Category Archives: Moon Colonization

Building Moon base with electricity and provision which make the life of astronauts comfortable and safe seems like a plot of sci-fiction. But, is there any reality in it? BBC science correspondent Sue Nelson studied the colonialist plans of the world space agencies and found out if they had enough strength and resources to implement them on Moon colonization and beyond it.

Read Also: Earths Oldest Rock Found On The Lunar Surface

In January 2019, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) spoke about the upcoming stages of its successful lunar program to set up a moon base. After the first-ever soft landing of the Change-4 automatic station on the far side of the moon, two subsequent missions are to deliver samples of lunar soil and rocks to Earth.

Then, Change-7, which is scheduled to be launched in 2023, will begin research on the South Pole of the Moon, a region of particular interest because of the presence of water ice there.

China has already planned to send a robotic mission Change-8 to the moon by 2027, which will conduct an experiment with 3D printing, using local resources for the construction of simple structures.

We hope that Change-8 will help test some technologies and do some exploring, said CNSA deputy head Wu Yanhua.

China is not alone in an effort for the moon colonization: today, all the space powers are talking about it. And although to date, only Americans landed on the satellite, now they have to catch up with rivals in the moon race.

Read Also: Apocalypse Is Coming: Moon Collision With An Asteroid Will leave Earth To Die?

For a long time, NASA has not made public plans to create a lunar base, highlighting Mars as a priority. But in May 2019, the US space agency announced that American astronauts would land on the moons surface by 2024.

A few steps ahead, the European Space Agency (ESA) announced its intention to create a moon base in 2016. A year earlier, ESA CEO Jan Wrner introduced the concept Lunar Village, a non-profit project that brings together public and private investors, scientists, engineers, businessmen, architects, and artists. The task of like-minded people is to create and share infrastructure on the Moon for a variety of purposes: astronomical research, tourism, and geological exploration the search for minerals that are lacked on Earth.

CNSA and NASA have already shown interest in the Moon Village project, and Jeff Bezoss private aerospace company, Blue Origin, offered to develop a cargo ship with a payload of 4500 kg to implement it.

The Moon Village is not an official ESA program, but the agencys plans are no less ambitious. So, the mapping of the lunar surface should be completed by 2030, then modules of the future moon base will be delivered to the selected location, their collection will be completed by 2042, and all life support systems, production facilities, and an observatory will be created by 2062.

But whatever organization wins the 21st-century lunar race, survival will be a key priority. Until now, people only have been on the Moon for three days, because is not the most hospitable place for a long stay.

Because of the rarefied atmosphere, the temperature difference on the surface of the moon is very high. So, at a sunflower point, it can heat up to +127 C and cool down to -173 C at night. The lunar day is 29.5 times longer than the earthly days, which dooms the colonialists for two weeks of daylight and two weeks of the night. This can be a problem for the accumulation and use of energy, so any new technology for the moon outpost must work in difficult conditions.

Several organizations, including Blue Origin, Airbus and ESA, recently created a moon-centric prize program known as The Moon Race.

It is already known that the development and testing of technologies are planned for 2021, and the Moon mission itself is set for 2024.

Prototypes of technologies selected for testing in a rarefied atmosphere of the moon will allow completing the mission in 5 years. In 2024, the Moon Race visionaries want to start building infrastructure, energy production, and growing plants.

Traveling into space is expensive. The heavier the payload of the launch vehicle, the more fuel is required and the higher the cost of the flight is. That is why, to create the infrastructure of the lunar base, economical visionaries prefer to use the available resources. For example, lava can be used as shelters leading to frozen water ice below the surface. Another plan is to build a base of lunar regolith fine sand, which is similar to the volcanic sand on Earth.

Professor Mathias Sperl of the University of Cologne collaborates with the German space agency DLR, printing volcanic powder bricks. A regolith simulator forms the desired shape through a process called sintering when concentrated sunlight or lasers bind the material together.

Sperl said, Were not building Lego but we have interlocking bricks. They are going to build something similar to Igloo using the bricks. It must be strong enough to withstand the pressure of a meter layer of regolith, which will protect the colonizers from cosmic radiation. But the construction of one building would be a very long process.

