Re: Is USA going to be embarrased by China getting to Mars first

simberg.interglobal@xxxxxxxxx (Rand Simberg) wrote:

It's taken the Russians many years, with many failed attempts to even
get a spacecraft to Mars. Why do you think that the Chinese could so
"easily" get humans there?

Take it even farther. Hypothetical: tomorrow the Chinese unveil their
SuperSekrit Underground Space Complex, and tell all about their dozens
of manned & unmanned stealth missions. Shazam! They are revealed to be
roughly on a par with the US and Russia in technology and ops
expertise, and Jim Oberg starts cranking out dozens of fascinating new
footnotes.

And the world-changing consequences of this "Pearl H"-- I mean, this
"Yalu River in space" are...?

Do they suddenly have vast new geostrategic military capabilities...
or are they in pretty much the same place the US and USSR->Russia have
been in for decades: surveillance, comms, but beyond that much more
talk than hardware?

Are they suddenly poised to make the Red Planet red-er... or are they
operating in pretty much the same high-cost, low-volume,
government-centric dawdle the US and USSR->Russia have operated in?

Does their space prowess suddenly made them the wonder and admiration
of the world -- like the world hasn't noticed the Shanghai skyline or
a generation of headlong economic expansion?

I was 7 when Sputnik I went up, and it took me until the early 1970s
to see the space race for what it had been (both bad and good). As a
geezer-in-training today, I have to say I rate schumache1234's "China
card" as something less than the ace of trumps.


.

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