Most parts of the world are involved in space-science today. The chinese who have promised to become the third country in the world to put a man on the moon. The japanese, who will be sending their own probe to the moon to research the possibility of water. The russians cooperating with most nations, being suspected to have leaked sensitive information to the chinese about ISS, and europeans sending the Mars Express from their base in Khazakstan. NASA can be considered to be the 'leader' in the worlds space race, and is the main contributor to the ISS, and has the most active astronauts in the world.

What do you think the future holds for spaceflight? Will there be better cooperation, or will there be more isolated research because of military interests? What countries do you think will dominate in 5, 10, 30, 50, 100 years?

As far as I know only the US has put people on the moon.
(Unless you believe in the moon conspiracy where the moon landing was faked. In that case no one went to the moon.)

But I think that eventually other countries will pass the US in space capabilities because right now the US has no plans to go back to the moon and Mars is way in the future as far as NASA goes. When other countries go into space there should be alot more happening with space exploration and maybe there can even be a global space organization.

Sorry, that would be "third country in the world to put a man in space on its own".

O its ok.

Anyway I heard along with being the third country to put a person in space china will try to be the second country to go to the moon and the first to maybe establish a moon base!

I remember reading 40 year old books at my elementary school that talked about how after landing on the moon there would be moon bases built and stuff like that.

We landed on the moon in 1969 but haven't built a moon base yet!:eek:

Google up NASA's Prometheus project. Nuclear power and propulsion in space! A manned mission to Mars by 2020!

I want to believe...

Originally posted by orange
The russians , being suspected to have leaked sensitive information to the chinese about ISS.

NASA can be considered to be the 'leader' in the worlds space race, and is the main contributor to the ISS,



Have to pick up a few points there. Firstly, the ISS is supposed to be non-military, so what 'sensitive' information can be 'leaked'? It's Russian, space proven technology that keeps the air breathable and the water drinkable on the ISS. If Russia chooses to share it with whoever, that's their decision. It's not leaking, it's sharing scientific knowledge.

NASA being the 'leader'. Nope, NASA is completely failing in it's responsibility of the upkeep of the ISS right now, and if it wasn't for Russia, the ISS would be a dead duck. NASA is great at the bells and whistles, but when it comes to simple, reliable, and safe technology, the Russians win out. And again, NASA is not the main contributor to the ISS. NASA has never built nor maintained a real space station (Skylabs included, they were merely pressuried vessels parked in orbit). Mir was the only true space station to have flown.

So, what do I see in the future? Well, NASA wasting lots more money developing the X-whatever Buzz Lightyear escape pod for the ISS, when the Russian modules work just fine, and the cheapest solution would be to add another module with a couple of more docking rings and use the existing technology. NASA un-mothballing the shuttle fleet after they bury any faults in paperwork, and then killing another seven astronauts in a few years time, while promisng fantastic new technology, and not delivering it.

The Chinese catching up with basic chemical rocket technology, and building more in space.

American jar heads not liking the fact that Europe, China, and Russia all have their own gobal positioning systems, and trying to enforce their dominance of space and alienating themselves further, and the USA breaking more internationla treaties about the non-miltarisation of space, and ABM, which they still won't be able to get to work, but will spend lots of money on trying to make happen.

Sorry to sound so negative, but I don't think people are going to behave any differently in space than they do on the ground. They just have something else to squabble over.

Another thing that might liven up space exploration would be another space race.

If the space race between Russia and the US was still going on we would have been to Mars long ago! I heard somewhere that about 10 to 15 years ago we could have made it to Mars had enough money been given to space related research.

Now Nasa only gets as much money per year as the US military gets per week! And Russia has even less money put into space but they do alot with what they have.

If another space race started more money would be put into space and we might get back on track for doing things like going to Mars and making moon bases and stuff like that.:)