It takes roughly five hours to make a brick, said Sperl, and you need 10,000 bricks for an igloo. It will take months.

To speed up the process, more lenses will be required on the moon to store sunlight, and the construction itself to entrust the robots.

Since traces of water ice were found at the poles of the moon, lunar bases are most likely to appear in those places. No wonder the current mission rover Change-4 collects data in the Aitken crater at the South Pole.

Read Also: NASA Full Plan to Extract Minerals From Martian Soil For Rocket Fuel

There are enough useful resources on the moon. Oxygen inside the regolith can be extracted and used for breathing. Its most likely source is the mineral ilmenite (FeTiO3), which, in combination with hydrogen at a temperature of about 1000 C, produces water vapor, which must then be separated to produce hydrogen and oxygen.

Moreover, future moon colonizers need to take care of the food. Food production in space is not a new idea. It began developing in 1982, when Soviet cosmonauts first grew the Arabidopsis thaliana flower on the space station, Salyut-7.

Since then, hydroponics (growing plants on artificial environments without soil) took a step forward, and in 2010, the University of Arizona (the USA) developed a prototype named Lunar greenhouse. The hydroponic system uses a 5.5-meter membrane tube, water vapor lamps and envelopes to hold seeds with carbon dioxide exhaled by astronauts.

In 2018, with the help of such a system, the Neumayer III-polar station team in Antarctica harvested the first crop grown in greenhouses without land and sunlight: 3.6 kg of lettuce, 18 cucumbers, and 70 radishes. In a high-tech greenhouse, behind the walls of which the temperature was kept at -20 C, a reusable water cycle, a nutrient system, LED lighting and careful control of carbon dioxide were used.

For the construction and life support of the lunar base, a large amount of energy will be needed, and the Sun is far from its only source.

According to ESA scientific adviser Aidan Cowley, during the night, the water extracted from the ice can be divided and recombined to produce electricity. He said that there would be a lot of solar energy during the day, which would help dividing water into hydrogen and oxygen. This is a unique tool that they could use on the moon to provide energy for a long-term mission.

Read Also: 10 Future Space Missions Timeline | NASA Missions To Mars

There is also the possibility of accumulating energy through heat pumps.

There is no wind on the moon, and the heat from the sun remains in the regolith. Cowley suggested to use a lens or a mirror to focus sunlight at a specific point on the surface, and use this resource to heat the base or generate electricity.

Once scientists figure out these technologies and test them, humans will be able to build a moon base and ultimately moon colonization

Excerpt from:
Moon colonization: Who is going to build the Moon base ...

Advantages and Disadvantages

Placing a colony on a natural body would provide an ample source of material for construction and other uses in space, including shielding from cosmic radiation. The energy required to send objects from the Moon to space is much less than from Earth to space. This could allow the Moon to serve as a source of construction materials within cis-lunar space. Rockets launched from the Moon would require less locally produced propelant than rockets launched from Earth. Some proposals include using electric acceleration devices (mass drivers) to propel objects off the Moon without building rockets. Others have proposed momentum exchange tethers (see below). Furthermore, the Moon does have some gravity, which experience to date indicates may be vital for fetal development and long-term human health. Whether the Moon's gravity (roughly one sixth of Earth's) is adequate for this purpose, however, is uncertain.

In addition, the Moon is the closest large body in the solar system to Earth. While some Earth-crosser asteroids occasionally pass closer, the Moon's distance is consistently within a small range close to 384,400 km. This proximity has several benefits:

There are several disadvantages to the Moon as a colony site:

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Colonization of The Moon - Advantages and Disadvantages ...

The Nogojiwanong Indigenous Fringe Festival (NIFF) will offer live, COVID-safe outdoor-performances from Wednesday, June 23rd to Sunday, June 27th on the treaty and traditional territory of the Michi Saagiig Anishinaabeg and Chippewa Nations, collectively known as the Williams Treaties First Nations, at Trent University in Peterborough.

For a schedule of performances, visit indigenousfringefest.ca and, to reserve tickets, email indigenousfringefest@gmail.com.

