Re: I urge China to do a manned Mars flyby


"Dave U. Random" <anonymous@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:f897478d7f5d4a690de49950118c1f61@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I hereby officially urge the Chinese government to perform a manned
Mars flyby mission. This would be a relatively simple mission since the
astronauts would merely have spent a couple months in the space ship.

Just ignore the radiation issue (solar flares) as well as the life support
issue (Chinese spacecraft have only spent a few days in Earth orbit).
Nothing like dead astronauts to inspire a nation, NOT!

This also ignores the problem of actually getting the spacecraft on a
trajectory to fly by Mars (they don't have a launch vehicle big enough to
launch a manned Mars mission). This also ignores the problem of a safe
re-entry when getting back to Earth (velocity is much higher requiring a
better heat shield and/or parachutes than a LEO mission).

In other words, they don't have the technology to do this yet. It's not a
"relatively simple" thing to do.

It would be a great PR stunt and would force the U.S. to upstage this
with a manned landing on Mars.

Even if the Chinese could do this, it's doubtful it would inspire the US to
"upstage" the stunt with another stunt. This isn't the Cold War with the
U.S.S.R.

The scientific value would be very
limited, but it would mark Man's first visit to another planet. In
addition, the crew would be able to carry High Definition video
equipment with them which will have much greater PR value than the
grainy images we got from Apollo.

Go China!

Yea, right.

Jeff
--
"Take heart amid the deepening gloom
that your dog is finally getting enough cheese" - Deteriorata - National
Lampoon


.

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