China unveils video of its moon base plans, which weirdly includes a NASA space shuttle ( www.space.com )

The China National Space Administration (CNSA) has released a video of its concept for a lunar base to be developed across the next couple of decades.

CNSA unveiled the video on Wednesday (April 24) as part of the country's annual space day celebrations. The project is known as the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) and was jointly announced in 2021 by China and Russia.

China is now leading the moon base initiative and attempting to attract international partners for the endeavor. So far, alongside China, Russia, Venezuela, Pakistan, Azerbaijan, Belarus, South Africa, Egypt, Thailand and Nicaragua have joined the initiative, according to Space News.

One curious detail of the video is the presence of a retired NASA Space Shuttle appearing to lift off from a launch pad in the background.

Valmond ,

You think China can actually pull something like that off?

Russia, Venezuela, Pakistan, Azerbaijan, Belarus, South Africa, Egypt, Thailand and Nicaragua have joined the initiative, according to Space News.

Oh great, no problem then 😁🎇🤕

JustZ ,
@JustZ@lemmy.world avatar

Nothing weird about it. They have zero respect for international IP law.

Imgonnatrythis ,

They plan to force Nasa to sell to a Chinese company

EvilEyedPanda ,

Or else NASA won't be able to fly over Chinese space???

lorkano ,

In exchange for tiktok? 🤔

Sgn ,

Maybe it will finally get a bigger budget

Hildegarde ,

CG artists use available assets to finish project on time, within budget. Don't trust any computer generated speculative graphics to be accurate in any way. Some artists are just filing in the blanks to get the thing done.

CaptainSpaceman ,

Brave of you to assume DALLE or Midjourney wasnt the creator

Hildegarde ,

The rendering looks way too 90's to be made my modern AI image generation. Why would anyone ask midjourney to generate images that look like they were made in Bryce, when they could have it make anything else?

4am ,

Everything you used to write this comment was at least partially made in China, let’s not pretend after 40 years of the world outsourcing to them that the don’t have the skill, infrastructure, or money to do what America did in the 70s.

Yeah that’s not great for the USA trying to maintain its position on top, but just because it sucks for us doesn’t mean it ain’t true.

We literally sold them our future for short term gains.

protist ,

Bro, they're talking about the blatantly terrible CG image in the article. Who are you talking to

frezik ,

They have the skill, have a good start on the infrastructure, and have the money to do what America did in the 70s.

They don't have the skill, infrastructure, or money to build what was shown in the rendering. Nobody does. To do what they show doesn't just require a moon base, but full out lunar mining and manufacturing. We only have preliminary ideas about how to do that, none of which have any practical testing, and we're a long way from getting there.

1984 ,
@1984@lemmy.today avatar

I don't see the US on that list even. They probably wants to build their own lunar base, with robots, and weapons.

Buttons ,
@Buttons@programming.dev avatar

And blackjack?

Num10ck ,

hard to invent your own stuff when you have no social mobility or intellectual property and torture individualism.

Aatube ,
@Aatube@kbin.melroy.org avatar

China has actually been capitalist since Deng. Not sure about social mobility, but intellectual property and individualism are respected, though they're still pretty authoritarian, along with Xi's atrocities.

kbin_space_program ,

The entire fundamental basis of the CCPs economic miracle is that intellectual property is not respected.

Aatube ,
@Aatube@kbin.melroy.org avatar

I'm intrigued, how so?

kbin_space_program ,

In short:

Sinovac, "their" covid vaccine, was stolen from Canada when Canada offered to help them produce a vaccine. Signed an official treaty and everything. Canada did the hard work that they literally couldn't, and still can't, do. Then they took the vaccine and claimed it was entirely their own work.

Huawei's 5G development miracle is 100% stolen technology from Nortel. They did no work of their own other than work so shoddy even the UK Tories didn't want to touch it.

These are just the two highest profile ones that go right to the leaders of the CCP.

Hegar ,
@Hegar@kbin.social avatar

China has been a centralized autocratic state for a couple thousands years and has invented almost everything in that time.

More seriously though, it's just not true to suggest that collectivist societies or autocratic states can't invent new things. The briefest glance at history shows it's just not true.

New things come from people having the time and resources to sit around and think about how to improve on the things we have. IP, social mobility and individualism just don't really come into it.

