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Japan announces manned moon flight

croxiscroxis I am the walrus
in Zocalo v2.0
[url]http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/ap_050406_japan_moon.html[/url]


[quote]TOKYO (AP) -- Japan's space agency mapped out a new, ambitious plan Wednesday for manned flights to the moon by 2025 as a first step to explore the solar system's farflung planets, but said decisions about whether Japan will go it alone or collaborate with other nations won't be made for another decade.[/quote]

This is good, because NASA only has a couple of gallons of moon dust left from Apollo ;)

Comments

  • BigglesBiggles <font color=#AAFFAA>The Man Without a Face</font>
    They'll do it, too. The Japanese government is really keen on the idea and willing to pour money into it, and the Japanese are masters of efficiency.
  • WORFWORF The Burninator
    I just wish it wouldn't take 20 years.

    Worf
  • Random ChaosRandom Chaos Actually Carefully-selected Order in disguise
    Nice - if only they could get it done faster.
  • SpiritOneSpiritOne Magneto ABQ NM
    Think I can get them to take me with them?
  • Morden279Morden279 Genius
    D'ya reckon they'll construct the rocket to look like Megaman? :D

    Regards,
    Morden
  • The Cabl3 GuyThe Cabl3 Guy Elite Ranger
    Yeah the fact that they are planning it for another TWENTY YEARS immediately makes the damn thing worthless. You think the next governments will fund it? NO
  • David of MacDavid of Mac Elite Ranger Ca
    Re: Japan announces manned moon flight

    [QUOTE][i]Originally posted by croxis [/i]
    [B]This is good, because NASA only has a couple of gallons of moon dust left from Apollo ;) [/B][/QUOTE]

    You know, you can grill an excellent hamburger over moon rocks. De-licious.

    Did you know NASA can ban you for life if they catch you cooking in a clean room?
  • C_MonC_Mon A Genuine Sucker
    COOLness!:cool:
  • PJHPJH The Lovely Thing
    20 years!??

    Yeah.... masters of efficiency indeed.

    It's no wonder the mankind isn't going anywhere in space as everything is planned to happen in the next freaking CENTURY.

    Do these people want to accomplish something, or do they not??? Do they want to accomplish something, or do they want their grandgrandgrandchildren to accomplish something!?

    By the time they are going to the Moon other people are going to Mars for weekend holidays with private spacecraft and by the time they're going to Mars we have our own spacecraft in our garages!

    Governments should stop everything space related, because it's not going to work. Private sector is the only possible way. Sad to say, but it's a hard cold fact.

    - PJH
  • croxiscroxis I am the walrus
    You have to remember that Japeniese philosophy is much different than western thought. They tend to be long term thinkers, thinking of results past their own carriers or even their life. It is not as easy as one thinks to send someone into space, much less to the moon. Japan not only has to design, test and make the vehicle itself, but entire infrastructure from training facilities to vehicle construction site etc. These things take time.
  • BigglesBiggles <font color=#AAFFAA>The Man Without a Face</font>
    Let's put things in perspective, shall we? The Boeing 777 took 5 years from the first order placed to the first delivery of an aircraft. This 5 years doesn't include years spent before that of early design work. All up, you can probably count on at least 7 to 10 years to get a commercial airliner from the "let's design a new plane" stage to a working, flying aircraft. Now, a commercial airliner is an amazingly complex machine, but a spacecraft is even more so. Then you have all the infrastructure and training that also needs to go into it when you're starting a manned space program from scratch.
    The US pulled this off back in the 60s because the government was pushing it along due to wanting to beat the Russians. If they had had to deal with the sort of safety concerns that governments these days do and had equivalent funding, they would have taken longer too. 20 years is probably a pretty good (if conservative) estimate, and noone has said they will do it after 20 years, just by 2025. Bush's plan is also a pretty good timeline, the problem there is the funding issue.
  • WHYWHY Elite Ranger
    And thus begins the year 0000 of the Universal century...

    [SIZE=1]coughimanerdcough[/SIZE]
  • Reaver4kReaver4k Trainee in training
    So it takes 20 years to Build a moon set?
  • BigglesBiggles <font color=#AAFFAA>The Man Without a Face</font>
    Well, it takes a while to make all the rocks and grind down enough dust.
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