Category Archives: Mars Colonization

While NASA warns of another five space rocks headed towards the Earth, one Finnish astrophysicist is proposing human colonization of the asteroid belt itself within the next 15 years.

As the Earth lurches out of month one of 2021, NASA has issued a brief, advising that five more asteroids that are potentially between 25 and 100 meters (82 and 98 feet) in diameter are due for close flybys before the month is up.

On Tuesday, the 25-meter asteroid 2021 BD3, with a diameter roughly half that of the Arc de Triomphes height, will pass the planet at a safe distance of 3.9 million km (3.9 million miles). A short time later, an object dubbed 2021 AL, which measures 40m in diameter or roughly five London buses end-to-end, will whizz past at a distance of 4.1 million km.

Next up, on Thursday January 28, will be the 40-meter space rock 2021 BZ, which will shoot past at 2.1 million km.

To round up a rocky start to the year, on January 29, asteroids 2021 AG7, which could be up to 100m in diameter or the same size as Londons Big Ben, and the 30-meter 2021 AF7 will pass the Earth at 4.2 million km and 6.8 million km, respectively.

Meanwhile, one forward-thinking astrophysicist proposes that, rather than asteroids coming to us, humans should instead colonize the asteroid belt, in as little as 15 years.

Dr. Pekka Janhunen, an astrophysicist at the Finnish Meteorological Institute in Helsinki, has proposed the construction of habitable floating mega-satellites orbiting the dwarf planet Ceres, some 523 million kilometers from Earth, among the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

Like something plucked straight from modern science fiction series, these disk-shaped settlements, linked by powerful magnets, would boast thousands of cylindrical structures which could house a total of 50,000 people who would all benefit from artificial gravity generated via floating cities slow rotation.

Janhunen also proposes space mining from Ceres as a means by which to set up an economy and make colonization profitable and sustainable, making use of space elevators to carry resources back to the pods and potentially back to Earth for processing.

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Big Ben-sized space rock among FIVE headed this way, as scientist proposes humans COLONIZE asteroid belt itself - RT

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Its goal-setting season for companies and individuals alike, but not all goals are created equal. Some goals are far more likely to propel people into senior executive roles, and some goals are far more likely to turn average executives into legends.

In the study Are SMART Goals Dumb?, my firm Leadership IQ studied more than 16,000 people to discover what types of goals lead to breakthrough performance. And among the dozens of findings, heres one that will immediately impact your career trajectory.

Top Executives Are 64% More Likely To Set Difficult Or Audacious Goals

What separates the people who become top executives from everyone else? Is it luck? Or talent? Or ambition? The answer varies based on the exact circumstances, but theres one factor that seems to have a big impact, and its the extent to which someone sets really difficult goals vs. more achievable and realistic goals (e.g., SMART Goals).

As you can see in the chart below, when we analyze goal-setting behaviors by a persons level in the organization, we discovered that 54% of top executives set difficult or audacious goals, while that was true for only 33% of frontline employees. In other words, top executives are about 64% more likely to set difficult or audacious goals.

Data from the study "Are SMART Goals Dumb"

Now, its no guarantee that setting difficult or audacious goals will propel someone into the senior executive ranks. But the linear relationship between ones rung on the career ladder and difficult goals is striking. And for anyone interested in discovering the secrets to becoming a top executive, this is critical data.

Top Executives Are 91% More Likely To Enjoy Leaving Their Comfort Zone

Its not just difficult goals that are strongly correlated with being a top executive. Using an online test called Do You Set HARD Goals or SMART Goals?, the study revealed that top executives are far more likely to enjoy learning new skills and leaving their comfort zone.

The 12,801 people who took the online test were asked to choose between the statements, I dont like to leave my comfort zone, or, I will leave my comfort zone on occasion, or, I like to leave my comfort zone. And the data revealed that top executives are 91% more likely to enjoy leaving their comfort zone in pursuit of their goals.

There is a very strong linear relationship between how high a person ranks in the company and how much they are willing to leave their comfort zone in pursuit of their goals. Frontline employees and junior managers are more likely to enjoy the traditional status quo. By contrast, top executives are far more likely to enjoy leaving their comfort zone.

