China launches mystery object into space

[kana_marie]

China launches ‘mystery object’ into space


With the mood china's been in lately, I have my doubts that this is anything that will win them the
Nobel Peace Prize. If its as bad as they think it might be, at least we can figure out a way of working around it. We managed to survive without satellites before, we just need to be prepared to do it again.

 

[orangesunset]

Maybe it is a Chinese takeout that caters to aliens who have a taste for Chinese food and MSG. People seem to overestimate the Chinese threat, but at the same time they underestimate it. Why would China bomb the crap out of USA, if they get into a conflict with USA, how will USA pay back to China the trillions they owe ?

 

[kana_marie]

Maybe it is a Chinese takeout that caters to aliens who have a taste for Chinese food and MSG. People seem to overestimate the Chinese threat, but at the same time they underestimate it. Why would China bomb the crap out of USA, if they get into a conflict with USA, how will USA pay back to China the trillions they owe ?

I can't say I really agree with the Chinese takeout theory. I live 30 minutes away from any Chinese restuarant and they won't deliver to me. No way are they going to deliver that far out.

Chinese bombing the US actually didnt occur to me. I'm not even going to try to guess what they have planned. I don't think they want the full wrath of these United States of America coming down on their heads with the kind of force we would put behind it. However, attacking another, smaller, less threatening country while disabling any communication satellites so that we don't even really know what's going on in our own country, much less on the other side of the planet, doesn't sound very far fetched to me.

 

[Redheart]

Everyone [re: the US and India] seem to be concerned that China will destroy their satellites. But fact is the U.S which seems to be pointing fingers have the technology to shoot down satellites. Back in 2008 the U.S shot down a malfunctioning satellite. No one at that time suggested that the U.S would attempt to shoot down their satellites but when China tests some new anti-satellite weapon, the U.S [and the rest of the world] aren't happy with that. The double standards can be pretty annoying, especially to the Chinese.

 

[vegito12]

China is independent and is used to taking what is theirs and, does not bow to anyone, and did this to show what they are capable of and will not bew scared of any country. It shows how advanced they are and what they can do, and amazing they have the technology as well and it worked. I, reckon acusing them of something they have not done is not good and should find the facts first before making choices.

 

[heavyinfantry]

China is known for this type of behavior: "security throught obscurity". They want to protect themself by trying to hide all what they think that might be suspicious and could be a problem in commercial affairs and military affairs. It's not a really surprising news but it's worrying the fact that they're acting in the space this time. I don't really know what their intention are but I won't expect an attack from the space or something like, sounds too much like a hollywood movie isn't it ?

 

[Rowe992]

Maybe the mystery device in a space factory where China intends to manufacture items for astronauts and sell them from that factory in space. The device could also be some kind of spying equipment for China to spy on its rivals for valuable information where commerce and military are concerned.

 

[heavyinfantry]

Maybe the mystery device in a space factory where China intends to manufacture items for astronauts and sell them from that factory in space. The device could also be some kind of spying equipment for China to spy on its rivals for valuable information where commerce and military are concerned.

I think the latter option you wrote might be the one. Just think about the reasons why a nation would hide selling goods that would be even useful to other nations' projects in space? I think there aren't any.Unfortunately the second one sounds more realistic and feasible if you think about it. Also, as I said before, it's not a really great news that China is doing such things.. I mean it's highly notable that the chinese's governament is trying to fight backt the US spying.

 

[kana_marie]

Maybe it's a gag. They got together and decided to mess with the rest of the world by shooting a worthless chunk of metal up into space and bringing it back. They're probably reading this post and a million others just like it, laughing and calling us names.

 

[thomas pendrake]

I rather imagine that the U.S. knows what the device is and what it does. We would not disclose the details in order to not tell the Chinese how much we know. The latest launch was for a new navigation satellite, but there have been rumblings about a Chinese program to interfere with other nations satellites. I believe one launch was a probe that went into the area of geo-synchronous satellites, and this caused speculation that it was a test for a satellite destroyer. Considering that there are easier ways to eliminate satellites, I would question that. Particle beams and lasers are cheaper and harder to defend against. When I was an undergraduate in the late 1960s, we had the capability of using a laser to destroy any satellite.

 

[kana_marie]

I rather imagine that the U.S. knows what the device is and what it does. We would not disclose the details in order to not tell the Chinese how much we know. The latest launch was for a new navigation satellite, but there have been rumblings about a Chinese program to interfere with other nations satellites. I believe one launch was a probe that went into the area of geo-synchronous satellites, and this caused speculation that it was a test for a satellite destroyer. Considering that there are easier ways to eliminate satellites, I would question that. Particle beams and lasers are cheaper and harder to defend against. When I was an undergraduate in the late 1960s, we had the capability of using a laser to destroy any satellite.

Based on what you just said, am I hearing that you feel that it could be China pranking us?

Terrorism is only effective if people experience terror, yeah? That logic can be applied here, yeah? So, if they want us to fear them and what they MIGHT be able to do, sending an unknown object into space and then calling it back is a great start.

I know it sounds a little over the top, spending that much money on a silly prank. I'm wondering if there isn't some real purpose for it, just nothing as scary as they want us to believe.

 

[thomas pendrake]

No, I am saying that we know pretty much what they are up to. We do not disclose what we know in order to not show our hand (poker terminology).China has done experiments on how to disable other nation's satellites, as have we. One of their latest launches was on a trajectory that does not fit with any standard launches and probably was designed to test some method of interfering with geo-synchronous satellites, but much cheaper methods of disabling satellites are available. I know of experiments we performed in the mid 1960s that had the capability of destroying satellites with laser beams, and I know of no ways to counter that. We also have particle-beams capable of destroying satellites.

What is scary is what kind of space-based weapons could be deployed. Fortunately, the U.S.`Russia, England, France, and China (and probably several other nations) have the ability to detect and destroy most Space-based WMDs. None of the above are likely to use such weapons against smaller nations.