China's new space station:

[Guest dr. strangelove]

http://www.space.com/11591-china-space-station-tiangong-infographic.html

 

Wish it were some other country doing it...

[Beast]

Re: China's new space station:

 

2 yr life span does not bode well ,as that was about what skylab could do 40 yrs ago

it is obvious that they want to do stuff and not have everybody else know about it

 

might need to bring the airborne laser out of mothballs if they try and get funny up there

[Christopher]

Re: China's new space station:

 

As I hear it, it's simply a mater of national pride.

They are one of the bigest economies of the world, but their space tech is still pre-apollo, pre-skylab. They barely have one Aircraft carrier (without fliers). Thier army is incapable of working far away from home.

 

Of course they are working to compensate for those problems and what they do when they manage is a interestign quesiton.

[Badger]

Re: China's new space station:

 

2 yr life span does not bode well ,as that was about what skylab could do 40 yrs ago

it is obvious that they want to do stuff and not have everybody else know about it

 

might need to bring the airborne laser out of mothballs if they try and get funny up there

 

 

 

You can save money by just getting me up there. Electonic equipments wilts from exposure to me. I am like reality's version of Deedee from Dexter's Lab :

[Lawnmower Boy]

Re: China's new space station:

 

As I hear it, it's simply a mater of national pride.

They are one of the bigest economies of the world, but their space tech is still pre-apollo, pre-skylab. They barely have one Aircraft carrier (without fliers). Thier army is incapable of working far away from home.

 

Of course they are working to compensate for those problems and what they do when they manage is a interestign quesiton.

 

I can't believe you said that, Christopher. China's army is awesome.

 

 

Or something. Give me a moment to think about it.

[Guest dr. strangelove]

Re: China's new space station:

 

You can save money by just getting me up there. Electonic equipments wilts from exposure to me. I am like reality's version of Deedee from Dexter's Lab :

 

Do you think it's something in your DNA? Is so we could just take some of your DNA, inject it into some cells and have them replicate it vastly, then we could just fire up a rocket loaded with your DNA to disperse it in a cloud that would intersect the station. Lots cheaper and we don't have to have a return trip.

[Christopher]

Re: China's new space station:

 

I can't believe you said that' date=' Christopher. China's army is awesome.[/quote']

A friend of mine knows them a little better.

 

Yes the army is gigantic. Has to be with that many people.

And it works perfectly in the defense, where they have their depots and supply infrastructure.

Try to use it more than 10 km from the border though, you've got a problem with supplying them.

[Sundog]

Re: China's new space station:

 

That's what happened to them back in '79, when they tried to invade Vietnam. Besides crude and poor tactics, the Chinese military was effectively unable to keep their troops supplied in the field.

[Lawnmower Boy]

Re: China's new space station:

 

A friend of mine knows them a little better.

 

Yes the army is gigantic. Has to be with that many people.

And it works perfectly in the defense, where they have their depots and supply infrastructure.

Try to use it more than 10 km from the border though, you've got a problem with supplying them.

 

You're thinking about the old days, Christopher, when the pink dye in the uniforms would have run in the rain. With modern textile techniques, an unstoppable horde of goose-stepping Chinese chicks in shocking pink uniforms can overrun the world.

 

Also space.

[Old Man]

Re: China's new space station:

 

You can save money by just getting me up there. Electonic equipments wilts from exposure to me. I am like reality's version of Deedee from Dexter's Lab :

 

Will you require oxygen?

[Guest dr. strangelove]

Re: China's new space station:

 

You're thinking about the old days, Christopher, when the pink dye in the uniforms would have run in the rain. With modern textile techniques, an unstoppable horde of goose-stepping Chinese chicks in shocking pink uniforms can overrun the world.

 

Also space.

 

 

Speaking realistically and honestly, history teaches up that the chinese are great bullies but lousy warriors. They are really great at bullying small, weak countries, imposing tyranny, threatening smaller nations, terrorizing unarmed populations, massacring protrestors, etc.

 

The thing is when they're dealing with a force that is willing and able to fight, they just don't measure up even if they have a large numerical advantage. The mongols conquered them despite inferior numbers and technology. The british dominated them for decades despite a long supply and command line from england and far smaller numbers, etc.

 

I don't know exactly why the chinese have traditionally been great at, say, organizing a military but terrible at fighting wars even with the occasional sun tzu to help, but history bears out that the chinese may be great at a lot of things, fighting an enemy willing and able to resist isn't one of them.