In this two-part series, we introduce you to the artists performing at NIFF. Part one profiled Sarah Gartshore and Lois Apaquash of Zaagiidiwin Collective, Tiger Will Mason, and Olga Barrios and Norma Araiza of Vanguardia Dance Projects. This story profiles Jennifer Alicia, D.B. McLeod, and Stephanie Pangowish.

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Two-time National Poetry Slam champion Jennifer Alicia has been writing ever since they were young.

Its just something that Ive always done, Alicia says. As a child, writing really helped me navigate and process some traumatizing situations in a healthy way.

But it wasnt until Alicia attended X University (formerly Ryerson University) that they were introduced to the powers and possibilities of spoken word poetry.

I began doing my poetry at rallies and activist spaces and I realized that connecting with an audience was something I really enjoyed, Alicia recalls. Its really powerful to share a story and to have folks connect with it.

Since then, Alicia has become a prolific spoken word and page poet.

A member of both the Toronto Poetry Slam team and Seeds & Stardust collective, they have has performed poetry in cities throughout Turtle Island, debuted their first chapbook Mixed Emotions (published by Moon Jelly House), and was artist-in-residence for the Indigenous Storyteller and Spoken Word program at the prestigious Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.

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It was during their residency in Banff that Alicia conceived of their first script, Restor(y)ing Identity, which will be performed live for the first time ever at NIFF.

I was thinking about home and talking to my family a lot, Alicia explains. The more we spoke, I kind of felt this feeling of being unblocked I dont know how to explain it, it was as if things started being released in my brain. Suddenly, I remembered hearing this story about my pop.

Originally hailing from Elmastukwek, Ktaqmkuk (Bay Of Islands, Newfoundland), Alicia comes from a long line of fishers, hunters, and trappers. Based on a true familial tale about Alicias grandfather, Restor(y)ing Identity tells the story of a fisherman who encounters a sabawealnu (Mikmaw word for merperson) while checking his fishing nets.

I became obsessed with this story about my pop seeing a mermaid while checking his fishing nets, Alicia says. And so Restor(y)ing Identity is based on this familial tale. It talks about the moment my Pop had this interaction with this being. It also touches on the importance of sharing our stories, and what could happen if we dont share our stories. Its told from my pops perspective and also from my perspective, his granddaughter.

Im really proud to be able to bring this story to the worlds first Indigenous fringe festival its really exciting, Alicia adds.

D.B. McLeod was cornered by her friend and fellow NIFF performer, Stephanie Pangowish, at a social gathering. There, Pangowish convinced McLeod to take a comedy writing workshop hosted by Baroness Von Sketch Show writer and comedian Dawn Whitwell.

She cornered me and was like, You! Youre funny, youre doing this with me!, McLeod recalls. And I was a little bit scared of Steph at the time, so I agreed.

After the workshop, the pair spent eight consecutive Saturdays writing jokes and developing material together. Soon after that, they began performing stand-up.

It was literally supposed to be a hobby, says McLeod. It was just going to be a thing that I did for fun, but its sort of evolved into this other thing now.

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The other thing is Manifest Destinys Child the Indigenous womens stand-up comedy collective, which McLeod and Pangowish helped found, with quite possibly the best name ever.

Theres so many layers to it, says McLeod of the collectives name. It is really funny because of Destinys Child and because its just funny to put those three words together.

More significantly, manifest destiny is a direct reference to the widely held cultural belief of 19th-century American settlers that they were destined to expand across North America resulting in the occupation and annexation of Indigenous peoples lands, wars and conflict, and Indian removal the U.S. government policy of forced displacement of Indigenous peoples from their ancestral lands.

If I think about it in a more political sort of way, we are the children of manifest destiny, McLeod says. Our ancestors survived so that we could be here telling jokes about ridiculousness and laughing at white people.

Its about reclamation and again, you know, as the children of manifest destiny, thinking about all of those Indigenous women that have been taken from us or missing or murdered were still here and theyre you know. With the collective, audiences get eight very different examples of the reality of Indigenous women in this country.

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McLeods comedy show Denis with an E inspired by the alarming number of people who pronounce her name as Dennis (evidently, the illiteracy crisis is far worse than anyone could ever have imagined) makes fun of patriarchy, sexism, fatphobia, colonization, and colonialism.

