[Quantum]

This is excellent news for China and hope their progress will leap in great bounds. China has a bright future ahead of them and if the US doesn't devote enough resources to their space project, the Chinese will take over them soon enough.

[Rugoz]

It doesn't have to be 100% effective, it just needs to partially compromise russian response. This means Russian arsenal is less effective. That is why russia was kicking up a storm over the deployment. If it was aimed at Iran you wouldn't be trying to station interceptor missiles in Poland.

I don't know, where would you place them? Its not only about iran. But the 10 missiles in poland would compromise russian response by 0.00367242012%, which is a relevant number in a nuclear war

No seriously this is ridiculous and populism by the russian government.

This is excellent news for China and hope their progress will leap in great bounds. China has a bright future ahead of them and if the US doesn't devote enough resources to their space project, the Chinese will take over them soon enough.

I hope the US is mature enough not to invest money in that crap.

[lessnot]

I hope the US is mature enough not to invest money in that crap.

Same here, though for different reasons

[Teen Politican]

May I say again the reason to go to the Moon?

There are large amount of He-3 on the Moon, which will be used in nuclear fusion technology.
It is widely regarded as the energy of the future.

[Godstud]

Whether or not helium 3 is the answer remains to be seen. It's ONE reason though.

China's also going to the moon because no one else but the US has so much as attempted it, and it'll put them in a position no other country but the US, has been. It's the prestige as well telling the world that you are now a major player, beyond having a big army and industry, but scientifically, as well.

[Rugoz]

There are large amount of He-3 on the Moon, which will be used in nuclear fusion technology.
It is widely regarded as the energy of the future.

D-T fusion is easier to achieve than D-He3 fusion. And we will not see commercially viable D-T reactors until 2050 (according to those who build ITER).
The only advantage D-He3 fusion has is that the energy gain is a bit bigger and more importantly that there is no neutron radiation and therefore
no shielding required. Which also means no radioactive waste, although the waste from a D-T reactor is realtively harmless (approx. 100 years storage required).

So mining the moon for He3 is mostly a wet dream of space fanatics, and not something we will see this century.
And even if it will be done at some point in history, its gonna be robots who do the mining, also because the moon is near to earth which allows
remote control by humans in critical situations.

It's the prestige as well telling the world that you are now a major player, beyond having a big army and industry, but scientifically, as well.

Going to the moon 50 years late is not really prestigious, its rather an embarrassment. Technically its not a challenge anymore (well, still a challenge but you know what i mean..).

[Godstud]

If going to the moon wasn't a technical achievement, everyone would have gone there by now. It's a HUGE technical achievement and it's not embarrassing. Not trying is more embarrassing.

They're not going to be just landing on the moon and saying, "We're second!", but on a mission to do more.

[Rugoz]

If going to the moon wasn't a technical achievement, everyone would have gone there by now. It's a HUGE technical achievement and it's not embarrassing. Not trying is more embarrassing.

Uh really? Europe and japan would have had more than enough technology and resources to go there unil today, but they did not. Their human spaceflight programs were always kept very small, for good reasons, because its useless.

[Igor Antunov]

Their human spaceflight programs were always kept very small,

You mean domestically non-existent don't you? They've been piggybacking rides on russian and american craft since the beginning.

[Rugoz]

You mean domestically non-existent don't you? They've been piggybacking rides on russian and american craft since the beginning.

Well they have both built a module for the ISS, and cargo vehicles with pressurized cabins, but apart from that you are correct.

By the way russia didn't go to the moon either, because when the race was lost, it was not desirable anymore.

[Igor Antunov]

It was not desirable because it was just a prestige thing. This is two fold, it is not only for prestige, but also for establishing some sort of regular presence on another world.

[Thompson_NCL]

Manned space flight is pretty pointless at this point and time, because as others have mentioned theres not much economic sense in putting humans up there.

That said, we need to get the experience of human spaceflight now, so we can start developing the technology for when it does make economic sense. Which is what the ISS is all about really; researching the impact of putting people in space.

If I was ESA/NASA, I'd be trying to stay ahead of China on this one. The future of humanity is to be found in space, not on earth.

[Rugoz]

Well they have both built a module for the ISS, and cargo vehicles with pressurized cabins, but apart from that you are correct.

Correction, number of modules:

USA: 4
Russia: 5
Europe: 4
Japan: 2

But the US did almost all of the transportation and assembly (space shuttle).

That said, we need to get the experience of human spaceflight now, so we can start developing the technology for when it does make economic sense. Which is what the ISS is all about really; researching the impact of putting people in space.

Yes but we can still do that research when access to space becomes much cheaper, with e.g. space elevators or similar revolutionary technology, at a fraction of the cost.

The future of humanity is to be found in space, not on earth.

That depends on what future technology brings, currently it does not make sense to invest large sums in human spaceflight. And its not time-critical in any way.

But to be honest, 100 billion over 30 years for the ISS is peanuts compared to other government expenses, so for me its ok, as long as they don't cut the science budget.

[voyager01]

Good, China should annex everything in space that has any value, humanity can progress only if there is competition and there must be a reward if you came somewhere first. China should also send astronauts to that earth like planet Gliese 581that is 20 light years away. I'm sure there would be enough volunteers for that almost suicide mission.