【10.03.08 英国卫报】China picks mothers for astronaut training

青蛙小王子

China picks mothers for astronaut training
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/08/china-mothers-space-astronauts

Tania Branigan in Beijing Monday 8 March 2010 12.41 GMT

Officials concerned space flight might affect fertility of first Chinese women to go into orbit


China could launch its first woman into space as early as 2012, and the candidate will be chosen from the first batch of Chinese women qualified to fly fighter jets. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

They are, of course, in peak physical condition, with the flying skills required of any air force ace. But China's first female astronauts have faced an extra challenge: they had to be mothers to qualify for the country's prestigious space programme.

Two women and five men have been selected as the next generation to go into space, a Hong Kong newspaper reported today, citing an unnamed military source.

Xu Xianrong, an expert at the air force general hospital, said women had advantages as astronauts over men because they were more mentally stable, better able to bear loneliness and had better communication skills.

The insistence that they should also be wives and mothers does not relate to their multi-tasking abilities. Officials are concerned that space flight might affect their fertility.

"It's out of the consideration of being responsible for the female pilots," Xu told the state news agency Xinhua. "Though there is little evidence on how the space experience will affect the female constitution, we have to be extra cautious. After all, it's unprecedented in China."

The authorities have yet to disclose the names of the would-be astronauts, but all are between 27 and 34. Hong Kong's Wen Wei Po newspaper identified five of the 15 women shortlisted, who it said were all from Shandong province.

Sun Jing is described as a "flying maniac", while Xing Lei was the only straight-A student in pilot school. Cao Yanyan comes from a high-flying family; both her husband and mother-in-law are said to be outstanding pilots.

Liu Lu is multi-talented and a lover of literature, while Wang Yaping helped with recovery efforts after the Sichuan earthquake in 2008 and seeded clouds to ensure clear skies for the Beijing Olympics.

Qi Faren, a delegate to the Chinese political advisory body currently meeting in Beijing, told state media that one or two women were currently receiving training for the space programme, but had no timetable for launch. They face up to five years of intensive training.
Last year Sui Guosheng, an officer in charge of recruitment with the air force, said he expected to see a woman in space by 2012 – nine years after Yang Liwei became the first Chinese citizen to lift off.

Would-be astronauts are vetted so carefully that even bad breath can scupper their chances, a medical adviser revealed last year. Many of those who make the grade and undertake the gruelling training programme never actually make it into space.

Valentina Tereshkova, from the then USSR, became the first woman in space in 1963. Nasa barred women for years – despite the fact female aspirants scored better on several medical tests than male counterparts – and it was only in 1983 that Sally Ride became the first American woman to go into space.

青蛙小王子

网友评论：

Shadowmind
8 Mar 2010, 1:12PM
It will be curious to know why they think women's fertility will be effected in space.

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Clip | Link  Humac
8 Mar 2010, 1:25PM

Shadowmind
8 Mar 2010, 1:12PM

It will be curious to know why they think women's fertility will be effected in space.

From a New Scientists article on space travel..."The crew of any mission to Mars would also suffer increased risks of eye cataracts, loss of fertility and genetic defects in their children, according to a study by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)."

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Clip | Link  HipsterContrarian
8 Mar 2010, 1:26PM
Why can't they include women who don't want children, as well?

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Clip | Link  bertrigby
8 Mar 2010, 1:27PM
So infertile women/women who don't want children need not apply?

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Clip | Link  RAWCUT
8 Mar 2010, 1:34PM
Like NASA never got laid in space before...

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Clip | Link  FuenteF
8 Mar 2010, 1:35PM
ahem....what about men's fertility?

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Clip | Link  aprilpulsar
8 Mar 2010, 1:43PM

Valentina Tereshkova, from the then USSR, became the first woman in space in 1963.

Valentina had a child (Elena) after going into space; her hubby was also an astronaut. In China most women can only have one child. Non-issue perhaps?

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Clip | Link  lIsRT
8 Mar 2010, 1:55PM
@FuenteF
In a jar, then in the freezer, at any time before lift-off.

