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Most people from other countries think Americans are over the top on this.
As last module docks, China completes its space station
171–180 of 401 posts
Re: As last module docks, China completes its space station
#172Wait, in order to build this, they've launched half a dozen rockets up with no idea where the boosters would come back down and land? That seems up there amongst worst ideas I've heard for a while, "good luck everybody else." Edit: didn't realize this would be a controversial comment; per the article, the "norm" is to have a burn again after releasing their payload, to "control" / direct the return. The Chinese aren'…
Yes, they have been doing that. Yes, it's a dumb idea. Yes, the US had something similar happen in the past with Skylab coming down over Australia and killing a cow (we also learned that it's not a particularly good thing to do and are more careful these days).
The problem is that the rocket in question has the large 'main' tank go all the way to orbit. Thus they probably can't also include enough propulsion to put it in a controlled deorbit. Meanwhile most other rockets are designed so the core stage is dumped before reaching orbital velocity, so the remaining stages aren't likely to survive the trip back down in big pieces even if they do fail to deorbit and since they're smaller/lighter it takes less to deorbit them in the first place.
The risk to people is very low and it tends to be sensationalized, but it's still more responsible behavior to make that risk as small as possible. China has a good bit of work left to do on that front given that they were still dropping hypergolic stages on villages until just a few years ago.
Re: As last module docks, China completes its space station
#173Re: As last module docks, China completes its space station
#174Earlier quoted context omitted.
So then maybe a little late to sanction their tech to keep them from being peer competitors.
Sanctions do not matter to China. They will just have their nation state backed hackers hack into aerospace and defense contractors and steal their R&D instead. Thats the Chinese way and MO. Anything to further the Chinese economy. They have hacked nearly every F100 they needed to and steal hundreds of billions in IP annually already. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegations_of_intellectual_pr... - https://www.cnb…
Yup, precisely.
Re: As last module docks, China completes its space station
#175Earlier quoted context omitted.
US did sanction all of China's space industry, defense dual use industries since the 1990s, and never let go ever since. That is pretty early. And this is what happens 30 years since the sanctions. But I have no idea what will happen in the future, plus the nature of industry and technology is also different.
As much as it's a waste of duplicate effort, it's likely good for humanity and geopolitics to have multiple nation-states each trying their own approaches. Avoids path lock-in by exploring alternate solutions lines, and ensures that if one country decides to slow down (because politics) then the world doesn't lose its only leading-edge space program. Healthy competition for the betterment of all!
One says "duplicate effort", someone else says "independent implementation".
Some cooperation would be great, of course. Like the US / USSR space cooperation in 1970s, despite bitter ideological and military rivalry.
Re: As last module docks, China completes its space station
#176Earlier quoted context omitted.
Some of the features I know from the Chinese space station - Solar panels smaller in area than ISS but produces similar amount of power, indicating much more efficient solar panels - Ion thrusters to keep space in orbit - Automated docking of cargo and crew capsule. Semi-automated docking of large station components like the 23ton labs - A robotic arm similar to ISS that walk along the joint points on the station. It…
> It will operate a space telescope; telescope can dock with the station for servicing and upgrades, and equipment uploaded by regular space station cargo ship. The co-orbit strategy is excellent, a short trip for repairs and easy to fit into existing schedules if something goes wrong. It's no James Webb but was never intended to be, about the same size as Hubble but with 400x the field of view. Guessing it will be c…
It's a great way to have much higher quality microgravity than is possible with a habitable station, in a serviceable module. Low vibration is important for telescopes and some experiments (crystallography in particular). A co-orbiting module was also in the plans for ISS, but like many other planned features it was never implemented.
Re: As last module docks, China completes its space station
#177Earlier quoted context omitted.
So then maybe a little late to sanction their tech to keep them from being peer competitors.
That's way too broad, because it depends what it is. Surprisingly, it seems to be easier to build a space station than to compete with Boeing and Airbus.
Space stations do not need to comply to international aviation requirements. Also, they may have fewer economic constraints, because they are not operated by something like commercial airlines.
BTW competing with Lockheed-Martin and even Sukhoi seems to be harder, too.
Re: As last module docks, China completes its space station
#178Earlier quoted context omitted.
The point is not that one makes available one's site for free. The point is that the quality of the work is sloppy, price of said service notwithstanding. There are many other ways to approximate a client's geolocation so as to prevent displaying an embarrassing error where one did not first check whether the object's property was truthy or not. Justifying terrible UX by saying, "it's free," is a terrible strategy, t…
It's not just that the key isn't populated; it's that it's undefined. FWIW, my browser (Chrome) works on the site even if I choose not to share geolocation; I assume because the API is populated even if it then refrains from sharing. Your point isn't quite wrong but it also isn't quite right; geolocation is supported by every browser listed on Mozilla's documentation ( https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API…
That link also says:
Secure context: This feature is available only in secure contexts (HTTPS), in some or all supporting browsers.
So perhaps the site isn't being loaded over HTTPS? If that's the case, it sounds like a site bug.
Re: As last module docks, China completes its space station
#179Earlier quoted context omitted.
So then maybe a little late to sanction their tech to keep them from being peer competitors.
That's way too broad, because it depends what it is. Surprisingly, it seems to be easier to build a space station than to compete with Boeing and Airbus.
It is indeed much easier.
Because competing with Boeing and Airbus means building cost efficient aircraft in large volumes. Building cost efficient planes in large volume is way harder than building a singular space station with barely any cost concerns.