Comments by "Peter Jacobsen" (@pjacobsen1000) on "Lift off for China’s Shenzhou 17 space mission" video.

  1. I'm looking forward to seeing some images from that new telescope, the Xuntian. What do we know about it? Does it primarily work in the visible spectrum like Hubble, or infrared like James Webb?
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  2. For many decades now, both the ISS, the Chinese space station and previous craft, and possibly also Russian space craft have been conducting a variety of 'experiments'. Some of these experiments always include seeds, plants, or bacteria to see if they develop differently in a zero-gravity environment. They're often described as being highly promising for improved agriculture. But then we never seem to hear about them again and there are never reports that these seeds actually do anything to improve crop quality or yield. It's almost as if many of these experiments are totally useless and are only meant for media attention. (This is not a critique of the Chinese space program specifically, as all the other countries do the same thing, with the same results, or lack thereof).
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  3.  @mapletibits6372  Before China sent up the space station, they regularly launched satellites that had seeds inside. This has been going on for several decades already.
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  4.  @mapletibits6372  "are you sure the variety of crops used in the agriculture industry not of ones tested in space?" I'm not sure, but there haven't been any reports about it. If these experiments were successful, it would surely be reported.
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  5.  @Fred_the_1996  What makes you think that is of higher probability?
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  6.  @tluangasailo3663  So it could be for discovering/counting stars and galaxies?
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  7.  @david98765432123456  For the time being? You know, they've been sending seeds into space for over 50 years. And it's agriculture we're talking about. Countries are generally happy to share agricultural improvements. Might help them make some money, too. Besides, if they don't want to make the results public, why publicize the experiments in the first place? Your reasons don't make a lot of sense.
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  8.  jies2811  China is happy to share 'hybrid rice' so why not this? The fact is this: Whether it is China, or the US, or Russia, these 'space seeds' have NEVER shown any improvement. I challenge you to find ANY evidence that the 'space seeds' have done anything for agriculture. If you can find that, I will applaud you.
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  9.  jies2811  Your nationalistic, self-aggrandizing fantasies are irrelevant. My challenge still stands: Find ANY evidence that these seeds had any effect at all. I doubt you can. You can only fantasize about how great your country is. "崇高的道德品质和价值观", every country thinks about itself that way.
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  10.  jies2811  Show me the evidence, I'll be waiting. Your complaints are getting tiresome. 你越来越烦。
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  11.  @eish3291  Certainly, that would be a more reasonable explanation.
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  12.  @samyu4473  I'm expressing skepticism, not a great desire to know every detail about space flight. My skepticism relates to the usefulness of taking seeds into space. In 60+ years of space flight, I have never heard of any benefit derived from that practice.
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  13.  @chjin1796  What's the name of this giant pepper? Chinese name? I want to look into this.
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  14.  @chjin1796  Ah yes, I looked up 太空辣椒 online and there are several varieties, but they don't look much different from regular chilies available in Chinese markets. Some of them look like 朝天椒, which at least sounds a little like space. The fact that these are 'specialty chilies' tells me they're not more productive or more valuable than regular chilies, but they are just a kind of gimmick.
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  15.  @张印武  I'm in China, and I have never seen it at any market here. Of course we have 杭椒, but that's from 杭州，not 航天.
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