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Clip | Link  vandyke
8 Mar 2010, 1:57PM
GO CHINA! GO CHINA! GO GO GO CHINA!

What a fantastic country. Always one step ahead. I suggest Westerners take heed, learn a bit of mandarin and swap their vindaloo for a lemon chicken.

1.4 billion people it is only a matter of time.....

And I for one am glad.

Keep me posted XX

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Clip | Link  bookbinder79
8 Mar 2010, 2:02PM
Shadowmind said: It will be curious to know why they think women's fertility will be effected in space.

Unless the Chinese are more liberal than we think, the verb is probably 'affected' not 'effected'...

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Clip | Link  unexceptional
8 Mar 2010, 2:12PM
What a fantastic country. Always one step ahead

Erm...I'm not saying you're wrong across the board, but that's an odd claim to make considering other countries have had people in space for decades.

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Clip | Link  vandyke
8 Mar 2010, 2:25PM
Ah the US moon landing was fake..... it has been proven.

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Clip | Link  FrancyPants
8 Mar 2010, 2:33PM
"Ah the US moon landing was fake..... it has been proven."

Must have missed the point about the Moon landing, I could only see that, reference was made re other countries having already had people in space for decades.

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Clip | Link  typingfromwork
8 Mar 2010, 2:38PM
Judging by the ladies in the photo, that doesn't sound like a bad prospect at all.

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Clip | Link  adsoofmelk
8 Mar 2010, 2:40PM

Why can't they include women who don't want children, as well?


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Clip | Link  adsoofmelk
8 Mar 2010, 2:43PM

Why can't they include women who don't want children, as well?


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Clip | Link  vandyke
8 Mar 2010, 2:47PM
You better learn to be snooty in mandarin..... cause your voice wont be heard soon lol

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Clip | Link  busybeaver
8 Mar 2010, 2:48PM
@ lIsRT
That would work for both;

So the question remains: Why "only mothers" but not "only fathers"?

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Clip | Link  adsoofmelk
8 Mar 2010, 2:49PM
I'll try again.

Why can't they include women who don't want children, as well?

A woman in China who said she didn't want children would be deemed mentally ill by most of the population. It's certainly something she'd keep to herself. In fact, women who are unable to have children often hide this 'shameful' secret, and pretend they've got a child back in their hometown being looked after by its grandparents.

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Clip | Link  unexceptional
8 Mar 2010, 3:01PM

You better learn to be snooty in mandarin..... cause your voice wont be heard soon lol

Did you just accuse me of being snooty? By God, boy, I should give you a clip round the ear for that.

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Clip | Link  honesty123
8 Mar 2010, 3:12PM
if china donot do so .it will be acuused of violating human rights ,blah blah blah.

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Clip | Link  KevinNevada
8 Mar 2010, 3:12PM
Vandyke:
You are delusional, and parroting a fraud perpetrated on Fox News to make it even worse . . . you should know better here on CiF.

http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/tv/foxapollo.html

I have personally met four of the Dusty Dozen, the twelve astronauts who actually landed and got their boots dusty. None were the sort of person to participate in a fraud, and in any case such a conspiracy would have to involve many thousands of other people, including scientists and engineers keenly trained in critical thinking.

I wish the Chinese well. The new US efforts to open space to more than only astronauts will provide them with lots of company on-orbit.

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Clip | Link  KevinNevada
8 Mar 2010, 3:15PM
And to all, let's note that the Chinese space program is entirely a military enterprise, every single 'taikonaut' is an officer in their military forces. This is very unlike either the US or Russian programs.
NASA is a civilian agency.

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Clip | Link  Everymatic
8 Mar 2010, 3:58PM
They're also pretty reckless up there too. In some fairly recent sabre rattling, they deliberately destroyed a satellite using a missile...the first successful attempt at this.....creating thousands of particles of space debris that are potentially lethal to many international civilian and military satellite systems.

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Clip | Link  Everymatic
8 Mar 2010, 4:05PM
"Ah the US moon landing was fake..... it has been proven."

Dont you think the Russians or the Chinese would have been the first to expose it?? Or were they in on it too?