Steve Jobs And Elon Musk Set Really Difficult Goals

In a 1985 Playboy interview, Steve Jobs uttered his famous dent in the universe line. While his exact words have been misquoted countless times, what he actually said in reference to the types of people that Apple was hiring is still pretty difficult and audacious:

At Apple, people are putting in 18-hour days. We attract a different type of person: a person who doesnt want to wait five or ten years to have someone take a giant risk on him or her. Someone who really wants to get in a little over his head and make a little dent in the universe. We are aware that we are doing something significant. We are here at the beginning of it and were able to shape how it goes. Everyone here has the sense that right now is one of those moments when we are influencing the future.

Imagine instead that Steve had said, Were working eighteen-hour days because we think that we can reduce the fees you pay at the ATM from three dollars to two dollars. Does that statement rise to the level of making a little dent in the universe? Would that goal count as difficult and audacious? Probably not.

Elon Musk is considered by many people as one of Silicon Valleys most adventurous entrepreneurs, and he exemplifies setting difficult goals and leaving his comfort zone. From building a superhighway to the Moon to colonizing Mars, Elon doesnt set his sights on average goals. Tell him that something is a safe bet, and its a safe bet that he wont want to do it. Blogging about Teslas founding, Elon wrote:

I thought our chances of success were so low that I didnt want to risk anyones funds in the beginning but my own. The list of successful car company startups is short. As of 2016, the number of American car companies that havent gone bankrupt is a grand total of two: Ford and Tesla. Starting a car company is idiotic and an electric car company is idiocy squared.

Its not everyone who will invest their own millions into an endeavor that has a strong track record of failure. But when you consider that Elons definition of success, then you begin to understand the drive to set difficult goals and leave his comfort zone.

Heres How You Can Get Started

Name the most significant and meaningful accomplishments in your life. Achievements that may have been professional or personal, or whatever. For example: When I started a new business, or The day I ran the Boston Marathon (and all the training that led up to it), or Standing in the starting gate at the Olympics, or That breakthrough product I invented, or When I nursed my sick child back to health, or When I got my college degree. Remember, its no ones call but yours to name the victories that have been the most important to you.

Now I want you to take whatever response you gave and ask yourself the following question; Is my goal for 2021 as difficult and audacious as those goals were?

If your 2021 goal passes the test, congratulations. But if it doesnt, then make your goal more difficult and extend past your comfort zone a bit more. And remember that youve actually pursued and accomplished these types of difficult and audacious goals before.

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Top Executives Like Elon Musk And Steve Jobs Are 64% More Likely To Set This Type Of Goal - Forbes

Amazon's The Expanse star Cara Gee talks about portraying polyamory, LGBTQ+ representation, and Camina Drummer's emotional journey.

Cara Gee, who plays Camina Drummer onThe Expanse, spoke highly of the shows representation of polyamorous characters. The critically acclaimed sci-fi drama was picked up for season 5 by Amazon after being canceled by Syfy in 2018. Based on the fiction novel series of the same name by James S. A. Corey, The Expanse takes place in a dystopian future in which the human race has colonized the solar system and Earth and Mars are in the midst of a cold war.

Cara Gee plays the character Camina Drummer, a leader of the Belters. Throughout the series Drummer became incredibly close with Naomi, played by Dominique Tipper, while working together on the warship the Behemoth, causing fans to point out their sexual tension and potential compatibility as a romantic couple. However, Naomi eventually returns to her previous ship, the Rocinante, and the two characters part ways. Season 5 finds Drummer, the leader of a polyamorous, queer family operating a tight-knit pirate fleet, consisting of the ships Dewalt (of which she is the captain) and Mowteng. Falsely believing Naomi to be dead, throughout the season, Drummer becomes close with Oksana, a crewmember of the Dewalt, played by Sandrine Holt, who helps Drummer deal with yet another devastating personal loss.

Related: The Expanse: Who Are The Belters? Origin, Purpose, & Real Meaning Explained

In a recent interview with Screenrant, the Canadian actress opened up about the importance, not only for the character of Drummer but also for the shows audience, of exploring Drummers sexuality and romantic life from a place of love.

Drummer's dynamic with Oksana is so warm, and of course with the whole crew, who have this very caring communal love. Can you talk about Drummer finding this connection?

Cara Gee: Thank you for asking. I was so excited that we got to represent this polyamorous Belter family. I think that respectful representation of polyamory is nowhere to be seen in the television landscape, and I'm so proud that we did that. I think that for our queer fans to see Drummer finally get hers is so satisfying.

