China unveils video of its moon base plans, which weirdly includes a NASA space shuttle
China unveils video of its moon base plans, which weirdly includes a NASA space shuttle
The video details an expansive lunar outpost, but curiously includes CGI of a NASA space shuttle taking off from the moon's surface.
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.
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.
Brave of you to assume DALLE or Midjourney wasnt the creator
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?
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.
They plan to force Nasa to sell to a Chinese company
Maybe it will finally get a bigger budget
In exchange for tiktok? 🤔
Or else NASA won't be able to fly over Chinese space???
Or just ... use it like a port where other nations can rent landing space? Maybe even share resources like the ISS does and charge others rent
NASA hasn‘t used a space shuttle in how many years? They just used assets to make a quick render of something that will never be. It‘s a poor PR stunt. Don‘t read too much into it.
Nothing weird about it. They have zero respect for international IP law.
hard to invent your own stuff when you have no social mobility or intellectual property and torture individualism.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
It sure would be cool to see the space shuttle reach the moon though
Edit: I mixed tenses pretty badly here originally lol
It's a secret tool that will help us later
International cooperation, imagine
Does it also contain footage of a nuclear waste dump?
Martin Landau, Rise from your Grave!
Twittwr link to video , to anyone curious like me. The render looks like CNSA is about as well funded as NASA.
Is this a laser pyramid?
That weapon is fully operational!
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 😁🎇🤕
Maybe they are planning a multinational base like the iss..
Article now contains a link to a tweet showing a reissued image that has the Shuttle blurred out. Got to wonder if someone got in trouble for putting the Shuttle in there.
I don't see the US on that list even. They probably wants to build their own lunar base, with robots, and weapons.
And blackjack?
And Hookers?
Did you actually look at who is on said list?
The only reason Elon Musk is not the world champion of ridiculous vaporware promises with laughable timelines is because the Chinese government exists.