Im part of the last generation of the sixties scoop and that horrifying intergenerational trauma made me really funny, McLeod says. My humour is really dark. I have lived this very weird, interesting life, and I have a lot of funny stories that kind of come from that.

Regrettably, kawarthaNOW was unable to contact stand-up comedian and Manifest Destinys Child co-founder Stephanie Pangowish for an interview the CBC got to her first!

Given the hilarity of her NIFF artists bio (below), its safe to say that her stand-up comedy NIFF show will side-splitting.

Stephanie Pangowish is a sassy and assy Anishnaabekwe from Wiikwemkoong on Manitoulin Island and is the co-founder of Canadas 1st collective of Indigenous women stand-up comedians, Manifest Destinys Child.

She originally started performing to make her angry mom laugh and avoid the wooden spoon but now uses it to educate Canadians on Indigenous Culture.

Stephanie has danced at pow wows for the past 10 winters, has watched every movie starring Adam Beach and pretends to have read all books about Indigenous people.

To learn more about the worlds first and only Indigenous fringe festival and the amazing participating performers, visit NIFFs website at indigenousfringefest.ca.

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Introducing the artists of the Nogojiwanong Indigenous Fringe Festival in Peterborough (part two) - kawarthaNOW.com

June 14 (UPI) -- Japan's prime minister may have snubbed South Korean President Moon Jae-in and rejected an invitation to a bilateral summit on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Cornwall, according to Japanese press reports.

Yoshihide Suga said Moon failed to keep promises between the two countries, and that the conditions were "not suitable" for an important one-on-one meeting with the South Korean leader, the Nikkei and other Japanese news services reported Monday.

Moon took part in the expanded G7 summit as a guest, with other major democracies, including Australia, India and South Africa. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi participated in the gathering virtually due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in his country.

Suga reportedly blamed Seoul for frosty ties between the two countries.

"Japan-Korea relations are difficult because of the maneuvers of the South Korean side," Suga said. "South Korea must provide a direction" for a resolution.

Relations between the two countries have declined amid demands from South Korean activists representing former "comfort women" and forced wartime laborers. Seoul has generally supported their cause.

Activists also have said Tokyo and Japanese firms should directly pay compensation to victims. Japan has said a 1965 treaty resolved all past issues that occurred during colonization.

Suga downplayed brief exchanges of greetings with Moon at G7.

Moon "came to say hello, so I greeted him not to be rude," Suga reportedly said. Moon also initiated contact with Suga a second time at a beach barbecue for world leaders, the Japanese prime minister said.

Ahead of G7, reports suggested that Suga, Moon and U.S. President Joe Biden might meet for a trilateral summit. The event never took place.

Lee Young-chae, a professor at Keisen University in Japan, said in an interview with TBS' Kim Eo-jun's News Factory in Korea that Suga's priority at the G7 was to garner widespread support for the Tokyo Olympics.

The G7 summit communiqu stated support for "the holding of the Olympic and Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 in a safe and secure manner as a symbol of global unity in overcoming COVID-19."

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Japan rejected summit with South Korea at G7, citing 'unsuitable conditions" - UPI News

The history of animals in space is a contentious one, with monkeys, frogs, and of course, Laika the Dog having paved the way for humans in space. More recently, in 2019, we sent mice to space to test microgravity.

Now, a new experiment by Japanese researchers involving mouse sperm may have set the way for sperm banks aboard spacecraft, allowing for colonization via in-vitro fertilization (IVF), a report byCNET explains.

The team, who published their findings in the journal Science Advances,set out to understand the long-term effects of space radiation on mammalian sperm.

For their experiments, they sent freeze-dried mouse sperm samples up to the International Space Station (ISS) back in 2013. Almost six years later, the samples were returned to Earth in a SpaceX Dragon cargo capsule in 2019, where they were successfully used to breed litters of healthy "space pups."

At the same time as the experiment was run aboard the ISS, mouse sperm samples were also frozen on Earth as a control group. The freeze-dried sperm from the ISS was used to impregnate female mice via IVF and these space pups were analyzed and compared to the "ground control" pups.

"Space pups did not show any differences compared to the ground control pups, and their next-generation also had no abnormalities," the team wrote in their paper.

The team also reported that no extra DNA damage occurred to the sample aboard the ISS when compared with the sample on Earth.

