“Under Obama’s leadership, and with commercial space companies exclusively running the show, this is ALL that the U.S. of A. will be doing for the next 20 years!”

I hate to break it to you, but the President proposes, and Congress disposes. In other words, Congress creates the laws and appropriations, and the President approves or rejects them. So you see, the plans we have today may be influenced by the President, but Congress created them, and overwhelmingly approves of them. How’s that for democracy!

As far as “commercial space companies exclusively running the show”, you seem to wallow in your ignorance, so I guess I won’t try and change that.

TTFN

“if China so much as flies an Apollo 8-type of mission, and gets clear out of LEO, they will completely leave us in the dust at the starting gate, and WILL BE A SPACE SUPERPOWER!”

Oh, is that the definition of a space superpower? To fly an Apollo 8-type mission around the Moon? Wow, the standards have really been lowered.

“Cislunar space will belong to them; period.”

Yes, and I’m sure they will have such a large spacecraft, that we won’t be able to get by it without paying a toll. Maybe they’ll have a duty free shop?

How did such a young guy like you become so obsessed with cold war paradigms? I’m a Gen-X’er, and actually lived with the real fears of communism and nuclear war, and all I can say is that the big countries are much less confrontational now than 30 years ago. If anything, China is exporting capitalism, not communism.

And as far as the Moon goes, no one is rushing to get there. Let’s talk again when the Chinese get their Long March 5 rocket operational (their Delta IV Heavy competitor), which is supposed to be around 2014.

Until and unless they do, this is much ado about nothing.

“REMEMBER, THEY’RE STILL COMMIES:”

Correct. And we should be cautious, for reasons Ferris Valyn has already pointed out.

Still, the more capable Soviet-Commies (and as of this writing, the still-more-capable-than-China Russians) never made it to the Moon, either…

And if they try to do it in an unsustainable Apollo/Constellation-esq, way, I still won’t worry. That’s hardly dominating cisclunar space

They *have* said they want a space station (their own, now mind you…any visits to ISS there might be [and know they don’t currently use international docking mechanisms], would only be for the appearance of parity). See if they start there and do some serious orbital infrastructure building, of the sort we should’ve been doing long ago (but…but…that means going ’round and round in LEO!’) and may finally be about to, and maybe *then* you should worry…

Well, with luck, we’ll be around to learn, “the rest of the story.”

The title of the interview with Yu is:

“Chinese scientists dream of man on the moon”
http://opinion.globaltimes.cn/commentary/2010-10/580517.html

I dream about making out with a supermodel. Doesn’t mean I have lingerie already picked out for her.

Alas the paper you cite does not appear to give any estimate as to the quantity of water on the Moon and is therefore irrelevant to the discussion. I would add that the cited data MAY disprove Campbell et al but I remain unconvinced that all that famous Clementine CPR is water ice. As Dr Spudis has admitted, we won’t know until we ground truth the observed data. I would strongly contend that much of the hydrogen will be in the form of simple or even complex hydrocarbons; mixed in with cyanogen, cyanide and other unpleasantness. As I commented to Dr Spudis it may well be that the cometary deposits will be of greater value to science as a long term record of Lunar impactors and Cometary activity than as a cheap source of rocket fuel.
If there is one commodity that ought to be regarded as ‘Common Heritage’ it is Lunar Hydrogen. The Isp of Nanoparticulate Aluminium and LUNOX is more than adequate to the purpose. /rant

Until the robots build the Mass Driver…

I would finish by returning to elaborate on a previous contention. That sending humans to probably the coldest spot in the solar system remains a non starter and most robotic TeleOps can be carried out from Earth.

A ProxOps polar sample return mission to a circling CEV or international DSV (1) might be amusing conceit though.

(1) Manned flight around Moon considered

One is not inspired by a commentator that can’t even get a six letter nethandle right. It’s brobof.

The title of the interview with Yu is:

“Chinese scientists dream of man on the moon”
http://opinion.globaltimes.cn/commentary/2010-10/580517.html