More power to 'em! Hope they make it to the Moon, too. Maybe that'll restart the space race, to land someone on Mars.

Here's to hoping! [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]

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I hope they do go...and I really hope they bring modern video cameras with them so we can see some visuals that arent as grainy as the old footage is. The stills are clear, but I was raised on moving pictures [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_wink.gif[/img]

The article states: "Space officials have said that a goal of China's space program is to put a Chinese astronaut on the Moon one day."

I wonder if they have all the NASA tech data from the Apollo missions. I bet they do. Why not? It's 30 years old and probably none of it is classified. I think it's great someone is planning to return. I hope the statement is not just public relations. If they do eventually go, they'll probably send a crew of at least three, rather than "one" astronaut.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Chip on 2002-03-27 01:17 ]</font>

And new members are coming to join the club, as Japan, Brazil, India develop their "cheaper" space programs.

Is the title of this string a racial pun coming in under the BA's radar screen?

I have a friend who says their anthropometry allows them to cheat.

"Antropometry" = a psuedoscience based on skull measurements, "allows" [Chinese astronauts] to "cheat"?

What is that supposed to mean? And I didn't notice the silly implication of the title you gave your first post until someone pointed it out. It's nice to place a link to a story about how China might be sending people to the Moon, but your own cryptic comments and follow-ups, without further clarification, seem irrelevant and sophmorically offensive to me.

My definition of anthropometry is the measurement of human factors. NASA uses such standards to make manned space equipment. It defines the size of spacesuits, seats, door openings, crew weight, arm reach, etc. My friend's point is that the Chinese are generally smaller than the NASA standards and allows them to make such human accommodations smaller and lighter. He thinks that's "cheating". This is reminiscent of early Japanese cars that many complained were too small for Caucasians.

By the way I drive a Nissan and had a Toyota station wagon back in the 70s. My friend who drove a Volvo thought I was crazy to own one of those little cars.

Judging for what I see in the streets, I think that the Chinese are indeed very tall, besides being a beautiful people (I confess i get a kick from the chinese women). Not that this means something. When it comes to space travel, a small human body is much more suitable.

Somebody has said that the perfect astronaut is a paraplegic (of the legless variety). Why lug around two useless and heavy lumps of flesh?

I say we start the amputations tomorrow.

[img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_rolleyes.gif[/img]

By the way, John, Asian eyes are not slanted.

There's a fairly recent science fiction novel in which people have been genetically engineered for space - so they all have four arms and no legs.

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<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: ToSeek on 2002-03-27 08:23 ]</font>

Why aren't paraplegics being hired as astronauts now? It costs something like $10,000 per pound to put something into orbit. The weight of legs and space suit pants would easily top 100 pounds saving over $1,000,000 per mission.

There are lots of other physical and mental requirements for being an astronaut (as opposed to a "space tourist" like Tito or Bass, or even McAuliffe, for that matter). I would think that only a small portion of the population is qualified to be an actual astronaut . . . which means that only a small portion of double amputees would meet the other qualifications. And, since there are significantly fewer double amputees than "regular people", the pool of qualified candidates is probably vanishingly small.

BTW, a "paraplegic" is simply somebody who is paralyzed from the waist down, not somebody who has actually had legs amputated . . .

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Right you are. My sleep-fogged brain failed to dredge up the phrase "double amputee". Oh well...

In any case, your argument about other qualifications wouldn't prevent us from amputating the legs of people who have already qualified... now would it?

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Donnie B. on 2002-03-27 16:20 ]</font>

On 2002-03-27 06:52, John Kierein wrote:
"...My friend's point is that the Chinese are generally smaller than the NASA standards and allows them to make such human accommodations smaller and lighter..."

Granted that as I read further, I found that "anthropometry" can have a broader definition as applied to design factors accommodating human beings, as you pointed out. However, your friend is quite wrong about Chinese people being smaller than Westerners. I worked in various Chinese cities through the 1990s and generally speaking Chinese people are the same size as modern Americans and Europeans. Chinese and Europeans have been approximately of similar size for centuries. (Including the fact that in a very general sense, people worldwide tended to be smaller in the past.)

The Japanese car analogy doesn't work for your friend either. The Japanese auto industry was modeled basically after British licensed designs (Hillman and Austin) who's cars tended to be small. Yes, Japan has a smaller sense of space, and the Japanese were in fact smaller in stature than Americans in the recent past, (they're getting taller with each generation).

How does this figure in spacecraft design? Perhaps the Asian tradition of smaller living quarters would mean that Asian astronauts would be able to live more comfortably for long periods in confined quarters. But in reality, efficiently designed crew quarters and command centers in future spacecraft will, I believe, leave physical stature and ethnic background completely irrelevant.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Chip on 2002-03-28 00:00 ]</font>

Do you mean that Laika, the first living being in space, had special talents? I don't think so.

Astronauts are normal people. Say the contrary and you will imply that they are super-men (or super-persons). I don't want to consider myself an inferior person because I did not fly at 300 km altitude. An astronaut is only somebody who had a chance to do that kind of job. There's just nothing to it.

By the way, they used to say the same about the primeval sea men and airplane pilots. Now the world is just choke full of them. And I can assure you there is nothing special in them.

It is probably reasonable to suggest that NASA could successfully send less qualified people into space than it does. We end up sending such good people because so many people want to do it, so you can pick the very best. Still, I find most astronauts pretty impressive, fulfilling the "sound mind in a sound body" maxim. We're talking about the sort of people capable of doing original scientific research and of running a marathon. So I would argue that they are exceptional.

The analogy to Laika is bogus: Laika was just a passenger. Every astronaut that flies has a serious job to do.

The analogy to early seamen and airmen is kind of bogus, too: thanks to modern technology, ships and planes are much, much easier to fly these days.

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So will the spaceships be. The proof is the successful automatic probes we launch.

To me an astronaut is the one who's able to dominate all aspects of space flight. Mission specialists are kinda passengers too, trained for specific tasks. In this sense, only 10% (maybe less)of the people who went to the space are astronauts. And they are indeed impressive.

I laugh at those who demerit the "tourist" Tito. I think he performed very well. We have to careful to analize the role of people onboard space vehicles. I don't believe in supermen. I'm sure I would behave very well in space, having the adequate training (as I think you would too).[img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

Nope, but the fact that they still spend the vast majority of their lives here on Earth, where legs do come in quite handy, would probably make it undesirable for them . . .

[img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]

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The contents of this post are ©2008 by SeanF and may not be copied or retransmitted in any form without the express written consent of SeanF