China plans moon base

[dasa]

China plans Moon base for 2010

 

13:46 20 May 02

NewScientist.com news service

China's ambitious space plans have been extended to building a base on the Moon starting in 2010, a Chinese space official has said. Before that the fledgling space power aims to complete a number of manned missions into space and to establishing an orbiting "space laboratory".

 

In a lecture in Beijing during China's National Science week, Ouyang Ziyuan, chief scientist with China's Moon programme, outlined the country's bold space strategy.

 

"China is expected to complete its first exploration of the moon in 2010 and will establish a base on the moon as we did in the South Pole and the North Pole." China Daily quotes Ziyuan as saying. He did not say whether China's mission to the Moon would be manned.

 

James Oberg, a veteran of the US space programme and an authority on manned space flight, says China is unlikely to send astronauts to the Moon.

 

"They don't have the budget or the technology," Oberg told New Scientist. "Their whole approach has been remarkably cautious. Robot missions make much more sense." But Oberg believes China could feasibly construct a small space station.

 

China has so far completed three unmanned test flights with its Shenzhou spacecraft and intends to place the first Chinese astronaut in space by 2005. This would make China only the third nation to achieve the feat, after Russia and the US.

 

Twelve people have been selected to become China's first generation of "taikonauts" and are undergoing training.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gHari]

Similarly, the Al-Jazeera Islamic newsource has announced that Al-Quaida plans to land a man on the sun bext year. American scientists have laughed at such a project saying such an effort would be destroyed by the immense heat of the sun. However, Osama has successfully defended his technicians, noting that they intend to go at night.