Have you any idea of the number of international tracking systems that watched the Apollo missions that went to the moon? The shear number of people that would have to be involved for such a scam to be perpetrated successfully is the closest thing to proof that it did happen.

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Clip | Link  owaingr
8 Mar 2010, 4:19PM
China has implemented a one child policy to limit its population growth. Now it's concerned that space flight might affect fertility. Do they want fewer babies or not?

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Clip | Link  feline1973
8 Mar 2010, 4:23PM
Why can't they just get lesbians to do it?

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Clip | Link  FrancyPants
8 Mar 2010, 4:49PM
Actually, Unexceptional, I believe he was referring to me pointing out that you did not mention the Moon landing, but rather space in general.

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Clip | Link  spaceman
8 Mar 2010, 4:52PM
@Humac

From a New Scientists article on space travel..."The crew of any mission to Mars would also suffer increased risks of eye cataracts, loss of fertility and genetic defects in their children, according to a study by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)."

You are quite right to point out that the Mars mission has the major drawback of a high degree of accumulated radiation damage, but such a flight is probably some time off. Except for Apollo, all manned missions to date have been in relatively low orbits where the astronauts have been protected from dangerous radiation by the earth's magnetic Van Allen belt.

On that basis it seems strange for the Chinese (btw, Ni Hao to anyone from China) to insist that only mothers can fly in space. Frankly, given the extreme riskiness of any manned spaceflight mission I would have thought that exactly the opposite should be the case, that mothers with children should not be allowed to become astronauts. I will probably get flamed for saying that, but I am just thinking of the potential orphans.

Very slightly off topic, I did suggest to the European Space Agency that the Mars trip would best be performed by a group of more elderly astronauts due to the life shortening radiation damage, rather than severely damaging younger people with most of their lives still ahead of them. Their response was not exactly enthusiastic, but I still think it is a valid point. I estimate I myself will be somewhere in my sixties by the time the earliest attempt could be made to go to the Red Planet.

Anyone got any suggestions about what first words to use when whoever it is takes the first ever step on Mars?

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Clip | Link  DrabWilly
8 Mar 2010, 5:04PM
It can also give women three boobies. I've seen it on Total Recall.

I wish I had three hands.

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Clip | Link  skipissatan
8 Mar 2010, 5:05PM
Vandyke

Always one step ahead. I suggest Westerners take heed, learn a bit of mandarin and swap their vindaloo for a lemon chicken.

Except in the respect that they've been behind technologically for the last 300 years and are only beginning to catch up now. I prefer vindaloo...or a nice tom yum soup...

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Clip | Link  Jibbernip
8 Mar 2010, 5:09PM
Planet Earth is dying.

Deforestation continues unabated.

The seas are polluted and overfished.

The loss of species increases year on year.

Climate chaos is more widespread.

The human population continues to grow.

Just how clever are we?

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Clip | Link  WasPPP
8 Mar 2010, 5:57PM
owaingr: 8 Mar 2010, 4:19PM: China has implemented a one child policy to limit its population growth. Now it's concerned that space flight might affect fertility. Do they want fewer babies or not?

This goes back to the first selection criteria

Xu Xianrong, an expert at the air force general hospital, said women had advantages as astronauts over men because they were more mentally stable, better able to bear loneliness and had better communication skills.

Presumably a married woman with a single allowed for child has two, perhaps three, major concerns in life taken care of, a man for a husband and a child to address motherhood issues. She also has experienced sex. On long space missions such a woman will be more stable and be better at housekeeping (mission routine). Her male colleagues wouldn't think of making out with another man's wife or she with them. I agree that's a lot of assumptions to swallow. But you asked.

I have been following China's space program for some years. Nothing much in terms of breakthrough technologies. Their space strategy is based on well proven single use rockets of progressively greater payloads. A space truck rather than a Porsche. These are cheap compared to space shuttles. For the cost of recovering a space shuttle and preparing it for the next mission several single use rocket based missions could be launched. It had been said that a single US space shuttle mission is enough to pay for the entire Chinese space program for a year. When I watch videos of Chinese rocket launches what catches my eye is not the fireworks but the bare bones launch tower that has that very low tech construction crane.

