BEIJING - While the United States is still working out its next move after the space shuttle program, China is forging ahead. Some analysts worry that the United States could slip behind China in human spaceflight - the realm of space science with the most prestige.
Already have.
“Space leadership is highly symbolic of national capabilities and international influence, and a decline in space leadership will be seen as symbolic of a relative decline in US power and influence,’’ said Scott Pace, an associate NASA administrator in the George W. Bush administration.
China is still far behind the United States in space technology and experience, but what it doesn’t lack is a plan or financial resources. While US programs can fall victim to budgetary worries or a change of government, rapidly growing China appears to have no such constraints.
In 2003, China became the third country to send an astronaut into space on its own, four decades after the United States and Russia. In 2006, it sent its first probe to the moon. In 2008, China carried out its first spacewalk.
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"$30 million purse spurs entrepreneurs to shoot for the moon" July 22, 2011|By Kenneth Chang, New York Times
WASHINGTON - Now that the last space shuttle has landed back on Earth, a new generation of space entrepreneurs would like to whip up excitement about the prospect of returning to the moon.
Spurred by a $30 million purse put up by Google, 29 teams have signed up for a competition to become the first private venture to land on the moon. Most of them are unlikely to overcome the financial and technical challenges to meet the contest deadline of December 2015, but several teams think they have a good shot to win - and to take an early lead in a race to take commercial advantage of our celestial neighbor.
Looks like the NYT is polishing a turd again.
At the very least, a flotilla of unmanned spacecraft could be headed moonward within the next few years, with goals that range from lofty to goofy.
One Silicon Valley venture, Moon Express, is positioning itself as a future FedEx for moon deliveries: If you have something to send there, they would like to bring it. The company planned a party to show off flight capabilities of its lunar lander, a prototype it bought from NASA, and “to begin the next era of the private commercial race to the moon,’’ as the invitation put it.
“In the near future, the Moon Express lunar lander will be mining the moon for precious resources that we need here on Earth,’’ the invitation promised. “Years from now, we will all remember we were there.’’
Alway$ a frikkin' angle, huh?
Yeah, let's hollow out the moon by mining it.
Naveen Jain, an Internet billionaire and cofounder of Moon Express, said the company envisions selling exclusive broadcast rights for video from the moon, as well as sponsorships, a la NASCAR, for companies to put their logos on the lander....
Also see: Sunday Globe Special: Eating Exhaust Fumes
You will be eating a lot more from the rockets.
The effort comes as the last shuttle mission ended when Atlantis and its four astronauts glided to a ghostly landing in near-darkness just before dawn yesterday. It was the 135th and final shuttle flight....
Yup, a QUIET DEATH to the U.S. SPACE PROGRAM!
As far at the next moon mission, the X Prize competitors might all be beaten by landers and rovers that China, Russia and India plan to send up during the next couple of years. But those fall more in the mold of traditional, government-built science probes.
See who has passed you in space, AmeriKa?
While NASA had wanted to send astronauts back to the moon, its program was canceled last year, a victim of budget cuts and shifting priorities....
Yes, we have WARS TO FIGHT, WALL STREET BANKS to BAIL OUT, and increases in aid to ISRAEL!
As for mining the moon, “It’s probably the biggest wealth creation opportunity in modern history,’’ said Barney Pell, a former NASA computer scientist turned entrepreneur and now a cofounder of Moon Express.
So NASA was full of money junkies, too?
While Moon Express might initially make money by sending small payloads, the big fortune would come from bringing back platinum and other rare metals, Pell said.
“Long term, the market is massive, no doubt,’’ he said. “This is not a question of if. It’s a question of who and when. We hope it’s us and soon.’’
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Related: After shuttle lands, Mission Control workers will be out of work
Also see: Slow Saturday Special: Sayonara Space Shuttle
Space Junk
Don't you wish you had an economy like China, America?
"China’s growth shows signs of slowing; Imports limiting trade partners" July 12, 2011|Bloomberg News
BEIJING - China’s economy probably grew the least in almost two years last quarter, contributing to a global weakening that Premier Wen Jiabao confronts with more limited scope for policy response than during the 2008 world recession.
The government is forecast to report tomorrow gross domestic product rose 9.3 percent from a year before, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey, down from 9.7 percent the previous quarter.
If you exclude the wealthy elite ours shrunk.
With recent data showing consumer prices climbed the most in three years in June, any easing in the central bank’s monetary stance risks escalating price pressures.
Some things are the same.
China’s slowdown was underscored by the weakest import gain since 2009 in June, limiting the chance for the United States and Europe to export their way out of their own domestic challenges....
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"Oil falls on China inflation concerns" July 12, 2011|Associated Press
NEW YORK - The latest readings on Chinese inflation and renewed worries about European debt pushed oil lower....
