Slashdot Mirror
Some Scientists Work With China, But NASA Won't (wired.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: Inside a sealed clean room near Toulouse, France, Maurice Sylvestre points out something called SuperCam. Sylvestre is outfitted in Tyvex and hairnets, necessary to keep out dust, skin particles, and dirt that could mar the super-smooth surface of his device. SuperCam sits underneath a ventilator hood, glimmering inside a golden-metallic housing. The device is designed to scan the Martian surface with a camera, laser, and spectrometer in hopes of finding organic compounds that could be related to early life on Mars. In two years, this 12-pound, microwave oven-sized unit will blast off as part of the Mars 2020 mission, a spacecraft/lander/rover combo by NASA and its partners that will replace the long-serving Curiosity mission.
Sylvestre is a planetary scientist at France's Institute for Research and Planetary Astronomy, and deputy principal investigator for SuperCam. But he's an international collaborator: Over the years, he's worked on missions to Saturn, the moon, and Mars with NASA colleagues. Sylvestre's lab is currently building an instrument similar to SuperCam that will fly to Mercury on the European-Japanese BepiColombo mission, as well as one called Eclair that is part of a joint French-Chinese satellite. Notably, that makes him one of a small number of planetary scientists who are working with China to boost their science, while doing his best to keep Western technology from getting pilfered. It's a tightrope that not everyone is willing to walk. "We are careful what we are doing," Sylvestre says.
"We understand the security issues. We understand that we should be careful and not be too naive. But at the same time I feel the idea of planetary exploration is for everyone." Working with both NASA and China may seem like a contradiction, or even a conflict. The two superpowers are butting heads on trade, military, and cybersecurity issues. Congress has banned NASA officials and NASA money from going to China. That might be because of a recent history of Chinese espionage targeting US military, aerospace, and technological secrets.
Sylvestre is a planetary scientist at France's Institute for Research and Planetary Astronomy, and deputy principal investigator for SuperCam. But he's an international collaborator: Over the years, he's worked on missions to Saturn, the moon, and Mars with NASA colleagues. Sylvestre's lab is currently building an instrument similar to SuperCam that will fly to Mercury on the European-Japanese BepiColombo mission, as well as one called Eclair that is part of a joint French-Chinese satellite. Notably, that makes him one of a small number of planetary scientists who are working with China to boost their science, while doing his best to keep Western technology from getting pilfered. It's a tightrope that not everyone is willing to walk. "We are careful what we are doing," Sylvestre says.
"We understand the security issues. We understand that we should be careful and not be too naive. But at the same time I feel the idea of planetary exploration is for everyone." Working with both NASA and China may seem like a contradiction, or even a conflict. The two superpowers are butting heads on trade, military, and cybersecurity issues. Congress has banned NASA officials and NASA money from going to China. That might be because of a recent history of Chinese espionage targeting US military, aerospace, and technological secrets.
Space program technology is not distinct from missile technology. Any sensible government would be sensitive about rival nations getting their missile technology.
For those who need a primer, here's information on the "Wolf Amendment" that bans NASA from working with the Chinese. The concerns are understandable given that many of the Chinese firms that work on their space programs have direct links to the PLA. Then again, most of the Western space firms, from traditional players to new space, also have ties with the DoD.
Unless Congress changes the law, NASA is banned from working with China in any way.
Its due to ITAR restrictions. Take it up with the US Goverment.
Not merely ITAR (although ITAR is always a consideration when working with a foreign entity), but there is actually a law (passed by Congress as part of a spending bill eight years ago) forbidding NASA from working in any way with China: https://www.forbes.com/sites/w...
For good reason. China will steal all the information and use it to improve Cup (wrote CCP and autocorrected to cup lol) power at the expense of its citizens freedoms. And then you have 1.4 billion brainwashed Chinese spreading their lies all over the would, including in western countries like Australia and America. It will be slow, but they will slowly erode even more of the freedoms we have here that Chinese don't even know if because of governmenrt controlled media and censorship.
I think it's enclosed when installed.
https://www.google.com/amp/www... NASA is a horrible entity for security given it's past failures. They also repurpose a lot of defense tech for their programs. Isolating them is a minimum precaution. Long term, a cultural change needs to occur to align the staff with American interests.
The amount of foreign contributions to NASA missions (compensating for budget cuts) has been going crazy the past few years. Banning China entirely blocks at least one avenue of this erosion.
You have to either be naive or stupid to not understand the long term strip mining game China is playing.
The poor guy is clearly naive and in giving him the benefit of the doubt. Scientists are good souls, but sometimes the, "For the sake of knowledge" types get used and abused in this cold world.
There are countless examples of these so called partnerships being extractionary. Chicoms put on delightful little smiles, you make some money in the meantime, and a few quarters down the line your profits plunge and there are a million Chinese domestic knock offs.
For better or for worse, NASA's mission is still partly defense. Even the engineers and scientists at SpaceX know this. Sorry Trekkies, but the main goal of these is to boldly kill where no one has killed before.
The Chinese know this and want access to to the new tech that makes it possible.
Good luck to him, but I hope there's someone out there who is reigning in his information sharing.