One caveat to this research is the fact that the ISS is not stationed in deep space and it is partially shielded from the most dangerous radiation by the Earth's magnetic field.

Deep space exploration, which is where the applications for this research would most likely end up, may have a more detrimental effect on such samples.

The research may help to enable projects such as theUniversity of Arizona researcher Jekan Thanga's proposed 'Lunar Ark', which aims to store DNA inside the Moon's lava tubes, as an archive for life on Earth and a "modern global insurance policy."

In fact, the team stated in its paper that it hopes to one day conduct freeze-dried sperm experiments on NASA's planned lunar Gateway project, which will launch a lunar outpost to orbit the Moon. This would allow them to gain a better understanding of the effects of radiation deeper into space.

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Space Pups: Frozen Sperm Produces Healthy Mice After 6 Years on ISS - Interesting Engineering

Ok, I've heard the haunted stories, I've watched the Shining enough times to know EVERY word in the movie by heart and I've walked through the place a few times in awe and felt some creepy stuff but even THIS gives me the creeps even more than any of those things.

According to our friends at Outthere Colorado, THIS picture was taken by a visitor from Texas recently that captured a ghostly and flat out creepy woman peering out of one of the windows in the Stanley Hotel.

Now, skeptics may say that it's someone just messing around and playing jokes to help the hotel live up to its haunted roots and past but to ME, it legitimately looks creepy and add to the fact that hotel employees confirmed that the particular room where the woman was spotted was supposedly unoccupied.

There are a bunch of hauntings and creepy stories surrounding "The Stanley" that it inspired Stephen King's horror classic The Shining. So yeah...even Stephen King felt something when he visited back in the late 70's.

Guests have reported many strange occurrences such as lights turning off and on, doors abruptly slamming shut, eerie sounds of laughter, shadowy figures, and unexplained drafts and chills.

Now I don't consider myself a ghost chaser or someone who is a 100% believer in ghosts but I will say that I definitely felt chills walking up the staircase right at the entry...and that was in the middle of the day with a bunch of people around.

YouTube/ CBS Denver

12 Authentic Colorado Ghost Towns

8 Colorado Legends That Every Coloradan Should Know

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WATCH: Who Is The Creepy Woman In The Window At The Stanley Hotel - New Country 99.1

The European Space Agency (ESA) selected SpacePNT of Neuchatel, Switzerland to develop an advanced spaceborne GPS/Galileo receiver for agencys the Lunar Pathfinder Spacecraft in orbit around the Moon. The receiver is intended to demonstrate, for the first time, the use of terrestrial GNSS signals for real-time and autonomous orbit determination and positioning, navigation and timing (PNT). The contract includes the development, qualification, and delivery of one proto-flight model (PFM) and two engineering models of the NAVIMOON receiver, SpacePNTs very high-sensitivity version of its NAVILEO high-performance GNSS spaceborne receiver.

The NAVIMOON receiver implements very high-sensitivity algorithms able to receive and process signals extremely attenuated coming from the spillover around the Earth of the signals transmitted by GNSSs. It will combine these signals measurements with advanced on-board orbital forces filters to achieve directly onboard the spacecraft and in real time an unprecedented target orbit determination accuracy of 100 m rms at Moon altitude. This is is well below the typical accuracy that can be achieved today with terrestrial radio ranging that involves the use of costly deep space station ground infrastructures.

As explained in a March 26 news story, GNSS constellations already deliver usable signals as far away as the moon, even though they were not purposed to do so. Most of the energy of their navigation antennas radiates directly towards Earth, which blocks its use further away in space. However, explains Javier Ventura-Traveset, ESA GNSS Senior Advisor, navigation signal patterns also radiate sideways, like light from a flashlight, and past testing shows these antenna side lobes can be employed for positioning, provided adequate receivers are implemented.

Given the high interest in Moon exploration and colonization (over 50 commercial and governmental missions have been announced between now and 2024), it is expected this NAVIMOON receiver technology will play a significant role in the next decade not only on Earth-Moon transfer orbits, but also to provide enhanced PNT services for the Moon users with the deployment of a lunar constellation that will allow the provision of lunar navigation in Moon-obstructed areas.