Oil started falling after a weekend disclosure that inflation in China hit a three-year high in June. China has been raising interest rates in an attempt to control inflation and cool off its economy, but on Saturday the government said consumer prices continued to increase, jumping 6.4 percent last month.
Rising consumer prices will heap even more pressure on the country’s expanding economy, and that could affect energy demand. Oil has been climbing on the expectation that China will drive world oil demand.
AAA Southern New England reported yesterday that a gallon of self-serve, regular climbed to an average of $3.67 in Massachusetts.
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Speaking of oil:
"Chinese firm now pumping Iraqi oil; Field expected to yield 3m tons of crude a year" June 29, 2011|By Edward Wong, New York Times
BEIJING -- China's largest oil company has begun operations at Al-Ahdab oil field in Iraq, making the field the first major new area to start production in Iraq in 20 years, according to an official news report yesterday.
So the beneficiary of the U.S. invasion to grab its oil is.... China?
Operations began June 21, and the field is expected to produce 3 million tons of crude oil per year, reported China Daily, a state-run, English-language newspaper. The oil field was discovered in 1979 and is believed to contain a billion barrels of crude.
The Chinese company, China National Petroleum Corp., a state-owned enterprise, secured rights to the field under a technical services contract signed with the Iraqi government in November 2008. Under the contract, the company is investing $3 billion and has development rights for 23 years, China Daily reported.
The contract, the renegotiation of a deal first signed in 1996 with the government of Saddam Hussein, was postponed after the United Nations imposed economic sanctions on Iraq and the US military toppled Hussein in 2003. Analysts say the Ahdab operation is China National's largest in the Middle East.
The contract stipulates that the company receive a fee for every barrel of oil produced, rather than an equity interest in the oil field, as it would have under the original agreement. A Chinese oil executive said in 2009 that the company would make a profit of less than 1 percent, but that the contract was a way to "get a foot in the door" of the Iraqi oil industry, which has much larger fields than Ahdab.
The deal began drawing intense criticism from residents and officials in Wasit Province, where the field is located, shortly after the contract was signed. Some people demanded that Wasit be granted a royalty of a dollar a barrel to improve access to clean water, health services, schools, roads, and other public needs in the province, which is among Iraq's poorest. The Iraqi government rejected the demands.
Local residents complained in 2009 that Chinese development of the field provided no benefits for them, other than providing several hundred people jobs as laborers and security guards for less than $600 a month. At the time, China National said it was in an exploration phase and did not need much labor. Now, with the start of production, it is unclear whether the company has hired more residents.
At the time, the 100 or so Chinese workers at the compound were too scared to leave the area for fear of being kidnapped.
As a result of its rapid economic growth, China's energy needs have soared, and it has been scouring the world for energy sources.
Yeah? Which oil-rich nations have they invaded lately?
Yesterday, President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan, in which China has large oil interests, arrived in Beijing for talks with Chinese leaders. Bashir faces indictment by the International Criminal Court on war crimes and genocide charges, but China is not obligated to arrest him because it is not a signatory to the court....
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So what are the Chinese going to do with all that oil?
"Chinese doctor sets out to ‘cure’ bad driving" July 15, 2011|Gillian Wong, Associated Press
Dr. Jin Huiqing has spent nearly three decades trying to figure out why some motorists seem more accident prone than others. He has translated his research into a lucrative business selling his road safety program to Chinese municipalities. At least one city using his methods reports a decline in traffic deaths.
He has studied the records of thousands of Chinese bus, van and cab drivers, put dozens through neurological tests, examined hundreds of blood samples. Since last year, he’s even been trying to find gene markers for bad drivers....
China is grasping for solutions to its risky roads....
Obviously.
Despite improved road safety laws, stricter driver training and lower speed limits, crashes remain common, particularly involving overloaded trucks or buses careening along highways at high speeds in wet conditions.
“In China, in general, I think each day there will be over 300 people killed on the roads, which equals to one Boeing 747 aircraft crash each day. So that is pretty serious,’’ said Ann Yuan, the China country director of the Global Road Safety Partnership, a grouping of business, civil society and government organizations.
Jin’s company, Anhui Sanlian Group, developed a three-pronged approach to road safety that involves a battery of tests to screen drivers, training with simulators and surveillance cameras to closely monitor roads for problems....
It's always for your own good.
From a small research institute he set up in 1990, Jin now runs a road safety empire that includes a company with 2,000 employees that earns more than $4 million a year, plus a private college with nearly 10,000 students....
Wow, it really is a money paper.
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Now how can the U.S. get under China's skin?
"Dalai Lama makes visit to the White House
WASHINGTON - President Obama met privately with the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of Tibet, at the White House yesterday, despite a warning from Beijing that the meeting would risk damaging relations between China and the United States.