I haven't kept up with the specifications to know the ideal payload size. My gut feeling is it will be a rocket to launch a standard shipping container sized module. Beyond this size the rocket and support facilities become too complex and not cost effective. These modules in orbit will then be assembled into an orbiting space station, the real payoff in any space program. Going to the moon will be done for bragging rights. Its unlikely that any beyond Earth-moon orbit missions will be done in my lifetime.

When the USSR broke up and was bankrupt the US agreed to finance the Russian manned space program on the condition that China is kept out of the International Space Station (ISS) program. Thus Chinese manned space modules do not have compatible docking ports with the ISS. Too bad. But being forced into an independent program China can progress at her own pace and be free from US pressure.

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Clip | Link  WasPPP
8 Mar 2010, 6:12PM
KevinNevada: 8 Mar 2010, 3:15PM: And to all, let's note that the Chinese space program is entirely a military enterprise, every single 'taikonaut' is an officer in their military forces. This is very unlike either the US or Russian programs. NASA is a civilian agency.

All orbital space jockeys in any country are military air force personnel. Its the passengers who can be mission specialists. Mission specialists can be anyone with the professional skills to conduct non military based experiments and observations.

NASA is a civilian agency

That has to fight for its annual operating budget and funding for longer term programs from Congress. Now that the glow of space programs has faded and the US is bankrupt this funding support has practically disappeared. With that goes your civilian space program. Do note that your military rockets program is fully funded and all they do is blow up things..

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Clip | Link  tteng
8 Mar 2010, 6:48PM
Motherhood? Why, that's the greatest training (both psychological and physical, prolonged ) that nature has 'forced' upon the women. Imagine all the trials and tribulation that our mothers had to go through to raise each one of us- successfully, I hoped.

Now, which one of us (the male kind) are willing/brave enough to swap our places w/ our wives in child bearing/rearing.

I'd rather go flying.

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Clip | Link  MrDebonair
8 Mar 2010, 6:58PM
"After both their physical and mental conditions pass the tests, they still need to pass the last requirement ? permission from their wives," Shi added.

"If a wife has concerns or disagrees with it, she can decide the husband should not go into space."

and I complain about being banned from the bookies...

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Clip | Link  Helloolleh
8 Mar 2010, 7:57PM
If space could mess with a woman's fertility, and these are probably very intelligent women, if you were the government, wouldn't you want them to pass on those genes before it became impossible? Especially if the whole country was on a limited one-child kick! Absolutely. That is just thinking ahead.

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Clip | Link  KevinNevada
8 Mar 2010, 8:12PM
Reply to "WasPPP":
To your claim: "All orbital space jockeys in any country are military air force personnel"

No, with regard to NASA your statement is false. Some NASA staff are military, but they have to take leave to serve as astronauts. Check out this FAQ page:

http://nasajobs.nasa.gov/ASTRONAUTS/content/faq.htm

Many US Astronauts are civilians, including the 'space jockey' Shuttle pilots. By contrast, every single 'taikonaut' is an officer of the Chinese military. Every one of them.

As for your assertion that 'the funding support has virtually disappeared', the new and exciting policy from the Obama administration calls for a transition to buying launch services from the private sector. And NASA's budget is proposed to see an increase to help with this transition. What is being canceled is the Bush-era, socialistic program which was termed 'Apollo-on-sterioids' even by its fans.

Check out the site of the Space Frontier Foundation to get the straight story.

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Clip | Link  JoeMcCann
8 Mar 2010, 9:50PM

Shadowmind

It will be curious to know why they think women's fertility will be effected in space.

Outer-space is a wash with dangerous radiation. Our atmosphere stops most of it getting to us. There's also possible cancer risk, from going into space.

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Clip | Link  jollyspaniard
8 Mar 2010, 9:57PM
I think the whole "fertility" issue is hogwash. Astronauts do get take a bit of radiation but nowhere near enough to cause fertility problems.

If memory serves women don't experience fertility problems from radiation (someone please correct me if I'm wrong) until a few hundred REM (a unit of radiation toxicity, not to be confused with RAD). At that dosage you're in serious radiation sickness territory (hair loss) and no astronaut has ever come close to that.