Due for launch by the end of 2023 into lunar orbit, the public-privateLunar Pathfindercomsat will offer commercial data relay services to lunar missions while also stretching the operational limits of satnav signals.

For an overview of lunar PNT techniques and upcoming missions, see Inside GNSS Working Papers columns Across the Lunar Landscape Exploration with GNSS Technology (Sept//Oct 2020) and Across the Lunar Landscape: Towards a Dedicated Lunar PNT System (Nov/Dec 2020).

SpacePNT will partner with European Engineering & Consultancy (EECL) from Kingston-upon-Thames, UK as a sub-contractor for the electronics design, manufacturing, and qualification.

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NAVIMOON Space Receiver to Orbit Aboard Lunar Pathfinder, Generate Real-Time PNT Data from Earthly GNSS - Inside GNSS

Recent news accounts suggest the race to go to Mars has begun in earnest, with two of our countrys richest men, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, competing with each other to take the lead.

Jeff Bezos Blue Origin spaceflight company launched a rocket into space last month and returned both the rocket and an empty crew capsule safely to earth. By 2024, Bezos hopes to send astronauts to the moon, which he sees as a necessary stepping stone to a Mars flight. Musks Space X company just returned four astronauts safely from the International Space Station. He hopes to land humans on Mars by 2026.

The Red Planet has long fascinated humans, and scientists have long wondered whether there might have once been water on this large barren rock. This new interest in Mars by the private sector seems to be motivated more by ego and monetary concerns than by scientific ones.

At first glance, it might seem odd for billionaires to spend money on space exploration when we have so many problems on our planet they could address with their excess funds. But I think that misses the point.

Isnt it understandable that, given the growing problems we have sustaining ourselves on earth pollution, overpopulation, war, climate issues, extensive poverty and disease the worlds two richest men might think it is time to escape before earth collapses into warfare over resources, especially if they can make some money on the way out?

If we could find some underground sources of water on Mars and figure out a way to exist in the thinner air there, we might have a place to go once we have drained all the aquifers here on earth in an attempt to stay alive and beat the heat that is coming.

The problem with this thinking is that while climate change is certain to cause enough death and destruction to make the COVID-19 pandemic really seem like the flu, there is nothing we might do to colonize the moon or Mars in time to prevent massive loss of life on Earth.

Bezos and Musk both worry about carbon emissions, but they want to use technology to capture carbon rather than the simpler solution of reforestation or planting crops that sequester carbon in the soil. Many scientists question the idea that we can use technology alone to save our planet (Sam Snead, CNBC 4-19-21).

But we humans tend to reject the idea of sacrificing our comforts by limiting ourselves or our enjoyments. We would rather invent our way out of problems by creating something to collect pollutants rather polluting less in the first place. We will buy an electric car to reduce carbon emissions while also tearing up land a chuck in Idaho to mine the lithium to power electric car batteries. Driving less or car-pooling is not nearly as glamorous as impressing your friends with an expensive new Tesla.

There are many good scientific reasons for space exploration, and even for learning more about Mars. But what Musk and Bezos do in space, with government support, can distract us from the more serious and immediate problems facing our planet which cannot be solved by settlements on Mars 50 years from now. Neither technology nor colonization of other planets can prevent the disasters that could be caused this century alone by climate change.

Some nave liberals like myself might say that space exploration is morally questionable in the face of a climate disaster that could end our species.

Jeff Bezos net worth floats between 175 and 200 billion dollars. Musk is not far behind. How many COVID vaccinations could we distribute with some of this money and that of other very wealthy people and foundations? How much birth control could we dispense to ease planetary overcrowding? How much could we use feed and house victims of war in the middle east? How many trees we could plant to reduce carbon emissions with just a small portion of what these men have? Pick and choose.

Ill bet we would still have a few coins left to build a colony or two on the moon in the next century after making things better on earth in this one.

Ken Wolf is a Democrat and a retired Murray State University history professor. He speaks here as an individual and not as a representative of either of these organizations. He can be reached at wolken43@gmail.com.

