Will the Chinese beat America to Mars

Question

Will the Chinese beat America to Mars

Answer 1

It doesn't matter which nation puts people on Mars first. It only matters that we, the human race, begin to expand to other planets.

Answer 2

No. The Chinese have a very slow progress in spaceflight, making it unlikely they will collect the experience for a mars flight fast enough to overtake NASA or ESA.

Answer 3

Probably.  The US is broke.  We cannot afford a BIG SPACE ADVENTURE.  We're fighting a war on borrowed money while we are trillions in debt.  China is rich.  China wishes to impress the world with its new wealth, which is why it was desperate to be chosen for the Summer Olympics.  A trip to Mars would cement its position as a major world power.  Having once been the most powerful nation on Earth, it was carved up by the "Barbarian" European powers in the 19th century.  It may choose a trip to Mars as a way of re-establishing its technological and scientific pre-eminence.  Or it might do something rational.  Mars is useless.    

Answer 4

If the Chinese chose to go of Mars they will probably accompany the U.S., Russia, Japan and other countries.  There is little national competition these days.  For instance, the space station is an International Space Station.  The most recent module installed, the Logistics Module, was constructed by Japan.  The Space Race of the 50s, 60s, etc. was a part of the Cold War (WW III).  

The Space Race only made sense when there was a competition between nations to prove to the world that a particular political / economic system was best.  It appears now that capitalism is practiced by all major nations of the world.  MAKE NO MISTAKE – China is not a communistic country.  Communism is an economic system – not a political system.  China is a country with an emerging capitalistic economic system that has a dictatorship as its political system.

Answer 5

An expedition to Mars will be very expensive. In the forseeable future, the only way mankind will have a successful manned mission to Mars is via international corporation. Within the next 30years, nuclear rockets will be available, but they will probably astronomically expensive. In addition to that, NASA will have to launch the crew's Mars habitat, Mars rover, Mars takeoff ship. One launch will not bring all of these things to Mars. You will need at least four different rockets to transport the equipment to the red planet. You'll also need to assemble the crew's spaceship in outterspace....

$17billion/year is NASA's present budget and that's not enough money to have a successful manned mission to Mars.

Answer 6

As Yogi Berra said, "Prediction is hard, especially when it's about the future."

The U.S. has a mature space program with loads of manned space flight experience.  The U.S. is definitely ahead of China now.  But the same could have been said about the Soviet Union in 1960, and yet the United States won the race to the Moon in 1969.

Of course we welcome China as a spacefaring nation. Throughout history China has proven to be an innovative and industrious culture.  Clearly a little healthy competition might help the consortium of U.S., European, and Russian space programs to step up their efforts.