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Go China! As an american, I hope China keeps pushing the boundaries on their space program - maybe we'll then decide to invest in science and space exploration
by danielrpa 13y ago
Go China! As an american, I hope China keeps pushing the boundaries on their space program - maybe we'll then decide to invest in science and space exploration again.
- yapcguy 13y agoI have submitted this as a separate story as I believe it merits discussion regarding the links between China and America's space program. Bassically the Co-Founder of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory was deported from the US to China during the McCarthy era and he became the "Father" of China's space program. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6905862 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6905862 Wikipedia writes, "Under Secretary Kimball, who had tried to keep Qian in the U.S., commented on the affair to say: "It was the stupidest thing this country ever did. He was no more a Communist than I was, and we forced him to go."
- peterkelly 13y ago> It was the stupidest thing this country ever did That's a pretty big claim
- maxerickson 13y agoIt's probably more a figure of speech than it is a claim.
- err4nt 13y agoAs I understand it, much of NASA was manned by Germans who had worked on their rocket program (weaponized rockets) and 'importing' that knowledge was the kick start to the American space program. Project Paperclip? Was that the name?
- beachstartup 13y agonasa and jpl aren't the same thing.
- err4nt 13y agoI was just trying to point out that it's not like the US's space exploration program was built from the ground up on US soil, it involved importing expertise. That's what China seems to have done here too - imported expertise to kick-start a program. I don't see anything wrong with it, just figured some people may not be aware of that part of US history.
- w1ntermute 13y ago> That's what China seems to have done here too No, it wasn't. America intentionally established Operation Paperclip with the intention of recruiting German scientists. The Chinese didn't have to do anything to get Qian (and most likely weren't even thinking about space in 1950) - America just handed him to them, thanks to the US government's enormous stupidity.
- mturmon 13y agoYes (especially back then, because NASA did not exist until 1958). I know of three strands of rocketry research that contributed to American rocketry. There was Robert Goddard's experiments with liquid-fueled rockets, as early as the 1920s, Theodore von Karman (a Hungarian who emigrated to the US in 1930) and his team at Caltech, and von Braun and the Germans. Goddard never got significant US Government support, but he continued his experiments right up to 1940. Of course von Braun did get government support, and apparently his team learned from Goddard's experiments. The end result was that von Braun's team knew more about large rockets, and he went on to head the NASA center (Huntsville) that is most associated with rocketry, and of course to develop the Saturn V. And von Karman, of course, was the founder of JPL. As @err4nt's comment hints at, there is a rough parallel between von Karman's emigration from Germany to the US (his family was Jewish) and Qian's emigration from the US to China.
- jrmenon 13y agoJPL seems to have had quite a few founders. I recall reading about Jack Parsons who was also into occult matters: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Whiteside_Parsons http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Whiteside_Parsons Happen to run into his story while reading about the history of Rocketry. His story even takes a more bizarre turn with L Ron. Hubbard, and finally his death in a mysterious explosion.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- wyck 13y agohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Paperclip http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Paperclip & http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wernher_von_Braun http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wernher_von_Braun
- err4nt 13y agoAh I was close :D Thanks for the link!
- sspiff 13y agoI honestly don't care whether the Chinese or the Americans invest in space exploration - as long as anyone start doing it in earnest again. It's good to see the Asian world push forward with these programs.
- merrua 13y agoSame. Any country at all thats pushing the exploration of space is brillant for everyone in the world.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- mladenkovacevic 13y agoNothing get my nerd on quite like a successful landing on another rock. Next stop Mars, then Europa!
- Kequc 13y agoEurope may seem exotic to some but I think we should focus efforts into improving our knowledge about other planets instead of Earth. What do they have to offer, what are they named. etc
- to3m 13y agoEuropa. I'm not sure it counts as "exotic" by every definition, but it is probably far away enough...
- moocowduckquack 13y agoAll these worlds are yours, except Europa. Because I bought it a few years back off a nice lady who gave me a certificate. So keep off or I'll sue.
- mbq 13y agoMandatory SMBC reference: http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=1733#comic http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=1733#comic
- iDesignLaurent 13y agoThanks danielrpa, I am from China and now I feel very proud.