Men on the other hand are a lot easier to sterilize with radiation but again any man in space has ever come close to that level of exposure either.

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Clip | Link  KevinNevada
8 Mar 2010, 10:10PM
spaceman:
To that question about the first words on Mars, I suggest:

"Ray Bradbury, we're here!"

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Clip | Link  gingerliu
8 Mar 2010, 10:36PM
Sounds a bit fishy to me. I think they are going to make babies in space.

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Clip | Link  catburglar
9 Mar 2010, 12:19AM
@Feline1973

Why can't they just get lesbians to do it?

You'd better sit down. I have some shocking news for you...

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Clip | Link  volvocommie
9 Mar 2010, 3:07AM
You have all miss the point - any mother with young, strong-willed children would surely volunteer for several days in space in a heartbeat... at least that's what my wife says...

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Clip | Link  Auric
9 Mar 2010, 3:07AM
Judging by the photo, they are also clones...

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Clip | Link  volvocommie
9 Mar 2010, 3:08AM
and i have missed the conjugation - i blame the malbec

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Clip | Link  volvocommie
9 Mar 2010, 3:09AM
Auric -

sexy, sexy clones

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Clip | Link  WasPPP
9 Mar 2010, 5:38AM
KevinNevada: Mar 2010, 8:12PM: Reply to "WasPPP":
To your claim: "All orbital space jockeys in any country are military air force personnel"

N

o, with regard to NASA your statement is false. Some NASA staff are military, but they have to take leave to serve as astronauts. Check out this FAQ page:

All space jockeys have to come from air force pilots. One of the original Mercury astronauts said that he was paid his regular enlisted officer's plus danger pay (or was it flight time pay?) which together doesn't amount to much. If the current space jockeys took leave to join NASA they are still military officers who can be called back to active duty anytime, but are now drawing civilian pay. The rest of the crew go into orbit to do science. Military officers do not do science. They blow things up and you don't need a man in orbit to do that. What is your hangup anyway about having only civilians in space even if they be soldiers in civvy clothes? Who cares?

No US civilian entrepreneur is going to invest in heavy lift rockets and the support infrastructures needed for a manned space program. All they are prepared to invest in is a very small market for space tourism. Thus the US manned space program is as good as toast and any astronaut mission will be via Russian rockets. The US will never admit failure and use a Chinese rocket.

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Clip | Link  KevinNevada
9 Mar 2010, 7:33AM
WasPPP:
I've already posted a link to a NASA FAQ page that corrects your errors, and yet you repeat your delusions. Clearly, you don't allow mere facts to get in the way of a nifty opinion.

"All space jockeys have to come from air force pilots." False.

Many astronauts go straight into the corps without ever serving in the military. NASA is a civilian agency, Pres. Eisenhower ordered that it be so from the start. So is ESA, and the CSA and the other national space programs around the world. Oh, except for the Chinese program which is solely military at this point. And that really does make a difference.

And you're also wrong to assert that 'military officers do not do science'. I know many who do. There is more to military service than 'blowing things up'.

As for whether the US launch companies will step up and make real space access work . . . just sit on your perch and watch, pal.

Space is a place, not a program. Check out the Space Frontier Foundation if you're interested in meeting up with an actual fact, some time.

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Clip | Link  QueenElizabeth
9 Mar 2010, 9:02AM
"It's out of the consideration of being responsible for the female pilots," Xu told the state news agency Xinhua.

My God this is perhaps some of the worst PRC PR spin I have seen. The PRC is a nation that in 1979 interferred in one of the last few rights women had - that of reproduction, that most basic of human rights - by limiting the vast majority of Chinese women to one child. And that after Mao Zedong two decades before encouraged everyone to have as many kids as possible to strengthen the nation.

It is widely argued China could have achieved similar population objectives with proper family planning, contraception and education, without the Orwellian dictate it went for. Anyway, the one woman one child policy failed to meet its objectives anyway.

This is the just an unpleasant PR exercise - as if Chinese officials give a damn about the reproductive abilities of the Chinese female.

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