There’s a popular argument for the Apollo moon landing being true: if it wasn’t, then the Soviets would have realized it. From this we can also conclude that they didn’t slander the US moon mission while knowing it happened.
I wonder if the US will do the same if China’s mission succeeds; and even if they do, I wouldn’t be surprised if decades down the line, declassified documents prove that they funded people that went around ‘proving’ it was fake.
China does good thing at what cost
US government won’t take an official stance. US media will publish bullshit from some “whistleblower” claiming the whole thing is fake for weeks on end, then, 6 months later, will quietly issue a retraction that the whistleblower is just some random blogger who doesn’t speak Mandarin and has never been to China.
There will definitely be ppl saying it’s fake but I bet a good chunk will be something like “lol good job we did that 50 years ago.” Then use that as justification to claim China’s tech is 50 years behind the US or some similar BS. So they won’t so much deny it as belittle it.
Oh yeah, that’ll probably be the general attitude in the US. No matter what scientific accomplishments China achieves on the moon, whether they build a base there or not, the US will just say “We were there first, so yours doesn’t count.”
And libs will post this story for decades as dogma and call you see see pee shill no matter how much proof you post.
I think that in addition to the “fake” narrative, they will also talk about how the Taikonauts were “forced” to go to the moon by their evil authoritarian government.
They’ll give both these stories in quick succession and won’t notice the massive glaring contradiction between them.
Unless the US government gets taken over by QAnon types by then, I would be seriously surprised if they did this. America may even land on the moon again in a few years, so it’s not like they’d be embarrassed. I expect a lot of crazy shit online though.
It’ll be one of those things where officially they recognise the achievement, but the media will push the fringe voices to the forefront, knowing that people will adopt conspiracy theories all on their own. They won’t tell people it was fake, they’ll just host people who say it was fake and let them speak, then let people “decide for themselves.”
They’ve been doing this for decades. QAnon is the best example I can think of for that.
“China says they landed a manned mission on the moon. Experts like Adrian Zenz say it is SEE-SEE-MAI-PEE-PEE propaganda!”
Wait till they hear about Project A119.
What are the advantages of a manner mission vs an unmanned one? Other than prestige, I can think of very few pros vs plentiful cons
From what I was reading, the long term goal is to make a colony. If we could make a colony on the moon that opens up a lot of possibilities. Especially, if it can be made largely self sufficient using local resources. It could also be a launchpad for exploring the rest of the solar system. You could build a space elevator on the moon much easier than on Earth for example, you can use nuclear energy without worrying about environmental pollution, etc. All of that is obviously far in the future, but you have to start somewhere.
You could make a space elevator easier that’s true. But due to the low gravity and lack of an atmosphere, you see mass drivers suggested more often. They’re also much simpler.
Mass drivers are definitely simpler and will almost certainly get built first, but they don’t quite fill the same role because space elevator allows for docking in orbit.
Oh true but orbital rings are the sexiest option of course. Less necessary for the moon than the Earth though.
now there’s a megaproject :)
National pride, perhaps? The 2nd nation in history to land a human on the Moon would be absolutely astonishing.
Additionally, to help in the establishment of a lunar base to serve as a platform for rocket launches to Mars or for mining operations; tasks that cannot be fully completed - even by robots.
Exactly. China establishing a lunar base would pay off in dividends for future space exploration for decades.
Pretty sure it would be the 3rd yeah? The Soviets also performed manned lunar landings.
Edit: NVM my knowledge of that was incorrect it seems.
The Soviets never landed a human on the Moon, which is what I meant.
Humans can do a lot of things that robots can’t yet
I agree, I think the future is in humanoid remote drones.
We know from space stations that humans do really poorly without standard gravity, and not having to worry about food or water on the ground is a significant benefit.
I’m really hoping they might someday build a space-borne solar power station at the Sol-Earth L1 Langrage Point. Or a telescope on the far side of Luna. Anything’s possible when you don’t have the brainworms of neoliberal capitalism holding you back.
indeed
