China Moves Toward Orbit and Beyond

September 30, 2010

The next Star Trek movie may have an all Chinese crew from the CNSA (Chinese National Space Agency), as China becomes the dominate nation in outer space.

The New York Times reports that President Obama called on NASA to cancel the program that was to return humans to the Moon by 2020, which means America will not be starting a space race with China.

In fact, President Obama has called on China and the U.S. to cooperate in outer space. Something no other U.S. President has asked before. When the current International Space Station started construction in 1998, China was not included.

The crippled U.S. space program suggests that America has no choice but to cooperate or else cede the frontier of space to the Chinese.

Senior Chinese space officials recently announced that China could be on the moon by 2022. To reach the moon, plans are to put three different space stations into Earth orbit by 2011, then 2015 and the largest station by 2020, which will lead to the moon. Source: Washington Times.com

It is feasible that China could be on the moon by 2017 and after that, China plans to go where no man or woman has gone before — Mars and Venus. Source: KotZot.com

Shanghaiist.com reports that, “Scientists predict that one of China’s most significant achievements in the 21st century will be to set up a “moon city” using solar energy. The surplus energy will then be transmitted to storage centers back on earth.”

If this works, China’s hunger for electricity may be met without the need for coal burning power plants, which means cleaner air.

Meanwhile, the Arms Control Wonk says that China’s leaders remain silent about the military applications of China’s space programs, which will cause many Sinophobes to lose sleep.

This is ironic, since the Chinese invented multi-stage rockets around the 14th century.

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

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