Topic: China lands on Moon "Jade Rabbit", a feat by all means  (Read 1855 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

China lands on Moon "Jade Rabbit", a feat by all means
« on: December 15, 2013, 12:06:54 PM »
China's lunar landing is without doubt a major technological triumph, a real achievement, but has it managed to fire the imaginations of ordinary Chinese?

The Chang'e 3 lunar lander descended to the surface of the Moon in the middle of peak television viewing time, a little after nine o'clock on Saturday evening, amid a fanfare of coverage on CCTV, China's national broadcaster.

CCTV reaches almost all this country's 1.4 billion people. There were fancy computer graphics, and animations, of the probe descending to the surface. The animations at least showed a perfect touch-down.

And the achievement of course is undimmed. For China the mission is valuable in many ways.

It's a demonstration, to China's own people and the rest of the world, of how far this country has developed, of its scientific and technological prowess, of its ability to mobilise human and financial resources.

The mission will spur the development of communications and other technologies. There may be military and civilian spin-offs.

And above all of course, for a Communist Party's leaders the science is less important than the symbolism of a rising China, reaching for the Moon.

 

Related Topics

  Subject / Started by Replies Last post
0 Replies
2192 Views
Last post September 16, 2012, 01:04:36 PM
by clowntom
0 Replies
1751 Views
Last post November 08, 2012, 11:33:27 PM
by olutee
0 Replies
8890 Views
Last post February 25, 2013, 08:01:00 AM
by cappy
0 Replies
9060 Views
Last post August 22, 2013, 10:46:40 PM
by flukky01
0 Replies
2096 Views
Last post September 12, 2013, 06:54:31 AM
by olutee
0 Replies
2613 Views
Last post November 05, 2013, 10:20:19 AM
by flukky01
0 Replies
2379 Views
Last post February 10, 2014, 11:57:42 PM
by flukky01
0 Replies
2306 Views
Last post April 08, 2014, 01:24:28 AM
by flukky01
0 Replies
1888 Views
Last post April 14, 2014, 01:03:39 PM
by flukky01
0 Replies
607 Views
Last post January 03, 2019, 07:03:56 PM
by thisday