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Should we go to Mars? | Opinion | murrayledger.com - Murray Ledger and Times

China has made it to to Mars, becoming only the second country to puta rover to the red planet. Its a breakthrough scientifically, economically andpolitically for a country increasingly focused ontechnological self-reliance. Beijings first such attempt, an orbiter launched by piggybacking on a Russian spacecraft in 2011, failed. A decade later, it hasdone a lot more and achieved it alone.

Thepropaganda value of a landing on another planet, as the Communist Party prepares to celebrate its centenary, is not lost on Beijing. Reaping the soft power benefits abroad, though, will requiremore than headlines. Timely, plentiful shared technical and scientific information from its Mars missionwill go a long way toward building credibilityand towarddefusing some of the tension around overlapping civilian and military usethat have made collaborationin space so fraught.

So far, Beijing appears to have chosen not to release possibly imperfect early images from the actual landing. It may still be awaiting the deployment of thesix-wheeled Zhurong rover. Its alsojust the sort of openness that has impact. The lesson fromCovid-19 vaccines was clear: Prestige and trustcomes with transparency and so too does scientific cooperation of the sort that China and the rest of the world badlyneeds.

After a series of major launches in 2020, Mars has been a hive of activity. The United Arab Emirates Hope craft, aimingto study weather and climate systems, arrived in Mars orbit in early February, joining others already studying the planet.Tianwen-1, Chinas mission, followed. NASAs Perseverance rover landed on Mars surfacein mid-February, with the Ingenuity helicopter probe. Its not all aboutElon Musk-styleambitions of colonization, though: Scientists hope the planet most similar to Earthcan answer questions about the evolution of our own home.

Talk of a race is misleading, but China, with bigambitions andan annual budget estimated at around$9billion, the second-largest globallyafter NASA, is clear on the scientific benefit and economic necessity of space prowess. It landedChange-4on the far side of the Moon in 2019 a first and saw the first seeds sprout. Its agreed to team up with Russia for a permanent lunar base and last month, it launched the first module of its planned space station. And now, Mars.

In recent years, China has cemented its position as a major space power

Source: CSIS Aerospace Security Project

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Not everything has been perfect.Aprils launch of themodule for itsfuture space station had the worldfretting after the rocket made an uncontrolled re-entry, eventually splashing into the Indian Ocean. We dont know exactly how much of the technology is homegrown, even with Chinas pushto avoid relianceon Western inputs.Yet Tianwen-1 is already an impressive mission, giventhe immense technical challenges of landing on Mars, explainsKatarina Miljkovic of Curtin University in Australia. Thats because ofthe existence of an atmosphereand the need to use parachutes to slow the descent, unlike on the Moonnot to mentionthe fact that landings have to bedone autonomously,because of the communications time lag with Earth.

But thequestion is not so much whether Beijing, which has made huge strides since putting itsfirst man in space in 2003, can succeed. Unquestionably, history points in Chinas favor, with its deep pockets, steadfast political commitment and a massive internal market for satellites and more. Already, the International Space Station is agingjust as Beijingbuilds its own version, perhaps leavingChina with the only sustained human presence in orbit.

The question is whether that success can be shared and amplified for the common good, or whether Chinas inward-looking push for self-reliance, its opacity andWestern worries about technological transfer dictate the opposite. David Flannery at Queensland University of Technology, who has been working with NASAs Mars 2020team, says Chinas mission reflects the scientific goals of the wider community. He points out information from the Moon mission was shared, so there is an encouraging precedentbut theres room for more.Thats true even if getting to NASA-levels of disclosure say, live-streaming launches will be challenging for Beijing to accept.

China is certainly clear that there arebenefits, offering up Moon samples and the ability to place experiments on its space station. It can go a lot further.

Theres room for the West to act, too. TheU.S.can provide encouragement by reconsideringtight limitson collaboration. Excluding China hasnt worked. The rules wereintended tocounter espionage,but have dented multilateralism,fueled Beijings ambitions and not aided Washingtons.

That would give us even more reason tocheer Tianwen-1.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

To contact the author of this story:Clara Ferreira Marques at cferreirama@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:Howard Chua-Eoan at hchuaeoan@bloomberg.net

Before it's here, it's on the Bloomberg Terminal.

