China Lunar Probe blasts off on redundant voyage

Chinese press agency Xinhua gleefully announced the successful launch of Chang’e-1, the little lunar ship currently ploughing its way through space to do what? Do what the US achieved forty years (nearly half a century ago)?

Then what next, a manned flight to the moon, maybe this will be achieved in twenty years as long as 1) Chinese economy continues to expand exponentially and 2) The defranchised eighty per cent of the population don’t rise up in the meantime and overthrow the communist government.

What’s the point of repeating what has been done decades ago? Sputnik was launched by Russia 50 years ago, the US completed six manned missions to the moon forty years ago, there is no prospect of bringing back minerals from the moon, nobody lives on the moon and the Chinese are not able to build a moonbase. Is this just an expensive conspiracy by the government of China to keep the population entertained, like mounting a gladitorial games?

Perhaps billions of Yuan will be spent eventually landing on the moon to plant a flag. The probe will not be able to return to the earth and the only thing achieved by China will be to underline what a great achievement it was by the US space agency NASA to accomplish Pres Kennedy’s vision in the early 1960’s.

President Hu Jintao will have much more important policies to pursue such as pollution and feeding 1.3 billion Chinese as the earth resources become scarcer. The 2008 Bejing Olympics, where all traffic will be ordered off the roads to ease the smog, will underline how much China has to do to become a respected and liked member of the UN.

This article published by www.conspiracyreview.com ©2008.