on the moon with China and other regimes. In addition to mining and other ventures, the moon is our test bed for Mars. This is where we will learn how to live on Mars without excessive risk. Just learning how to cope with the dust alone will be an important factor. Bypass the moon as “been there, done that” and the first Mars landing is likely to be a disaster.
Let’s go!
There are several issues here. The basics of property rights is claim and defend claim. Nations have better resources for defending a claim but no better right to do so. Anybody can claim unclaimed land and all of space is currently unclaimed (and the OST prohibits it’s members from making any claim… we’ll see how long that holds.) The way colonists compete with nations on claims is to join together in an orderly manner.
As for the moon being a test for mars? It really isn’t, other than perhaps to give astronauts experience working in low gravity in suits. One of the first things you want to do on mars is seal off a big enough cave (either natural or excavated) so they have plenty of shirt sleeve environment to work in. Being in a space suit should be a rare event for colonists.