NASA Expects Chinese Crewed Mission Around the Moon In 2027 (spacenews.com)
- Reference: 0183303117
- News link: https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/05/21/0123247/nasa-expects-chinese-crewed-mission-around-the-moon-in-2027
- Source link: https://spacenews.com/isaacman-expects-chinese-crewed-mission-around-the-moon-in-2027/
> "The next time the world tunes in to watch astronauts fly around the moon, which will likely be sometime in 2027, they will be taikonauts, and America will no longer be the exclusive power to send humans into the lunar environment," he said. While Isaacman has frequently discussed a race with China to be the next to land humans on the moon, this was one of the first times he predicted a 2027 Chinese crewed circumlunar mission. He repeated the comments later in the day at an industry reception.
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> China has not publicly announced plans for such a mission, which, as Isaacman described it, would likely be similar to NASA's Artemis 2 mission in April. There have been rumors of a mission along those lines, though, and an expectation of a roadmap of missions leading to a Chinese crewed landing by the end of the decade. So far, all the crewed missions to fly around, orbit or land on the moon have been flown by NASA: nine Apollo missions from 1968 to 1972 and Artemis 2. All the astronauts on those missions have been Americans except for Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen on Artemis 2.
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> Isaacman has used the threat that China could land astronauts on the moon before NASA returns there as a rationale for revamping the Artemis lunar exploration program. In February, he announced that Artemis 3, which was to be a lunar landing attempt in 2028, will instead be a test flight in low Earth orbit in 2027, followed by a landing on Artemis 4 in 2028. In March, he changed other elements of Artemis at the agency's Ignition event, including effectively canceling the lunar Gateway to focus resources instead on a lunar base, while calling for a much higher cadence of robotic lander missions.
[1] https://spacenews.com/isaacman-expects-chinese-crewed-mission-around-the-moon-in-2027/
Lets Race! (Score:3)
US: Lets have an exciting space race! We're already been there and we've been trying to go back for like 20 years, so we're way ahead, but whatever, lets do it! Come ON! I'll bet you're going to race us like crazy. Oh BOY I'm excited.
China: Uh. I'm busy taking over all the parts of the world economy you don't seem to want to do anymore. Huh. So you're just not making ram for regular consumers anymore? Fine, I'll build another bunch of factories.
US: We want this to be more dramatic. Come on, it was so much fun beating the russians in the 1960s! GOD WE'RE IN SO MUCH DEBT IT TINGLES!
China:
US: HELLO? ARE YOU THERE? Ok, I'm going to start the race in 3... 2... 1... GOOoooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.......!
Re: (Score:2)
Micron is american. Micron announced it will exit the consumer market in February 2026 and focus on enterprise markets including data centers and artificial intelligence.
Re: (Score:2)
The Chinese government is doing basically what the US government did back in the 1960s. Set a goal, make it happen, fund it properly. Gives private companies the confidence to invest in space, even if they aren't directly involved with government projects.
Except they also do it for stuff like electric vehicles and battery technology, renewable energy, railways, semiconductor manufacturing, steel production, and anything else they feel is strategically important to their economy.
Their goal is "before 2030",
Re: (Score:2)
Exactly this. This is the pretext to send an additional couple of billions in contracts to SpaceX, which he always had close relations with.
Not to mention that Isaacson's company has a significant stake in SpaceX, so pumping up the valuation of SpaceX before it goes public is entirely in his best interest.
Be funny if they skipped the flyby (Score:1)
And went straight for a landing. Only then will you have American's talking like one of this weeks Jeopardy clues.
Re: (Score:2)
That's an interesting idea. What do they gain from doing a flight around the moon? They get to test the spacecraft in that mission profile, but they have already landed things on the moon so stuff like the comms and navigation is already sorted out. They have a space station so have experience with long duration missions, and the moon is only medium duration.
Artemis didn't test separation and docking in lunar orbit, but Apollo 10 did. The Chinese can already do the docking reliably for their space station.
T
Re: (Score:2)
[1]Their plan for landing seems to be 2030 [www.gov.cn]. They are still working on important parts (like the spacesuit, for example).
[1] https://english.www.gov.cn/news/202504/23/content_WS680856d7c6d0868f4e8f1fe1.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com
Good for them (Score:3)
The more the merrier, I say... at least in this context.
Re: (Score:2)
[1]They plan to land humans on the moon by 2030 [www.gov.cn], so orbiting the moon in 2027 seems like a reasonable goal for them.
[1] https://english.www.gov.cn/news/202305/29/content_WS64748c46c6d03ffcca6ed781.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com