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China's Mars Landing Will Be a Greater Feat With the Release of More Data - Bloomberg

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China has made it to to Mars, becoming only the second country to puta rover to the red planet. Its a breakthrough scientifically, economically andpolitically for a country increasingly focused ontechnological self-reliance. Beijings first such attempt, an orbiter launched by piggybacking on aRussian spacecraftin 2011, failed. A decade later, it hasdone a lot more and achieved it alone.

Thepropaganda value of a landing on another planet, as the Communist Party prepares to celebrate itscentenary, is not lost on Beijing. Reaping the soft power benefits abroad, though, will requiremore than headlines. Timely, plentiful shared technical and scientific information from its Mars missionwill go a long way toward building credibilityand towarddefusing some of the tension around overlapping civilian and military usethat have made collaborationin space so fraught.

So far, Beijing appears to have chosen not to release possibly imperfect early images from the actual landing. It may still be awaiting the deployment of thesix-wheeled Zhurong rover. Its alsojust the sort of openness that has impact. The lesson fromCovid-19 vaccines was clear: Prestige and trustcomes with transparency and so too does scientific cooperation of the sort that China and the rest of the world badlyneeds.

Also read: What Cyclone Tauktae tells us about Arabian Sea & why the coast is seeing more severe cyclones

After a series of major launches in 2020, Mars has been a hive of activity. The United Arab Emirates Hope craft, aimingto study weather and climate systems, arrived in Mars orbit in early February, joining others already studying the planet.Tianwen-1, Chinas mission,followed. NASAs Perseverance rover landed on Mars surfacein mid-February, with the Ingenuityhelicopter probe. Its not all aboutElon Musk-styleambitions of colonization, though: Scientists hope the planet most similar to Earthcan answer questions about the evolution of our own home.

Talk of a race is misleading, but China, with bigambitions andan annual budgetestimatedat around$9billion, the second-largest globallyafter NASA, is clear on the scientific benefit and economic necessity of space prowess. ItlandedChange-4on the far side of the Moon in 2019 a first and saw the first seeds sprout. Its agreed to team up with Russia for a permanent lunar base and last month, it launched the first module of its plannedspace station. And now, Mars.

Not everything has been perfect.Aprils launch of themodule for itsfuture space stationhad the worldfretting after the rocket made an uncontrolled re-entry, eventually splashing into the Indian Ocean. We dont know exactly how much of the technology is homegrown, even with Chinas pushto avoid relianceon Western inputs.Yet Tianwen-1 is already an impressive mission, giventhe immense technical challenges of landing on Mars, explainsKatarina Miljkovic of Curtin University in Australia. Thats because ofthe existence of an atmosphereand the need to use parachutes to slow the descent, unlike on the Moonnot to mentionthe fact that landings have to bedone autonomously,because of the communications time lag with Earth.

But thequestion is not so much whether Beijing, which has made huge strides since putting itsfirst man in space in 2003, can succeed. Unquestionably, history points in Chinas favor, with its deep pockets, steadfast political commitment and a massive internal market for satellites and more. Already, the International Space Station is agingjust as Beijingbuilds its own version, perhaps leavingChina with the only sustained human presence in orbit.

The question is whether that success can be shared and amplified for the common good, or whether Chinas inward-looking push for self-reliance, its opacity andWestern worries about technological transfer dictate the opposite. David Flannery at Queensland University of Technology, who has been working with NASAs Mars 2020team, says Chinas mission reflects the scientific goals of the wider community. He points out information from the Moon mission was shared, so there is an encouraging precedentbut theres room for more.Thats true even if getting to NASA-levels of disclosure say, live-streaming launches will be challenging for Beijing to accept.

China is certainly clear that there arebenefits, offering up Moon samples and the ability to placeexperimentson its space station. It can go a lot further.

Theres room for the West to act, too. TheU.S.can provide encouragement by reconsideringtightlimitson collaboration. Excluding China hasnt worked. The rules wereintended tocounter espionage,but have dented multilateralism,fueled Beijings ambitions and not aided Washingtons.

That would give us even more reason to cheer Tianwen-1.-Bloomberg

Also read: This 16-year-old Star Trek-Star Wars fan from Pune has captured epic, viral image of Moon

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Chinas Mars landing will be a greater feat with the release of more data - ThePrint