Nobody shipped Drummer and Naomi harder than me and Dominique. But that was brutal. It's brutal to have the girl get away again, the heartache of being in love with a straight girl is a trope that we've seen. So, to finally see her - I wouldn't say happy under the circumstances of the show - but happy with the relationship, is really beautiful. The relationship between all of those polyamorous characters is so tender and vulnerable. And I'm so delighted with how it's coming across how it's turned out.

Although polyamory is not new to The Expanse's world-buildingit has been mentioned in the backstory of other charactersit has a much stronger representation in this current season with Drummers story. Gee fully embraces the fan community uplifted by the shows representation of LGBTQ+ characters and polyamory, evidenced, in part, by her frequent use of the hashtag #PolyamBelterFam to discuss the show on Twitter.

The Expanse joins the ranks of many current television shows aiming to showcase relationships with LGBTQ+ characters or relationships that are otherwise underrepresented and/or marginalized. Whats even more revolutionary is their ability to do so without exoticizing these relationships or portraying them as anything other than normal. While much more unpredictable drama is likely in store for Camina Drummer, audiences finally get to see her, if for a brief moment, in a loving relationship. One can only hope it lasts!

More: The Expanse Season 5 Has Majorly Improved A Book Character

Shadow & Bone Images: First Look At Ben Barnes As The Darkling

Nadira Goffe is a movie/TV news writer for Screen Rant. She got her masters in Media Studies at the University of Leeds in 2019. Additionally, Nadira is a podcast host, writer, and occasional baker. She is based out of her hometown of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

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The Expanse Drummer Actor On The Show's Respectful Polyamory Representation - Screen Rant

Elon Musk knows the value of putting your money where your mouth is, as he plans to personally fund Mars colonization.

Musk has made no secret of his belief that humanity must become a spacefaring race in order to survive. His company SpaceX is working toward that goal, and is one of the leading corporations involved in space exploration.

One of Musks primary goals is to colonize Mars. The tech mogul has previously stated his plan to send 1 million people to mars by 2050, using a fleet of 1,000 SpaceX Starships.

Needless to say, such lofty plans will involve tremendous expenditures, which Musk has a plan for: Hes selling his homes and worldly possessions to help fund his Mars dream.

I think it is important for humanity to become a spacefaring civilization and a multiplanet species. And its going to take a lot of resources to build a city on Mars, Musk told Axel Springer CEO Mathias Dpfner, via Business Insider. I want to be able to contribute as much as possible to the city on Mars. That means just a lot of capital. In Musks eyes, parting ways with his material possessions also signals that hes committed to going to Mars.

Its a safe bet SpaceX will have a much easier time gaining support and investors for its efforts when its CEO is demonstrating such a high level of commitment.

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Elon Musk Will Fund Mars Colonization By Selling His Possessions - WebProNews

Astronauts will need reliable methods of growing their own food to support long-distance space travel and extra-planetary colonization. Research in this area has been ongoing for some time. Due to the unique effects of microgravity, growing produce in space is a significant challenge.

In the closing moments of 2020, astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) were able to enjoy some of their research. They not only grew radishes in microgravity for the first time but also went on to eat some of the small harvest, Digital Trends reports. The rest of the radishes were sent back to Earth so scientists can examine their growth.

Of all the experiments being done aboard the ISS, those involving fresh produce have to be the most exciting for astronauts. After all, eating preserved food for months on end gets old. The taste of a fresh vegetable is a massive reward for weeks of experiments and space farming.

NASA astronaut Kate Rubins had the privilege of harvesting the first batch of space-grown radishes. It included 20 plants and took 27 days to fully mature. The astronauts living aboard the orbiting lab were then able to eat some of the radishes before sending the remaining plants back to Earth. A new batch was also planted.

Its worth noting that the radishes arent the first crops grown and eaten aboard the ISS. Astronauts have previously cultivated things like lettuce, cress, and a variety of other leafy green veggies. That being said, radishes are arguably the most substantial plant grown in space to date.

The ISS crew tended to the radishes in a special chamber designed by a company called Techshot, Digital Trends reports. The companys CEO, Dave Reed, said in a statement, The radishes looked great. We harvested 19, and nine were offered to the crew to eat. The other 10 radishes were frozen for return to Earth and for post-flight analysis.

To eliminate concerns about microorganisms, the radishes were grown in clay balls. The unique growing chamber features sensors to monitor things like water levels, fertilizer usage, and light. Lead researcher Karl Hasenstein says, The radishes grown on the space station are cleaner than anything youd buy at the store.

