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US Space Firms Tell Washington: China Will Take Over the Moon if You're Not Careful (yahoo.com)
The US space industry is prodding the US government into refreshing its outdated laws on commercial activity beyond earth: scare it with talk of Chinese galactic domination. A report adds: At a Senate hearing on the space industry this week, companies that build rockets and space habitats and manufacture electronic goods in space spoke about a standard laundry list of complaints, from regulatory burdens to fears of subsidized competitors. But their message was wrapped in patriotic concerns about China's growing capacity for space action. These companies are eager for the US government to allow and invest in commercial activities in orbit and around the moon. Many think the laws governing action in space, and particularly the UN Space Treaty, need refreshing for an age when private companies are close to matching the space capacity of sovereign nations. The last major change was a law on asteroid mining passed in 2015.
There's one way to get Trumps attention.
Put it in terms of China.
Trump, if we don't fund science, China will be #1 in RD
Trump, if we don't fund NASA, China will own the Moon!
When it was the Russians. Worth a try.
We must not allow a pork gap.
Haven't you seen the documentary called Iron Sky?
You say things that offend me and I can deal with it. Can you?
Trump, if we don't fund science, China will be #1 in RD
How is it not a problem if a repressive government gets ahead of the west in R&D? Do you like more, or less repressive government and the wrongful imprisonment of dissenters?
Trump, if we don't fund NASA, China will own the Moon!
Again, would you like a militarily aggressive force controlling the moon? That seems like a pretty valid concern for real, not just "a way to get Trump interested". In fact it's why Trump is already pretty interested in continuing NASA's work and why NASA didn't face any major budget cuts, in fact they increased planetary science spending, which is what you would hope from any rational president. We are all better off if a number of nations have operations on the moon, so we should figure out how to get more U.S. presence back on our nearest neighbor.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
There is no economic case for space exploration.
If this is true then we have nothing to worry about when space is exploited by China, and Silicon Valley billionaires will have no interest in it.
I'm quoting you: "...repressive government and the wrongful imprisonment of dissenters".
As I seem to have to continually remind people on Slashdot, Hillary is not president.
Who exactly has Trump imprisoned wrongfully? Or are you saying it is wrong to imprison people who set cars on fire and loot shops? I know many on the left bellive this to be true but I had hoped that rot had not spread to the more rational denizens of Slashdot.
It's just their sheeple, drink the Kool-Aid given to them and think the other is more evil.
While that is indeed true of many Statists, it's not really true of the other more libertarian side of that equation - which only makes sense as the larger a government gets, the more unfeeling and cruel it becomes... so you can imagine what happens in essentially a world-wide government.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley