NEWS - Bush May Announce Return To Moon At Kitty Hawk - Space Daily

Dr John Stockton wrote:

I carefully wrote "for the next Moon trip". The Chinese were certainly
beaten by the Americans of a generation and a half ago; but they may be
more interested in whether they can beat the present generation.

And that is a worthy goal. The Chinese "beat" the Portugese in building
ships capable of crossing oceans. But the Queng Ho didn't mean squat
after the court eunuchs burned the fleet. It was Christopher Columbus et
al who made it to the Americas.

Maybe the Chinese will switch that role in this new millenium.


--
Hop David
http://clowder.net/hop/index.html

Hop David wrote in message ...
Dr John Stockton wrote:

I carefully wrote "for the next Moon trip". The Chinese were certainly
beaten by the Americans of a generation and a half ago; but they may be
more interested in whether they can beat the present generation.

And that is a worthy goal. The Chinese "beat" the Portugese in building
ships capable of crossing oceans. But the Queng Ho didn't mean squat
after the court eunuchs burned the fleet. It was Christopher Columbus et
al who made it to the Americas.

I wonder if a real merchant class could ever have arisen in China of
the fourteenth century. After all, the Europeans had the advantage of
trade across the Mediterranean, English channel, and North Sea that
was already pretty significant. A huge merchant class had existed for
centuries in Europe at that point. Meanwhile, despite closer proximity
to Korea, Japan, and Indochina, the Chinese had a comparatively
miniscule amount of trade with them. eventually Emperor Nixon or
somebody would have ended the exploration anyway to focus on the
perpetual War in Mongolia.

Tom Merkle