Over the course of the next decade, humanity has its sights set on several lofty goals. For instance, NASA aims to send humans back to the moonincluding the first womanwith its Artemis program.

These endeavors wont require astronauts to grow their own food. In the future, however, missions to Mars and the establishment of a base on the moon will require sustainable food sources. It will be impossible to ship food to those living on Mars and inefficient to do so for anyone stationed on the moon for a prolonged period.

Fortunately, scientists are getting better at growing foods in microgravity. As the ISSs recent crop of radishes demonstrates, the future of space food isnt limited to leafy greens. With the right growing environment, it may be possible to cultivate more nutritious and complex produce.

Fortunately, there is still time to find these solutions. In the coming decades, this will be an important area of study for the spaceflight industry.

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ISS astronauts ate space-grown radishes for the first time - The Burn-In

As the public buzz continues to build around sending a manned mission to Mars, even colonizing it someday, scientists are studying what it takes to survive such a long trip. One problem is food. If humans spend long stretches of time out in space, they cant pack all their food before the trip. Theyll have to grow some in space, not an easy feat.

To grow food beyond planet Earth is tricky. Crop plants face unusual conditions for them, like microgravity, radiation, freezing temperatures and a lack of natural light

With the support of NASA, the lab of MSU-DOE Plant Research Laboratory scientistFederica Brandizzihas been studying how plants survive in space conditions. In a new study, they start revealing how a plant system which helps plants manage various types of Earthly stresses, such as extreme heat might function in space. The study is published in the journal Astrobiology.

The survival mechanism is called the unfolded protein response. When plants are stressed, they produce defective proteins that are harmful and sometimes deadly to these plants. The UPR kicks in to tell the plant to dump the faulty proteins and to go back to making good ones.

Read the full story on the College of Natural Science website.

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Learning what it takes to grow a space garden - MSUToday

SpaceX will try a significantly different approach to landing its future reusable rocket boosters, according to CEO and founder Elon Musk. It will attempt to catch the heavy booster, which is currently in development, using the launch tower arm used to stabilize the vehicle during its pre-takeoff preparations. Current Falcon 9 boosters return to Earth and land propulsively on their own built-in legs but the goal with Super Heavy is for the larger rocket not to have legs at all, says Musk.

The Super Heavy launch process will still involve use of its engines to control the velocity of its descent, but it will involve using the grid fins that are included on its main body to help control its orientation during flight to catch the booster essentially hooking it using the launch tower arm before it touches the ground at all. The main benefits of this method, which will obviously involve a lot of precision maneuvering, is that it means SpaceX can save both cost and weight by omitting landing legs from the Super Heavy design altogether.

Another potential benefit raised by Musk is that it could allow SpaceX to essentially recycle the Super Heavy booster immediately back on the launch mount it returns to possibly enabling it to be ready to fly again with a new payload and upper stage (consisting of Starship, the other spacecraft SpaceX is currently developing and testing) in under an hour.

The goal for Starship and Super Heavy is to create a launch vehicle thats even more reusable than SpaceXs current Falcon 9 (and Falcon Heavy) system. Eventually, the goal for Musk is to have Starship making regular and frequent flights for point-to-point flight on Earth, for orbital missions closer to home, and for long-distance runs to the Moon and Mars. The pace at which he envisions these happening in order to make it possible to colonize Mars with a continuous human population requires the kind of rapid recycling and reflying of Super Heavy he described today with this proposed new landing method.

Starship prototypes are currently being constructed and tested in Boca Chica, Texas, where SpaceX has been flying the pre-production spaceship during the past year. The company is also working on elements of the Super Heavy booster, and Musk said recently that it intends to begin actively flight-testing that component of the launch system in a few months time.

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Elon Musk says SpaceX will attempt to recover Super Heavy rocket by catching it with launch tower - TechCrunch

Starlink is Better Than Nothing

for rural broadband

Revere him or revile him, no one can dispute that Elon Musk is a genius in our time.

Musk is the founder, chief executive officer and chief technical officer of Tesla, SpaceX and a handful of other dazzling companies, including The Boring Company (which is actually not boring at all).

The most interesting thing about Musk is what drives him. He is fabulously wealthy the second wealthiest man on earth behind Jeff Bezos but money is merely a means to an end for him.

That end is human travel to Mars, followed by colonization of Mars. This actually explains everything, as we will explain.

Musk had this Mars dream as a young man, but he also realized that human travel to Mars would not be on NASAs agenda during his lifetime, so he set about doing it himself. He needed money, so he started and sold a company called Zip2 for $307 million in 1999. He then played a major role in the start of PayPal, which was sold to eBay for $1.5 billion in 2002.

When he started the electric car company Tesla, he was laughed at by the big car manufacturers. In the early years, Tesla was hemorrhaging money and had seemingly unsurmountable problems with its batteries.

Fast forward to today and Tesla is worth more than the next 12 biggest car companies in the world combined.

He famously traveled to Russia with some American aerospace engineers to inspect some retired ICBMs that he hoped to convert into Mars transports. He was regarded as a novice by one of the Russian space engineers and subsequently spat on.

That ignoble experience sent him back to his office with a mind to prove someone wrong. He decided to build his own rockets and started SpaceX.

The Boring Companys technology literally bores into the earth to construct tunnels for high speed underground travel. The company has won large contracts in California to construct such things.

SpaceX rockets have now displaced Russian rockets as the primary vehicle to the International Space Station. It has also launched into low Earth orbit a constellation of about 1,000 satellites in furtherance of the Starlink project.

With Starlink, Musk has set out to provide high speed internet connectivity to every patch of dirt (and ocean) on Earth. In the end, he may make fiber and physical internet infrastructure irrelevant. He would then literally own the internet worldwide.

So what about Mars? This is where things get interesting. Internal combustion engines wont work on Mars, thus Tesla. Gotta have major capabilities and major capital to build a vehicle that will get safely carry people to Mars, thus SpaceX. Mars is believed to have useful natural resources under its surface, thus The Boring Company.

These connections explain virtually everything Musk has done all in service to his Mars dreams including, for companies like SpaceX and Tesla, enormous profitability.

SpaceX recently won a big chunk of a $9.2 billion federal broadband reverse auction, including $39.7 million from Colorados allotment to serve more than 19,000 households in western Colorado with satellite broadband. Musk titled the program Better Than Nothing.

Hes right, and nothing is what has held rural Colorado back for years. Reliable high speed internet is as essential to a communitys health today as electricity or roads were 80 years ago. With estimates that 70% of the countrys workforce will not return to the physical workplace and the proliferation of location-neutral workers, places like Nucla and Craig could be very attractive places to live so long as they have broadband.

Legacy broadband providers, who must pull fiber to every last mile of every rural house they hope to serve, were understandably dismayed at Starlinks auction wins. SpaceX is an existential threat to those companies.

And if we have learned anything about Elon Musk, its that you dont bet against a genius chasing his dream.

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Starlink is Better Than Nothing for rural broadband - The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel

Viewers cant get enough galactic sci-fi, as the enduring popularity of the Star Wars franchise attests. The television industrys efforts to capitalize on this demand have produced seemingly more space-themed shows than chunks of rock in the asteroid belt.

Many armchair space captains (and critics) have discovered The Expanse as habitable extraterrestrial entertainment. Of shows set in space, crowd-driven Ranker.com rates The Expanse as the 10th best of all time, just one slot behind Star Wars spin-off The Mandalorian. Theyre the only two of the Top 10 currently in production.

The Expanse (some seasons rated TV-MA), based on novels by James S.A. Corey (the pen name of authors Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck, also two of the shows writers) is beginning its fifth season and currently streaming on Amazon Prime after beginning its run on the Syfy network. The first four seasons offer several reasons to continue the voyage: movie-worthy sets and special effects, a satisfying balance of interplanetary intrigue and individual dramas, and a crew of interesting characters. But viewers will need to keep their deflector shields up for incoming expletives and occasional scenes with sexual content.

In the 23rd century, humans have colonized the solar system. Earth and its moon (Luna) form the United Nations, and Mars is an independent military power. The inner planets depend on resources from the asteroid belt, located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Competing for air and water, Earth, Mars, and the Belt stand on the brink of warat least in the shows first season. Its unlikely the human race figures out peace by the fifth.

Wrecking things is what Earthers do best, admits Jim Holden (Steven Strait), a former UN navy officer, born of eight genetic parents.

Much of the first seasons action takes place on Ceres, the largest rock (actually a dwarf planet) in the asteroid belt. There, native Belters, recognizable by their thin bone structure, work the docks in slavelike conditions. Joe Miller (Thomas Jane) is a wearied, Earth-born police detective stationed on Ceres. His interest in quelling protesters riots takes a back seat to his search for a missing heiress.

