Home
News
In Focus
Business
Metro
Nation
World
Sports
Feature
Opinion
View more »Opinion Columns
Wan LixinOpinion deputy editor of Shanghai Daily
Restaurants get off to a quick start thanks to game-changing policies
High service charges on event ticket refunds call for further regulation
Sunday
- Subscribe
German official sets sights on a trip to the moon
Source: Agencies |
August 13, 2009, Thursday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
GERMANY should try to launch an unmanned mission to the moon by around 2015, the government official in charge of aerospace matters said yesterday.
In an interview with ZDF television, Economy Ministry State Secretary Peter Hintze said a German moon landing could be feasible "within the next decade, around 2015," and urged cooperation with other European countries and the United States.
The enterprise would likely cost around 1.5 billion euros (US$2.12 billion) over five years and could encourage industry to develop new technologies, said Hintze, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats.
The investment would be "money well spent," said Hintze, although he added, "At the moment, the finances aren't there."
It would be up to the next government to decide on such a project, the former pastor said. Germany holds a federal election on September 27, and latest polls show Merkel's conservatives have a big lead over their Social Democrat rivals.
Germany has yet to send a mission to the moon, although former Nazi rocket scientist Wernher von Braun was the architect of the Saturn V rocket that propelled the US manned moon landings.
Berlin was considering such a flight 40 years from when America's Neil Armstrong first set foot on the moon in part because nations involved in space travel had recently rediscovered the Earth's natural satellite as a research object, Hintze said.
"The moon is the archive of our solar system," he said. "The moon is something like the Earth's natural space station."
In an interview with ZDF television, Economy Ministry State Secretary Peter Hintze said a German moon landing could be feasible "within the next decade, around 2015," and urged cooperation with other European countries and the United States.
The enterprise would likely cost around 1.5 billion euros (US$2.12 billion) over five years and could encourage industry to develop new technologies, said Hintze, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats.
The investment would be "money well spent," said Hintze, although he added, "At the moment, the finances aren't there."
It would be up to the next government to decide on such a project, the former pastor said. Germany holds a federal election on September 27, and latest polls show Merkel's conservatives have a big lead over their Social Democrat rivals.
Germany has yet to send a mission to the moon, although former Nazi rocket scientist Wernher von Braun was the architect of the Saturn V rocket that propelled the US manned moon landings.
Berlin was considering such a flight 40 years from when America's Neil Armstrong first set foot on the moon in part because nations involved in space travel had recently rediscovered the Earth's natural satellite as a research object, Hintze said.
"The moon is the archive of our solar system," he said. "The moon is something like the Earth's natural space station."
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
