[Wr8dIAUk]

JPL

[GoveMoony]

The laser-based instrument was actually made in France.

Rode our rocket and our rover with our RTG

[Eh085zE7]

Nah. The Euros would have never put anything like this out. We could have put something like this out by ourselves, but it's vogue to treat space as a realm for international cooperation.

[deackatera]

I was quite nervous this wouldn't work. NASA is awesome!

[masaredera]

Nah. The Euros would have never put anything like this out. We could have put something like this out by ourselves, but it's vogue to treat space as a realm for international cooperation.

Mars Express not ring any bells?

[tipokot]

Actually the orbiter worked wonderfully and continues to orbit the red planet. The lander failed, but that's not a huge surprise as IIRC the success rate for Mars landings is less than 50%. Why do you think the NASA guys were so concerned about this one?

[DoctorNiCYDEn]

Shame your science education is being wildly eclipsed by the Chinese now. Looks like we have a red future ahead of us in space.

[scoussysows]

Shame your science education is being wildly eclipsed by the Chinese now. Looks like we have a red future ahead of us in space.

[gettoblaster]

SMBC covered that one, Kentonio.

[tipokot]

Nah. The Euros would have never put anything like this out. We could have put something like this out by ourselves, but it's vogue to treat space as a realm for international cooperation.

Hands up who's responsible for putting more than half of the commercial satellites currently in orbit now?

Sorry who? Oh yes, the French!

Even the land of Borat is ahead on launches compared to the good ol' US of A...

Way to prove a point!

The US space agency (in fact, your entire country!) has been in a decaying orbit for years now, but your average USA! tub-thumper is too fcuking braindead to realise that...

[gregmcal]

Except that cartoon appears to not really make any sense. Firstly the 'What's actually happening' would be pretty much exactly what the article said was happening. The Chinese research massively increasing on a line that over time will exceed the US one. The cartoon then appears to be saying 'yah boo sucks, it doesn't mean anything anyway!' when it clearly does mean quite a lot.

The point was though that the Chinese are fast catching up education wise with the US, and as Mobius pointed out Europe also continues to be a strong force in scientific endeavours. If you guys want to be world leaders then now is exactly the time when you need to be pumping huge amounts of money into education and science, because otherwise you are going to be left behind. I don't understand why you guys don't get this.

The point that the comic was making was that the "total output" is a completely meaningless measure of scientific achievement. You can pump out as many papers as you like, but if none of them are actually breakthroughs, who gives a ****?

There is only one country whose research could ever hope to rival the United States, and that's Japan.

Chinese education is also ****. There's a reason rich Chinese people move in droves to the United States. Don't be fooled by the one or two good high schools in Shanghai or some ****. The US education system far outstrips China, where most of the country is still incredibly poor and rural.

[Dildos]

Also launching commercial satellites is not a scientific endeavor, it's free riding on America continually pushing out the state of the art. America leads, Europe follows.

While France and Russia have been launching satellites, the US has been sending out deep-space probes and building space stations.

[Si8jy8HN]

The point that the comic was making was that the "total output" is a completely meaningless measure of scientific achievement. You can pump out as many papers as you like, but if none of them are actually breakthroughs, who gives a ****?

Who do you think is writing these papers exactly?

There is only one country whose research could ever hope to rival the United States, and that's Japan.

Based on what exactly? More importantly what in gods name do you base 'could ever' on? You've been a superpower for less than 70 years, and you're already convinced that no other country could compete? Other than Japan?!

Also launching commercial satellites is not a scientific endeavor, it's free riding on America continually pushing out the state of the art. America leads, Europe follows.

Interesting theory, but didn't you basically steal your rocket technology from Germany and develop it with German scientists? Didn't you actually just free ride on Nazi Germany in effect?

While France and Russia have been launching satellites, the US has been sending out deep-space probes and building space stations.

That's interesting, what space stations have you built since Skylab back in the 70's? Would you be talking about the International Space Station (ISS)?

Funnily enough though, China did launch one themselves just last year.

[leacturavar]

There is only one country whose research could ever hope to rival the United States, and that's Japan.

Makes sense. Everyone who doesn't live in those two countries is a retard.

[CuittisIL]

China has something like four times the population of the United States. Until their scientific productivity is more than that, you can't really make any claims about the quality of their science education compared to ours.

That's the bizarre thing. China has like ten times as many people as Japan, but he's convinced that Japan is somehow destined to be a bigger contributor to the sum total of human knowledge than China...?

[www.forumsovetov.ru]

I didn't phrase it quite right, it's difficult to type on a phone. What I meant was, at the moment, the only country whose real research output rivals the US is Japan.

Yeah, you really did phrase it poorly. When you said "only one country could ever hope to rival the US" it certainly seemed like a prediction.

[BliliBoopsy]

What do you mean 'very little'? Loads of it is Russian, the biggest module is Japanese and the ESA made at least one of the modules.

Only a couple of the early modules are Russian and the US ended up paying for about half of it anyway, since they couldn't afford it. And like I said, the ESA and Japan built modules on the ground but they were launched and built by the US. The solar panels, junction modules and truss system were also all US-built.
Btw, you are aware that the US can't even get to the ISS any more without hitch-hiking with the Russians? Yes, unfortunate . However, by the end of next year that should be fixed with the SpaceX Dragon.

[Blacksheepaalredy]

Yes, unfortunate . However, by the end of next year that should be fixed with the SpaceX Dragon.

So now you can rely on a private company instead of having to rely on the Russians? That certainly does appear to be the new American way.

I'm curious what you're going to do when private companies like Space X decide to do things like sell their technology to the Chinese government or just start providing services to countries that America dislike.

[Buhoutsoupfap]

The US holds the cutting edge, but is severely lacking in follow-through due to underfunding of our space program.

[Muesrasrs]

What about this rover that is different from the last rover?