This rocks. Space travel is the best thing ever.

A mission to Mars with Russia? Please re-ignite the space race!

Tell me theres a 50/50 chance of reaching Mars alive, just give me a pen, I'll sign-up now.

... would this be the same China that restricted reporting of a prominent assassination by suicide bomber to a "death" so as not to upset relations with "another" country; the same China that has it's very own version of the internet so that it can control what it's citizens read online; the same China that provides daily lists to it's media on what they can and cannot broadcast; the same China that has been accused countless times of promoting a regime of slave labour; the same China that has become synonymous with the phrase "substandard replicas"; the same China where US and UK businesses constantly save money by employing to do their manufacturing for them on the cheap; the same China that failed to find any evidence of a previous moon landing; the same china that needed to recall countless small toys last year on account of toxins and poisons in their matrix; the same China that has been identified as the point of origin for bird flu; the same China that symultaneously declared a concerted pro-environmental policy vis-a-vie carbon neutrality and air pollution whilst admitting that it will need to double it's consumption of coal this year and can currently almost walk on the "Yellow River" due to the massive level of water pollution it has instigated ... or some completely different China?

Oh - PH icon 'cause there isn't one with a bigger pair of tits on it.

It's also the one that's been making rockets for thousands of years. :)

the morons in Greepeas et al. focus their attention on complaining about trivial issues like what games console people are buying whilst ignoring what's going on in china and india.

Probably the same idiots who vote for ken livingstone, will buy GQ to read about Chavez and think Castro is a wonderful leader.

Don't worry we can all see you're a racist.

Becouse none of those things happen in the west. Grow up and take a look at the world.

Conspiracy! We should be told!

change yer diaper mate... i'm not racist - I hate everyone.

maybe not racist but obviously a self righteous deluded patriot.

You said it yourself, the US and UK PAY China to make cheap goods. And.. oh sh*t, YOU buy them, so YOU are fuelling it, so YOU are responsible.

The same UK that loses the bank details of millions of low income families? The same UK that attacks countries in the middle east, causing a complete collapse of order, then can't put things back together again? The whole world is f**ked.

Where are you from anyway?

Have you seen the UNICEF report on child welfare in 'rich' countries which puts the UK and US right at the bottom? With the Czech republic, Hungary and other eastern european (normally considered a bit poorer than west) countries?

Have you been to China recently? Have you been to New Orleans recently?

No !! This is the China whose citizens are treated as slaves by vicious hard-hearted capitalist companies from USA and Europe to produce cheap goods for their own citizens. It is also the same China that produced toys that were exactly to specifications and then got blamed for the *design* faults in those same specifications given to them by the "scientifically accurate" ordering company. The same China that encouraged careful management of their wealth instead of blowing everything on the never-never and then wonder what hit them when the sub-prime crisis blew up. The same China that a VERY LARGE US bank went begging, cap-in-hand, for funds to save it from collapse !!

The same China that, when threatened with punitive measures because its currency is perceived to be lower than the US$, replied that the solution is simple. They will just dump US$1,000,000,000 worth of US debt in the open market. At that point, the US retreated rapidly from their saber-rattling stance.

The same China that makes the chips and other products that allow you to access this very site !! You could, of course, try two baked beans tins and a very long piece of string.....

The Chinese and the Russians will probably be wanting some XXXXPerienced Master Pilots for such Programs. I'll have to launch AI CV to a site which they can view at their leisure, methinks.

If they want to get to Mars, the red planet, [and that is somewhat apt given their Socialist rather than Capitalist Mindset] they'll need to corner the Markets for Finance and there is no better time than the Present Free for All, with all the crooked banks found out to be dealing in dodgy counterfeit goods, which just didn't make the grade despite every oversight possible [SOX/FSA/World Bank/etc etc] sitting on its hands and turning a blind eye. Boys cannot do men's jobs and they have been shown to be less than either and would think that it is acceptable that nothing fundamental changes.

I admire their optimism........ and despair at their apparent ignorance and monumental arrogance.

And a flame because they deserve it for their Love of the Root of all Evil and their Distinct Lack of Ability to make Wealth Flow and Generate Beta Power Controls and more Wealth to Flow .......4FlowurPower2...IndyInterdependent Underground Sun Source for dDeeper Enlightenment and AI Beta Management of Global Perception aka Spin.

Ah well...... I suppose there is always the Dummies Guide Route, as I'm sure they can all at least RTFM and/or amfM.

@ Ishkandar

please note, tins and string also product of Chinese industry...

i would think that sort of thing was the first to go. technology manufacturing came later.

the globalization boosters won. they had no idea what the consequences would be. it takes a detachment somewhere between Zen and psychotic, to enjoy this irony.

i can just barely manage it.

Racism (n). the belief that people's qualities are influenced by their RACE and that the members of other RACES are not as good as the members of your own, or the resulting unfair treatment of members of other RACES:

Speaking out against or having a negative opinion of a particular state/regime/belief system does not in any way make Slaine a racist.