Reflecting the diplomatic sensitivity of the visit, the meeting with the Dalai Lama was closed to the news media....
Related: Dalai Lama's Links to CIA Still Stir Debate
What do you mean the the Dalai Lama is a creature of the CIA?
The meeting came at a delicate time as China, the largest US creditor, has expressed concern about the risk of a default on US bonds if Obama and congressional Republicans cannot break their impasse over raising the nation’s legal debt limit.
Looks like the Chinese are bringing us down to earth.
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Related:
"The meeting came less than 10 days before Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is due to visit China and meet with Beijing’s top foreign policy official....
I'll bet they will be asking her about the debt ceiling.
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War, anyone?
"US ships arrive in Vietnam for training" July 16, 2011|Associated Press
DANANG, Vietnam - Three US Navy ships were welcomed yesterday by former foe Vietnam for joint training, despite China’s irritation following weeks of fiery exchanges between the communist neighbors over disputed areas of the South China Sea.
US and Vietnamese officials have stressed that the seven-day ship visit and naval training are part of routine exchanges planned long before tensions began flaring between China and Vietnam in late May. China has criticized the port call as inappropriate, saying it should have been rescheduled because of the ongoing squabble.
The US visit sent a message that the Navy remains a formidable maritime force in the region and is determined to build stronger military ties with smaller Southeast Asian countries.
Translation: the empire will not die quietly.
“We’ve had a presence in the Western Pacific and the South China Sea for 50 to 60 years, even going back before World War II,’’ said Rear Admiral Tom Carney, who is leading the naval exchange. “We will maintain a presence in the Western Pacific and the South China Sea as we have for decades, and we have no intention of departing from that kind of activity.’’
The US and Vietnamese navies will hold exchanges involving navigation and damage control along with dive and salvage training. No live-fire drills will be conducted.
Vietnam and China last month announced their navies held such maneuvers individually in the South China Sea after relations hit a low point when Hanoi twice accused Beijing of hindering oil exploration within Vietnam’s economic exclusive zone.
China responded that Vietnamese boats had endangered Chinese fishermen near islands claimed all or in part by both nations and several others....
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Related: Chinese Calm South China Sea
Also see: Blogger in China finds a few bad Apples
Next Day Update:
"Lightning causes fatal train crash
BEIJING - A Chinese bullet train lost power after being struck by lightning yesterday and was hit from behind by another train, knocking two of its carriages off a bridge in eastern China, killing at least 32 people, state media reported. The official Xinhua News Agency said four cars on the second train also derailed, but it did not say how serious that was. Xinhua reported that at least 191 people were injured in the collision."
"Canada deports top Chinese fugitive; Alleged smuggling ringleader fought 11 years for asylum" by Ian Johnson and Michael Wines, New York Times / July 24, 2011
BEIJING - In a closely watched case that could affect Chinese citizens in Western countries, state security officials arrested China’s most-wanted fugitive yesterday after Canadian authorities deported him, ending more than a decade of attempts to escape imprisonment.
Lai Changxing, 53, is suspected of leading a corruption ring that caused a major government upheaval in the late 1990s, touching the man widely expected to be chosen next year to lead China, Vice President Xi Jinping.
Lai is accused of overseeing a smuggling ring from Xiamen, a Pacific coast city opposite Taiwan, that netted as much as $10 billion before he fled China in August 1999. He later flew to Canada from Hong Kong and sought protection as a refugee, saying he faced torture or death should he be returned to his homeland.
Lai’s 11-year legal battle to remain in Canada has long soured the two nations’ diplomatic relations....
The case centers on Lai’s activities in the freewheeling coastal special economic zone of Xiamen (formerly known as Amoy), which was under Xi Jinping’s purview when he was governor of Fujian Province. According to reports at the time, Lai’s flight prompted the country’s leadership to summon Xi to Beijing to explain how such an elaborate corruption ring had been allowed to flourish under his watch.
Lai was head of the Yuanhua Group, which built an 88-story tower in Xiamen as well as clubs and housing developments. He was accused of heading a $10 billion scheme to bribe customs officials to import cars and oil into China, evading millions of dollars in taxes. Before fleeing, he had enjoyed widespread government support, including a prestigious position with a group that advises the ruling Communist Party on policy.
Lai was first arrested in Canada a year after he fled, at a casino in Niagara Falls. Canadian courts consistently rejected his claim to asylum status but refused to send him back to China.
The atmosphere changed this year after the newly elected Canadian government of Stephen Harper sent its foreign minister to China. Reversing the government’s previous critical stance on China’s human rights record, he hailed China as a strategic ally and, referring to Lai, said that “both the Canadian people and the Chinese people don’t have a lot of time for white-collar fraudsters.’’
Looks like China is going back up again!
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