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China announces a new 60 ton space station project to complete by 2020

T

Tyrannosaur

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Could China be filling the void that NASA has left?

chinaspacestation.jpg


The 18.1-meter-long core module, with a maximum diameter of 4.2 meters and a launch weight of 20 to 22 tons, will be launched first.

The two experiment modules will then blast off to dock with the core module. Each laboratory module is 14.4 meters long, with the same maximum diameter and launch weight of the core module.

"The 60-ton space station is rather small compared to the International Space Station (419 tons), and Russia's Mir Space Station (137 tons) which served between 1996 and 2001," said Pang Zhihao, a researcher and deputy editor-in-chief of the monthly magazine, Space International.

"But it is the world's third multi-module space station, which usually demands much more complicated technology than a single-module space lab," he said.

The office also said that China will develop a cargo spaceship, with a maximum diameter of 3.35 meters and a launch weight less than 13 tons, to transport supplies and lab facilities to the space station.

Pang said it is the first time that the office confirmed plans to build a cargo spaceship, which is vital for long-term space missions.
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China announces a new 60 ton space station project to complete by 2020
 
NASA has lost it's vision for the future that has promoted so much innovation in the last 50 years it's more than most people realize.

To list all the new products takes pages and the number of jobs has been phenomenal.

Obama has like President Bush has done nothing to stop the declines we have been wathing for years.
 
This is so aggravating. People whine about the decline of NASA, well let me clue you in: NASA was doomed from the start as all government bureaucracies are. There can be no innovation is a bureaucracy, its nature is to stagnate. The only way to sustain innovation is competition. The only reason NASA was able to achieve functionality in the 60s was the space race, the competition with the Russians. It's the same reason our military is the most functional part of our government today, because defense is a constant competition.

What the space industry needs is to tap into another source of endless competition, the free market. The energy of private enterprise is what this nation needs to get back into the space game.
 
Getting into orbit is relatively easy now, and private companies can do that reasonably well

Instead of trying to find new ways to get to orbit, if you want Nasa to gain focus, have it figure out a way to another planet within a far shorter time frame then most are. Meaning have Nasa focus on developing new propulsion systems. Building a rocket to put people or a sat into space is something Boeing or Lockheed can do. Boeing cant develop a new propulsion system without a commercial reason for it, and no commercial reason exists for travelling to Mars currently
 
I am very happy with this news. Onward!
 
In the future, we can beg the Chinese for a ride into space, then take out a loan from them to pay for that ride.
 
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