Two Views On a China-US Space Race

An anonmous submitter writes "While there has been recent discussion about China and India engaging in a space race, most people are still focused on a potential race between China and the US in near future. The Space Review recently published a pair of essays on this topic: the first argues that China-US space race is both unlikely and undesirable, given the aftermath of the US-USSR space race thirty years ago. A followup article suggests that a China-US space race is vital, so long as it takes a more commercial, long-term approach than the US-USSR one. Food for thought..."

Comments

This can only be good

[couch_potato]

Competition spawns innovation, right? Maybe the Chinese can spur NASA on in a way similar to the Russians, you know, light a fire under their butts...

You need a license to have a dog, but any fool can have a child!

Re:This can only be good

[KewlPC]

Knowing the way this country works, we'd probably land a person on Mars, the populace would "Ooh!" and "Aah!" for a few months, then lose interest. At which point, the unscrupulous members of Congress would whine, "Yeah, we beat those dirty gooks to Mars. But now that we've done it, why waste money by going back? Those damn scientists are just going to give whatever knowledge we acquire to the slopes and every other two-bit country anyway, so why not just spend some of their funding on some nice pork barrel that'll get us re-elected instead?" After which NASA's budget will shrivel, more Aegis carriers that the Navy doesn't want because they don't have enough personel to crew them will be built, and it'll be the same shit all over again.

At least, until the private sector catches up. That is, unless corporate interest wanes once the low-orbit version of the Concorde becomes a reality.

Hallelujah for the Chinese

[whitroth]

Why do we need a space race? To get the US to put up or shut up. After Johnson, every Republican administration has cut every penny they can from civilian NASA - or don't y'all remember how Newt and his Grinches tried to kill the Station in '95? Billions for SDI, and nothing for civilian uses of space.

With a race, maybe we can clean up NASA's management - the current structure, according to folks on the inside at KSC, has more managers than techs...and some of those managers don't even have engineering degrees. And, yes, I *do* have the evidence to back this up.

mark

Re:Us (US) versus Them -- OT

[dcmeserve]

Heck we can't seem to get it right even when we try to feed starving people (see Somalia).

Just an off-topic note, we didn't mess up in Somalia until we did two things:

1. Try to mess with the political landscape (i.e. take out the "warlords").

2. Underestimate Al-Qaeda.