Chinese scientists have discovered a “brand-new method” of producing large quantities of water using lunar soil brought back from a 2020 expedition, state broadcaster CCTV reported on Thursday.

  • DarkCloud@lemmy.worldEnglish
    9·
    2 months ago

    Thanks to Musk dilly dallying with SpaceX China will probably have the first moon colony - which will be a huge blow to the US psyche.

    Destin at the Smarter Every Day YouTube channel did a video of his presentation to NASA about SpaceX’s unrealistic plan. The YouTuber thunderf00t did a video explaining that video.

    • BrikoX@lemmy.zipOPMEnglish
      101·
      2 months ago

      Well, US would have nobody else but themselves to blame. They spent around 5 billion on SpaceX and have nothing to show for it. They are still using mostly the same NASA tech used in Apollo mission 50 years ago…

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldEnglish
        5·
        2 months ago

        I’m confident that Americans will find someone else to blame.

        Maybe they’ll blame the Woke scientists and engineers. Maybe they’ll insist they were sabotaged by the nefarious Chinese or insidious Russian agents. Maybe they’ll complain that Liberal Arts Colleges aren’t giving them enough STEM majors to make it happen.

        They are still using mostly the same NASA tech used in Apollo mission 50 years ago…

        At some level, there’s only so many ways to escape the gravity well. But it is curious to see that we’ve still never really tried the more classic proposed solution of building launch sites in the high altitude equatorial regions to reducing launch costs.

        Space travel is still just a sinecure for big business.

      • halcyoncmdr@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        2 months ago

        SpaceX has nothing to do with the SLS debacle.

        Starship has launched multiple times, has made it to orbit and through re-entry. Both of those test flights, while not 100% successful, were more successful than expected. Neither flight was expected to be perfect, despite what a lot of media reports seem to have wanted to portray for whatever reason.

        • BrikoX@lemmy.zipOPMEnglish
          1·
          2 months ago

          Watch Destin from StarterEveryDay speech and analysis at American Astronautical Society. Launching something into space is a small part of the space mission, the easiest part really since you have full control and resources on Earth and can easily pivot.

  • RagingHungryPanda@lemm.eeEnglish
    3·
    2 months ago

    I wish they explained the process. That’s super cool! 1-ton of moon dirt into water for 50ppl for one day

  • FarFarAway@startrek.websiteEnglish
    1·
    2 months ago

    Incineration? In ten years, we’ll wonder why part of the moon is just missing.

    I could see this being a good temporary backup plan, though.