Dear Dave,

1: If I, myself, say something you agree with, how then can I also be deluding myself unless of course you are yourself completely deluded?

2: If the ONLY producer is in China - I have to purchase Chinese. So do you you malignant egomaniac. Patriot ... ME ... PMSL - nobody EVER called me that before. You sure you got the right word there? "Poet" maybe, or "PissTaker".

3: Looks like you saw some of my extensive array of entires in "Whose Lost Who" last year - and so therefore you should also be aware that I have been vociferous in the extreme regarding these mediocre leaches in the UK for which I pay tax to fund (I presume from your lack of self control that you lost some data last year - was it your own or someone else's?)

4: YES matey - the world is well and truly F**KED... you ain't helping either.

5: I'm of human origin ( ...and you refer to me as a racist) - what species were your parents and would you like me to conduct their wedding?

Dear Ishkander,

Yes - nice one mate. Can't fault a word of it. Isn't it lovely when two completely differing opinions can complement each other so well to produce a balanced view of the monstrocities that have befallen our beautiful world and the common problem - black helicopter man. Shame Dave doesn't get sarcasm but then we can't all be perfect.

Hmmm, dumping $1,000,000,000 of US debt on the open market would make absolutely no difference to anyone (that's only $1 billion).

I assume you meant $1,000,000,000,000 i.e. $1 trillion, which would come close to destroying the american dollar and economy in one easy step...

Forget the politics Space is probably the best chance humanity has of surviving as we will make ourselves extinct due to our hugely expanding population.

Whichever country can make something happen in space will be the future and if China has the guts then good for them.

gotta love 'em. I wonder how many all came from the same IP range...perhaps from the Chinese transportation authority system that keeps trying to ping and then test for open ports on my and all my co-workers' servers?

Guess Chinese military hackers gotta do more than run skripts, eh? Now ya gotta read and type them.

Tibet. Toxic Waste. Forced abortion. Execution of addicts (tho that one's not so bad) Schoolkids willing to stall f**king TANKS in the public square. Your propaganda does nothing against history, and your cheap attempt at moral equivalency is laughable.

Here on the West Coast I get to talk to Chinese businessmen, immigrants (documented and otherwise), asylum seekers, and students. I've worked with friends who set up anonymous proxies and hosts for dissident blogs so people other than Chinese government can get the truth out. I've talked with guys who send cellphones to chinese border villages who then transmit across the border to small cell stations. Hell, I've even babysat the young son of a chinese "gold farmer" who was later convicted of fraud and identity theft and some nastiness with forged documents and the fencing of stolen goods. Try your hardest to control them, but American freedom is a bit contagious-badmouthing government is a fulltime job here as well for some folks, and it gets your people talking. And as long as they have friends on the outside, the news in-country gets out.

So why not save the effort of this fake "grassroots" propaganda effort. It may work with the small minded but those of us on the tech side know better. We see your "great firewall" and raise you long-range 802.11 (thanks to the WiFi Shootout guys ingenuity with junk and spare parts) and digital cameras. If only that massive hacking/propaganda effort could be directed towards development and internal infrastructure.-for more than Party members.

Of course, we'll happily welcome your political dissidents and even a few more military defections. Tho don't bother bringing another MiG over, we've got plenty. Probably could use another sub or two. And if you Taikonauts need a landing space, we can offer Utah for land touchdown or the Great Lakes if you want water.

And then, Slaine, the next reply to your rant from Ishkandar will include "the same China to whom the US and both East and West Europe go for assistance in using extraterrestrial resources as they are the only country in the last 30-odd years to get serious about space exploration rather than fucking around commercialising Low Earth Orbit".

About time someone started looking beyond throwing terran resources up into LEO (and the occassional GEO) and got back into finding ways of getting our species far enough from this tiny rock to start bringing resources back!

As Jerry Pournelle said years ago - we've got to get a foothold in space and start using it for minerals and energy before it becomes economically (or resource-wise) unviable or we're buggered.

Considering the States and Europe seem to be quite happy playing with the ISS, and orbital telescopes and sticking up commercial and military satellites for a fee and don't seem inclined to go further than the desires of corporate interests, the Chinese may well wind up being the saviours of our species - that'd fuck ya, wouldn't it, Slaine.

Wait'll you're watching your Chinese-manufactured TV, made from minerals mined from asteroids by the Chinese and using power from a Chinese GeoSynch Solar Array, while NASA and ESA are renting space at the Chinese moonbase because your "morally and technologically superior" USA/Europe lack the machinery and facilities to get/stay there by themselves...

... actually, Jon, my next rant was completely censored which I found quite disturbing given the verbal abuse and inflammatory comments that El Reg was prepared to print from Dave. However, thank you Sweep for putting, more eloquently and considerably less offensively, one of the main comments I did try and make. Thank you also to Ishkander, AManFromMars and b shubin for their own very pertinent additions. I feel, rightly or wrongly, vindicated.

Now then, is this the same China that, should all it's population symultaneously jump up and down, would tilt the Earth off it's axis?