Num10ck ,

to be fair yes they invented paper, paper money, umbrellas, wheelbarrows, gunpowder, etc.

chinese govt claims to have invented high-speed rail, e-commerce, mobile payments and bike sharing, but those are all untrue.

but overall, given a billion people, i rarely see them invent game changers. maybe the artificial synthesis of starch will be a big one. or solid state EV batteries.

jaybone ,

They haven’t really invented anything big since gun powder.

And even gun powder, they didn’t know how to fully apply all of its potential.

Buttons ,
@Buttons@programming.dev avatar

IP law is all about telling people what they can't create.

SaltySalamander ,
@SaltySalamander@fedia.io avatar

More like telling people what they can't reproduce. A pretty important distinction.

Buttons ,
@Buttons@programming.dev avatar

Not always. As John Carmack said:

The idea that I can be presented with a problem, set out to logically solve it with the tools at hand, and wind up with a program that could not be legally used because someone else followed the same logical steps some years ago and filed for a patent on it is horrifying.

Many people have created things entirely from their own mind, and then find that they're violating IP law.

Even things like Calculus were invented simultaneously in different parts of the world. I mean, think about it, Calculus allows us to solve all kinds of problem that humankind had spent thousands of years thinking about and being unable to solve. Then, independently, in separate parts of the world 2 people invent / discover Calculus around the same time. If world wide IP law had existed, it might swoop in and tell one of them their thoughts were not legal.

CosmoNova ,

To even suggest China was united let alone centralized for that long is so blatantly ignorant I‘m not even going to talk about the lack of micromanaging capabilities of ancient governments. Old China was overthrown and China‘s government today has no resemblance whatsoever to old dynasties so it doesn‘t even make sense to bring them up as an example for Chinese ingenuity. Besides, the speed and process of how inventions were made thousands of years ago compared to today are on entirely different planes of existence.

The argument is not that autocratic states cannot be innovative under any circumstances, but historically, self proclaimed communist states had have their fair share of troubles with it because of stagnant hierarchies. Communist China is a very good example of a bad environment for innovation for reasons mentioned above.

The only Chinese innovation I can think of is the introduction of gamified hyper fast consumerism via Temu, Shein and TikTok. That‘s the spearhead of their innovation.

pirat ,

u - u - temuuuu

u - u - temuuu-uuu

Their ad budget for the superbowl must have been laughably big. After being exposed to it a couple o' dozens o' times within those few hours, their stupid little jingle anthem is now living rent-free in my head, alongside all those catchy radio commercials from my childhood. Too bad Temu (nor those radio advertisers) wont see the shadow of a coin from my pocket, but their expense has probably paid off anyways... I don't even know what to do with this (detri)mental jingle collection now?!

...

u - u - temuuuu

u - u - temuuu-uuu

verity_kindle ,
@verity_kindle@sh.itjust.works avatar

No, this is incorrect. China was a bunch of kingdoms, constantly at war with each other for longer than it's ever been forcibly "united" by external forces, such as the Western powers in the 19th century, dividing up and ruthlessly controlling economic spheres of influence. It's fascinating how ethnic, religious and cultural differences have been manipulated by so many governments for so long to feed their pockets and it isn't over. The CCP is going to be nothing but a footnote in a research paper someday.

Hegar ,
@Hegar@kbin.social avatar

There has been a centralized bureaucratic autocracy in china since the legalist reforms of qin, a couple thousand years ago. Yes, the empire once united must divide but even during the long disunity before the sui and tang, there were multiple centralized autocratic states. Unity across all of the territory called modern china is not necessary to have a centralized state, and you'll notice I never once used the word united.

forcibly “united” by external forces, such as the Western powers in the 19th century, dividing up and ruthlessly controlling economic spheres of influence

Wait were western powers dividing or uniting china? You're claiming both in the same sentence. But that's kind of immaterial to my point that the centralized autocratic state has existed in china for a couple thousand years and that many important new technologies came out of the cultures governed in that way.

rottingleaf ,

or intellectual property

Yes, getting sued for stepping on a mine like rounded corners is so good for inventiveness.

IP helps fast modernization in new industries. Of the "industrial revolution" kind. It didn't help inventiveness itself even back then, and now it's clearly the main impediment.

Which also makes me think that all kinds of political diversity, even states like China, are good for humanity as a whole. How else would we be able to compare them after all.

Hegar ,
@Hegar@kbin.social avatar

Yes, getting sued for stepping on a mine like rounded corners is so good for inventiveness.

It's so strange to me that people buy this BS line about IP laws having anything to do with why we get cool new things.

Either competition fosters innovation and therefore IP laws stifle it, or protecting monopolies fosters innovation and our IP laws make sense.

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