 

Personally I wonder if it's because china has always been a very stratified, repressed, almost caste society where the average person has no chance to work his way up to anything better and basically has an attitude like "Why bother fighting and dying for my lord's wealth and comfort? I'll be a dowtrodden, overworked and unappreciated peasant no matter who wins so why should I give my life for that fat potentate in fancy robes being carried around on a palanquin?"

 

So china's military strength isn't something america needs to worry about so much. What does worry me is their habit of assimilating ideas and technology from other polities and incorporating them into their own social structure. It appears the chinese are assimilating a lot of western concepts without letting in democracy, freedom of speech, freedom of religion or freedom of anything, and that's very disconcerting.

[Christopher]

Re: China's new space station:

 

So china's military strength isn't something america needs to worry about so much. What does worry me is their habit of assimilating ideas and technology from other polities and incorporating them into their own social structure. It appears the chinese are assimilating a lot of western concepts without letting in democracy' date=' freedom of speech, freedom of religion or freedom of anything, and that's very disconcerting.[/quote']

China was one described as "the only free market Police State".

The same article/TV show also had a thought:

When you give people freedom of choice between different products, suppliers, etc. - aren't you inviting thinking about "Freedom of Choice" in Politics as well?

 

Can Free Market and Police State really co-exist in the long run?

I think china has a lot of Social Inertia to go against every change. But you know how inertia tends to create unstoppable forces once they aquire movement....

[Old Man]

Re: China's new space station:

 

China definitely has some challenges to deal with. There's a lot of pent up anger in the ethnic minorities and the peasantry. The government is notoriously corrupt and there may be a serious real estate bubble bursting there as we speak. And I'm told that the Chinese people are getting fed up with censorship--events like the bullet train crash a couple years back have really shown how hamfisted the authorities are with that.

 

Still, it remains to be seen if any of this will lead to real instability. As far as their space program and military technology are concerned, I think we shouldn't underestimate them--they're stealing from the best, after all.

[Zeropoint]

Re: China's new space station:

 

If they have trouble with supply chains and logistics on Earth, how the heck are they going to keep an installation in ORBIT supplied?

[Guest dr. strangelove]

Re: China's new space station:

 

China definitely has some challenges to deal with. There's a lot of pent up anger in the ethnic minorities and the peasantry. The government is notoriously corrupt and there may be a serious real estate bubble bursting there as we speak. And I'm told that the Chinese people are getting fed up with censorship--events like the bullet train crash a couple years back have really shown how hamfisted the authorities are with that.

 

Still, it remains to be seen if any of this will lead to real instability. As far as their space program and military technology are concerned, I think we shouldn't underestimate them--they're stealing from the best, after all.

 

Well, we're drifitng into politics and I mainly wanted to talk about china's new space station in terms of SF games, but since this drifted I will say that china is the opposite of a communist country, it's if anything the most corporate country on earth and the least communist one of all. Under communism there was supposed to be freedom and respect for the workers who were to have the loudest voice in government. China is the exact opposite and is mostly a slave state.

 

Basically china is a handful of mandarins living off the blood, sweat and tears of a billion slaves. The average chinese would be better off under a true communist government.

 

Now back to the point: What do people think of the station itself? Will it do anything? If so, what?

[Christopher]

Re: China's new space station:

 

If they have trouble with supply chains and logistics on Earth' date=' how the heck are they going to keep an installation in ORBIT supplied?[/quote']

Plural is harder than Singular.

[Old Man]

Re: China's new space station:

 

Now back to the point: What do people think of the station itself? Will it do anything? If so, what?

 

Well, its primary purpose will be to rain glory upon the People's Republic of China for achieving something that few nations have done so far. It should do a decent job of that. Otherwise, it might serve as a satellite maintenance facility. I suppose there are a few scientificky things it could do but can't think of anything the ISS boondoggle isn't already doing. Unless the Chinese station is actually in a decently high orbit.

[Gnaskar]

Re: China's new space station:

 

It's real benefit is teaching the Chinese space program about orbital assembly. As nobody has a decent heavy booster these days orbital assembly is pretty much required for all major projects. From the few hints the Chinese government has let slip the next big goal is a lunar flag run, followed by a small base. For that they're going to need to put together a pretty impressive rocket or build a transfer vessel in space.