did I miss it, or does CPOD actually lack manned space flight lessons?

pretzellogic
September 24, 2008, 02:58 PM posted in General Discussion

I can't believe there's no lessons on China's space program.  Especially on the eve of another manned mission launch.

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSTRE48N03J20080924

And we get asked all the time for lesson topics!

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RJ
September 24, 2008, 04:27 PM

I agree. The Chinese also have a satellite that is orbiting the moon that sent back messages timed to coincide with the mid autumn (moon cake) festival. The satellite is called Chang'e 1 named after the mythological character. The Chinese also plan to land a probe on the moon by 2012 and have further plans to land a man on the moon. The mission you mention will include their first space walk. While America sleeps, the Chinese will soon surpass. The first hotel on the moon will no doubt be Chinese.

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mattwhyndham
September 24, 2008, 05:03 PM

I don't know about that, but the first dim sum restaurant certainly will be.

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pretzellogic
September 24, 2008, 06:04 PM

I think the US has actually let manned missions to the moon disappear in importance partly due to the expense, partly because once the space race was won, no one seemed to care anymore about space. I'm looking forward to dimsum on the moon, but it probably won't happen in my lifetime where I can chew on shaomai at 1/6 earth gravity.

It will be interesting if either a McCain or Obama Administration follows through on US plans for the moon and Mars laid out by the Bush Administration.  I'm not hopeful.

As an aside, it would be interesting to poll the average person in Shanghai to see how many people know how many times did the United States put men on the moon?  I heard that if the average Chinese person knew at all, they would say one.

 

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tvan
September 25, 2008, 07:05 PM

Goulniky's just posted a news article regarding China's manned mission on the news forum.  It's all in Chinese though, so probably for upper intermediate and above.  Still, lots of good terminology.

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pretzellogic
September 27, 2008, 02:20 AM

lots of great terminology.  Unfortunately, i'm at elementary level at best.  I was hoping for an elementary or no higher than intermediate lesson for space flight. I think mikenotinjubei suggested taking one theme and having  a series of lessons that go from newbie to advanced.  To me, space flight is a good candidate for such treatment.

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pretzellogic
September 27, 2008, 02:30 AM

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