According to a story in today’s New York Times, Congress is on the verge of canceling the Constellation program entirely and shifting NASA’s focus away from the lunar outpost. Instead, NASA is now mandated to build heavy-lift vehicles that will be focused on longer-term, longer-distance travel. At the same time, the Chinese government has successfully launched it’s second lunar exploration probe as part of their effort to land a Chinese spacecraft on the moon by 2013. This pits U.S. private moon exploration against Chinese government moon exploration. Did Congress just cede the successful colonization of the moon to China?
A Long March 3C rocket carrying China's second unmanned lunar probe, Chang'e 2, is launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China's Sichuan province on Friday. Source: MSNBC
This report from the New York Times, Congress Gives NASA New Orders That Bypass the Moon – NYTimes.com, reports that the House has passed the Senate-written legislation that does three main things:
- It kills the Constellation program, in which NASA was to establish a mining and exploration colony on the southern pole of the moon.
- It directs NASA to focus on building larger ships that are suitable for longer-distance and longer-duration missions, such as to Mars.
- It advances the march of private, for-profit business into space, as it cedes the possibility of U.S. government colonization of the moon to private space interests.
It is expected that President Obama will sign this legislation shortly, making it a reality.
At the same time, and on the 61st anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China (October 1, 2010), the Chinese space program launched a second lunar exploration probe. China Launches Second Lunar Exploration Probe – MSNBC. This successful launch means that China is yet another step closer to landing their first mission on the moon by 2013. Manned Chinese missions are planned for the future, perhaps 2025.
Considering these two news stories separately, there’s little apparent interaction. But considered together, there are major implications for both space programs. We may be seeing the establishment of a contest for lunar exploration that rotates on several axes:
- The Chinese government versus U.S. private business.
- A centralized, planned, unified approach to moon colonization versus a decentralized, business-oriented approach.
- A military program versus a civilian program. China’s space program is inherently a military program, after all.
Stay tuned for further developments, and start learning Chinese if you are interested in lunar exploration. Or, if you are interested in working on the moon, or just visiting for your family vacation in 2030. If private business has to compete with the full resources of the Chinese military for the prime locations, mines, and ore and water deposits, I’m betting that the Chinese military will prevail.
By moving the U.S. government out of the business of establishing colonies, and therefore territorial claims, on the moon, it is possible that Congress just gave the moon to China. Literally.