Chrisjen Avasarala (Shohreh Aghdashloo) is a high-ranking UN official. She investigates the destruction of a space freighter, owned by the missing womans father, that was hauling a large supply of ice from Saturns rings to Ceres. The ice was to be melted into much-needed water. Is Mars trying to provoke war? Are Outer Planetary Alliance terrorists responsible? Shields up, captains chair reclined, Im ready to find out.

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A TV series out of this world - WORLD - WORLD News Group

People on the NASA transition team of Joe BidenJoe BidenGeorgia signature audit finds no fraud in presidential election Pence refused to sign on to plan to overturn election, lawyers say New Lincoln Project ad shows Trump border wall built from tombstones of COVID-19 victims MORE are urging the United States to start what could be the biggest transfer of technology to China. The giveaway could result in the Chinese military dominating space and, with it, world affairs. Trying to exclude them, I think, is a failing strategy, said Pam Melroy, a former astronaut and potential next administrator of NASA, referring to the Chinese. It is very important that we engage.

Important to engage? The Chinese space program is military at its core and, to the extent it is civilian, it serves as a conduit to the military. China has a policy of civil military fusion. This means the army has first call on anything and everything in civilian hands. Moreover, we should not forget the structure of the Chinese regime. The military is an operation of the Communist Party, which controls all the programs of the Chinese central government as well as every educational and research institution in the country. The space program is a party venture.

The Chinese military has major plans for the Moon, sometimes called the eighth continent. As military analyst Richard Fisher told me, China wants to mine helium from the Moon to power its future fusion energy reactors and to use Moon resources to help build enormous solar energy collecting satellites to free it from foreign energy dependence.

China also plans to colonize the Moon with military bases. By controlling the Moon, China can control access to the Lagrangian Points and better control access to Mars and other planets, Fisher, who is affiliated with the International Assessment and Strategy Center, said. Stations floating at Lagrangian Points, orbital locations where gravitational forces balance and make it less expensive to maintain artificial objects in space, would allow China to dominate the new interstates to the heavens.

The stakes are high. As Brandon Weichert, the author of Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower, explains, Whoever controls the strategic high ground of space will ultimately control the course of events on Earth, in the strategic domains of land, sea, air, even cyberspace.

Such Chinese space ambitions should concern other countries with such goals. The universe is an ocean, the Moon is the Diaoyu Islands, and Mars is Huangyan Island, Ye Peijian, the leader of the Chinese lunar program, said two years ago, referring to the Japanese islands in the East China Sea and Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea.

If we do not go there now even though we are capable of doing so, then we will be blamed by our descendants. If others go there, then they will take over, and you will not be able to go even if you want to. Ye, with his reference to locations that Beijing views as sovereign territory, is making clear that China has no intention of allowing others on the Moon or other features in space, and that also means working with the Chinese space program would either be impossible or deeply misguided.

The transition team is intent on partnering with the Chinese space agency despite the fact that they are aware of Chinese intentions, Weichert said. Indeed, the cost of cooperation will be high. For the Chinese, this will be the greatest technology transfer from us to them in their history. It will all but ensure they conquer space.

Biden and his transition team may think they can limit partnering with China but that, as a practical matter, is unlikely to be the case here. The problem with engaging China in super sensitive joint ventures is that the American side always starts with the best intentions, and safeguards and security checks are put in place by senior people but then, at the lower levels, the Chinese find ways to worm their way into areas they do not belong, Paul Midler, an Asia analyst and author, told me. Somehow, unwittingly, our side starts sharing too much.

The whole idea of cooperation is flawed. Let us revisit how Ye compared space features with those in Chinese peripheral waters. In 2015, President Xi Jinping stood next to President Obama in the Rose Garden and told his host that, with regard to the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, China does not intend to pursue militarization. Yet China did exactly that a year after this promise, and the Chinese Ministry of Defense issued a statement justifying its necessary military facilities. Any pledges from Beijing about its intentions in space will, in all likelihood, be as worthless.

The space advisers to Biden have gotten the process backwards. Cooperation does not necessarily lead to a better relationship with militant regimes. There must be a basis of cooperation first, and unfortunately that does not exist with China. As Fisher, the military analyst, warns, There can be no peace in space with the Communist Party until there is first peace with the Communist Party on Earth.

Gordon Chang is a columnist and the author of The Coming Collapse of China. You can follow him online on Twitter and Parler @GordonGChang.

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How Joe Biden risks the biggest giveaway ever to China in space | TheHill - The Hill