{"id":219233,"date":"2017-06-13T05:40:48","date_gmt":"2017-06-13T09:40:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/uncategorized\/what-chinas-space-ambitions-have-to-do-with-politics-space-daily.php"},"modified":"2017-06-13T05:40:48","modified_gmt":"2017-06-13T09:40:48","slug":"what-chinas-space-ambitions-have-to-do-with-politics-space-daily","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/space-exploration\/what-chinas-space-ambitions-have-to-do-with-politics-space-daily.php","title":{"rendered":"What China&#8217;s space ambitions have to do with politics &#8211; Space Daily"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><p>    Experts told Sputnik they believe China's space ambitions are    driven not only by the goal of space exploration itself but    also by politics. Tommy Yang - China's commitment to its space    exploration programs is driven by the same sense of national    pride that fueled the \"space race\" between the Soviet Union and    the United States in the 1960s, experts told Sputnik.  <\/p>\n<p>    China's space programs topped the What China's Space Ambitions    Have to Do With Politicss this week after Chinese authorities    unveiled more details of the nation's Lunar exploration and    manned spaceflight missions during the 2017 Global Space    Exploration Conference in Beijing.  <\/p>\n<p>    The country's Chang'e 5 Lunar probe, named after a fairy    goddess who resides on the Moon according to Chinese legends,    is expected to land in the Mons Rumker region and to take Moon    samples back to Earth at the end of 2017, Liu Jizhong, the    director of China Lunar Exploration and Space Engineering    Center of China National Space Administration (CNSA), said at    the conference.  <\/p>\n<p>    In addition, China is expected to launch four manned    spaceflight missions over the next five years to build an    operational space station, according to China's first astronaut    Yang Liwei, who is now the deputy director of China's manned    space program office. Yang added that two manned space missions    will be conducted in 2020 and the first Chinese long-term    operational space station will be completed by around 2022.  <\/p>\n<p>    China has been making steady progress in its space exploration    programs since the Chinese government approved the Shenzhou    manned spaceflight program in 1992. Yang completed China's    first manned spaceflight in 2003, orbiting the Earth 14 times.    And the Shenzhou 9 manned spacecraft, with the first female    Chinese astronaut on board, docked with the Tiangong-1    prototype space station for the first time in 2012.  <\/p>\n<p>    The projected landing of China's Lunar probe on the Moon later    this year comes almost 48 years after American astronauts Neil    Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans walking on    the Moon in 1969, during the Apollo 11 mission commissioned by    the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).  <\/p>\n<p>    As traditional space exploration powerhouses including the    United States and Russia scaled back their funding for    spaceflight programs in the past several decades, China was set    on continuing to invest in space exploration programs.  <\/p>\n<p>    Experts suggested that political motives remain the main driver    of Chinese space programs.  <\/p>\n<p>    \"Space exploration programs can demonstrate the technological    capabilities for a country, showing it has the capability to do    complex tasks,\" James Head, a professor of geological sciences    at Brown University who worked on the Apollo project at NASA    and provided training for the Apollo astronauts, said.  <\/p>\n<p>    Head added that countries like India, Japan and the United Arab    Emirates are developing their space programs for similar    reasons.  <\/p>\n<p>    Russian space enthusiast Vitaly Egorov, who initiated a project    earlier this year to prove the success of human landing    missions on the Moon, echoed professor Head's assessment.  <\/p>\n<p>    \"Today, China remains the only country in the world motivated    by patriotic propaganda to finance its space achievements,\"    said Egorov, noting that the early stages of space programs in    the Soviet Union and the US also mostly served propaganda    purposes.  <\/p>\n<p>    Lei Fanpei, the chairman of China Aerospace Science and    Technology Corporation, the main contractor for Chinese space    programs, said China may be the only country to have a space    station in service by 2024, when the International Space    Station retires.  <\/p>\n<p>    China even coined a new name for its spacewalkers. Similar to    the words \"astronauts\" used by the United States and    \"cosmonauts\" used by Russia, the crews of Chinese spaceflights    are called \"taikonauts\", derived from the Chinese word    \"taikong\" for space.  <\/p>\n<p>    Costly Explorations Following the launch of Sputnik    1 in 1957, the Soviet Union and the United States started a    \"space race\" which lasted until the early 1970s. During that    period, The Soviet Union beat the United States to send the    first human, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, into space in 1961. The    United States succeeded in the landing of first humans on the    Moon with Apollo 11 in 1969.  <\/p>\n<p>    But the space race also came with a hefty price tag. According    to figures from a CIA research report, the Soviet Union spent    an estimated $20 billion, about $145 billion in modern day    dollar value, on its space programs, including hardware    development costs. The Apollo Moon program cost US taxpayers a    staggering $25.4 billion, which translates to around $184    billion in modern day dollar value.  <\/p>\n<p>    NASA's annual budget peaked in 1966 to $5.93 billion, which is    valued at about $43.6 billion today, accounting for 4.41    percent of the US federal budget of that year. NASA's approved    budget for fiscal year 2017 stood at $19.65 billion, about    0.47% of total US federal budget. In comparison, despite loud    rhetoric about its space programs through Chinese state media,    China's spending on those programs is significantly smaller    compared to US and Soviet spending.  <\/p>\n<p>    According to Wu Ping, deputy director of the China Manned Space    Agency, China spent about $5.74 billion on its Shenzhou manned    spaceflight program from the time the program was approved in    1992 until 2012, when Chinese taikonauts completed the first    manned docking mission with the Tiangong-1 prototype space    station.  <\/p>\n<p>    Professor Head acknowledged that, similar to the era when    pioneering explorers such as Christopher Columbus needed to be    funded by the Spanish Monarchy looking for gold, human    exploration into space also faces a similar dilemma.  <\/p>\n<p>    \"Before you get to see a good business model, you can't    convince people to spend money [on space projects],\" Head said.  <\/p>\n<p>    Head believes that China's top-down decision making system may    be an advantage in supporting the continuity of its space    programs, adding that the US space programs have become \"a    hostage\" of contrary decisions made by different presidents.  <\/p>\n<p>    For example, former US President Barack Obama canceled plans to    continue exploration of the Moon. Instead, he wanted NASA to    send astronauts to Mars by the 2030s.  <\/p>\n<p>    \"We have set a clear goal vital to the next chapter of    America's story in space: sending humans to Mars by the 2030s    and returning them safely to Earth, with the ultimate ambition    to one day remain there for an extended time,\" Obama wrote in    the op-ed published in October 2016.  <\/p>\n<p>    Lack of CooperationChinese President Xi Jinping    stressed in a congratulatory letter to the space conference in    Beijing that China wants to enhance cooperation with the    international community in peaceful space exploration and    development.  <\/p>\n<p>    But China still faces an uphill battle when it comes to    borrowing experiences from the United States or Russia from    their previous successful space missions.  <\/p>\n<p>    A two-sentence clause included in the US spending bill approved    by the US Congress in 2011 prohibits the White House Office of    Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and NASA from coordinating    any joint scientific activity with China.  <\/p>\n<p>    The clause, inserted by Representative Frank Wolf, a long-time    critic of the Chinese government who chairs a House spending    committee that oversees several science agencies, prevents OSTP    or NASA from using federal funds \"to develop, design, plan,    promulgate, implement or execute a bilateral policy, program,    order, or contract of any kind to participate, collaborate, or    coordinate bilaterally in any way with China or any    Chinese-owned company.\"  <\/p>\n<p>    Yu Guobin, vice director of the Lunar and Space Exploration    Engineering Center of China, was scheduled to speak at a    symposium before the start of the Lunar and Planetary Science    Conference in the United States on March 19 to discuss China's    plans to explore the Moon and Mars. But Yu informed the    organizers that the US embassy in Beijing had denied his    request for a visa to attend the conference.  <\/p>\n<p>    \"Even during the Cold War, there was not any harsh law like    this preventing people working at NASA from communicating with    their Russian counterparts,\" Head, who was an organizer for the    symposium, complained.  <\/p>\n<p>    He added that the law is hurting Washington more than China.  <\/p>\n<p>    The International Space Station welcomed the first experiment    independently designed by China, when SpaceX's unmanned Dragon    cargo ship, carrying a 3.5 kilogram (2.2 pound) device from the    Beijing Institute of Technology, arrived earlier this week.  <\/p>\n<p>    The deal for the delivery was reached in 2015 with NanoRacks, a    Houston-based company that offers services for the commercial    utilization of the space station. The deal was purely    commercial and therefore considered legal.  <\/p>\n<p>    In addition, as China and Russia seek to build closer bilateral    ties, cooperation in space programs between the two nations is    also expected to get a boost.  <\/p>\n<p>    Russia and China discussed prospects for cooperation in the    field of manned space flights, Sergey Krikalev, the executive    director for manned space flight programs at Russia's Roscosmos    State Space Corporation, said at the space conference in    Beijing.  <\/p>\n<p>    Russia's Lavochkin Research and Production Association is ready    to work with China on designing Lunar exploration missions,    including orbital and return ones, Sergei Lemeshevsky, the    company's director general, told Sputnik on Thursday.  <\/p>\n<p>    Source: Sputnik News  <\/p>\n<p>          With the rise of Ad Blockers, and          Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality          network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so          many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with          those annoying usernames and passwords.        <\/p>\n<p>          Our news coverage takes time and          effort to publish 365 days a year.        <\/p>\n<p>          If you find our news sites          informative and useful then please consider becoming a          regular supporter or for now make a one off          contribution.        <\/p>\n<p><!-- Auto Generated --><\/p>\n<p>View original post here: <\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/www.spacedaily.com\/reports\/What_Chinas_space_ambitions_have_to_do_with_politics_999.html\" title=\"What China's space ambitions have to do with politics - Space Daily\">What China's space ambitions have to do with politics - Space Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> Experts told Sputnik they believe China's space ambitions are driven not only by the goal of space exploration itself but also by politics. Tommy Yang - China's commitment to its space exploration programs is driven by the same sense of national pride that fueled the \"space race\" between the Soviet Union and the United States in the 1960s, experts told Sputnik. China's space programs topped the What China's Space Ambitions Have to Do With Politicss this week after Chinese authorities unveiled more details of the nation's Lunar exploration and manned spaceflight missions during the 2017 Global Space Exploration Conference in Beijing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/space-exploration\/what-chinas-space-ambitions-have-to-do-with-politics-space-daily.php\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"limit_modified_date":"","last_modified_date":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[431611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-219233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-space-exploration"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219233"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219233\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}