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If China manages to do this, then we will have people on Mars in under 2 years. Competition from china is the only thing I can see spurring the USA into action
by vitno 14y ago
If China manages to do this, then we will have people on Mars in under 2 years.
Competition from china is the only thing I can see spurring the USA into action.
- MichaelApproved 14y agoFar from. It takes nearly 2 years just to get to Mars. Also, China tends to be a fast copier, not a leader. They seem to leave the bulk of development costs to someone else. So I think it's unlikely that they will front the resources it'll take to make a Mars mission possible.
- redial 14y agoKind of like Microsoft? ;) As an aside, as a Non-US citizen of the world, I applaud any effort to get outside of our planet, even more so if they are as ambitious as this one.
- adam-a 14y ago> China tends to be a fast copier, not a leader. What a huge generalisation. This appears to be true in the consumer electronics world perhaps, but look outside of that and it's harder to justify. For example, China has been building a lot of infrastructure in the past few decades, including the longest and highest bridges in the world[0][1]. There was a story on HN a few days ago about a Chinese company's plans to build what will be the tallest building in only 90 days[2]. Granted there is a lot of press about these bridges falling down, and maybe their rocket will blow up half way to Mars. But you can't say that they aren't pushing things themselves. [0]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest_bridges_in_the_world http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest_bridges_in_the_... [1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longest_bridges_in_the_world http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longest_bridges_in_the_world [2]http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4807701 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4807701
- electrograv 14y agoI actually think that it's quite fair to criticize a "leading" achievement that falls apart or otherwise fails soon after. For an achievement to "count", I'd make the bold claim that it has to actually work. * However, I do agree that often to make progress you absolutely have to push your engineering "comfort zone" and try dangerous things, in order to learn from your mistakes. But this does not change my definition of "success", it just acknowledges realities of R&D.
- hazov 14y agoThat's true for gadgets and some other industries, engineering of some things that makes the world go on, like container ships and cars are another matter in which the West has long ceased to be the sole leader, even in design. Aerospace and software are industries the West still dominates though. Since HN tends to focus on those this is a common impression for people here, it's not in some other industries. I think the PRC do have technology and money to put things in outerspace in the near future, what they do not have yet is the know-how.
- Symmetry 14y agoAlso, China tends to be a fast copier, not a leader. You could have said the same thing about the US in the first half of the 19th century, and look how innovative we ended up being by the start of the 20th. Or about Japan later on. Societies that are able to copy innovations quickly seldom have trouble generating innovations when they run out of things to copy.
- svachalek 14y agoIt may interest you to note that in 2012 China has a manned space program, while the U.S. does not.
- swalsh 14y ago> China tends to be a fast copier, not a leader Wasn't there a famous Chinese guy who said something like "never underestimate your adversary". In the past that might have been true, but things change. Just one example A lot of people have been educated in the US, and are going back to china to start companies.
- danielweber 14y agoFar from. It takes nearly 2 years just to get to Mars. As a point of order: two year launch window, but a 6 month trip if you wait for that.