On January 1st, Eastern Time, the US Political News Network published an interview with Bill Nelson, Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). NAS The Administrator said:
China and the United States "are in a space race" and "we'd better be careful not to let them reach somewhere on the moon under the guise of scientific research." He also warned that time is running out for the United States.
U.S. Space Force Lieutenant General Nina Armaño also claimed when she visited Australia last month, "The progress they have made is shocking-astonishingly fast." (At that time, China was launching the Shenzhou 15 manned spacecraft to the Tiangong Space Station)
NASA Administrator Nielsen: China will keep the United States out!
Nielsen made these remarks in an interview with POLITICO, warning that the race to the moon between the United States and China is becoming increasingly fierce, and the next two years may determine who has the upper hand. The author made statistics and found that the remarks in the POLITICO interview were roughly expressed as follows:
- 1, Nielsen warned that Beijing may establish a foothold on the moon and try to control the most resource-rich areas on the moon's surface - It even shuts the United States out;
- 2. Nielsen said that China and the United States are engaged in a space race. Don’t let China go to a place on the moon under the guise of scientific research, otherwise they will say that we are here and this is our territory;
- 3. Nielsen said that the South China Sea is a real case, China military bases were established on disputed islands in the South China Sea and claimed to be Chinese territory;
This is not the first time Nelson has made negative remarks about China. Since he took office as NASA administrator, he has always accused China's space program of being a military space program and said that China is likely to occupy the moon. China has also been falsely accused of stealing other countries’ ideas and technologies. The mission of its space station is to learn how to destroy other people’s satellites. However, this is the first time that China’s moon landing program has been linked to the South China Sea islands and reefs.
First of all, we have to confirm that the islands and reefs in the South China Sea have been China's territory since ancient times. This point absolutely does not allow the NASA director and others to make irresponsible remarks. We will not accept refutation.
As for whether such a story will happen on the moon, we don’t know! Because the Chinese have not yet landed on the moon, I cannot predict how the story on the moon will develop in the future. But one thing we must understand is that the United States carried out 6 moon landings from 1969 to 1972. The locations of these 6 moon landings have been designated as space heritage by the United States:
On December 31, 2020, US President Trump signed the "One Small Step to Protect Humanity in Space", announcing that the United States has formally legislated to protect the historical relics and man-made objects left by the US government on the moon during the "Apollo" moon landing era.
This law protects and preserves the U.S. government's lunar artifacts, including the "Apollo" lunar landing and patrol hardware; unmanned lunar landing sites; impact sites; U.S. government test supplies, tools, equipment and other extravehicular activity hardware left on the lunar surface; and exclusive identification of Americans and man-machine presence on the moon, including footprints, patrol tracks, etc.
Have you seen it? The Chinese are planning to accuse China of establishing an exclusive base on the moon even before they land on the moon. However, the United States has openly enacted legislation to protect the legacy of the U.S. "Apollo moon landing program" as early as 2020. Isn't this a realistic case where only state officials are allowed to set fires but the people are not allowed to light lamps?
Not only NASA Administrator Nielsen, the POLITICO report also quoted former commander of the International Space Station and the Space Shuttle , retired Air Force Colonel Terry Wirtz. He made a righteous statement, but in the end the conversation turned into groundless accusations against China:
"To some extent, the moon landing is a political competition to show whose system works better," "What they really want is respect as the world's largest power. They want to be the dominant power on Earth, so going to the moon is a way to show that their system is working. If China lands on the moon first, it shows that they are better than us."
Terry Wirtz says China's foothold on the moon could pose real threat:
"China could do some potential mischief on the moon," Wirtz said. "If they build infrastructure there, they could deny communications." Having them there didn't make it any easier. China's interference is indeed worrying. "
Terry Wertz got one fact wrong. Assuming that China and the United States both establish bases on the moon in the future, and then the bases on both sides exchange lunar scientific research, exchange knowledge, and coordinate the next research plan based on the purpose of friendly exchanges. Then, in this process, who will be investigated by the United States and severely dealt with?
Terry Wertz
The answer is NASA, which leads the US lunar base, because as early as 2011, the US Congress passed the "Wolf Clause" that prohibits scientific exchanges between China and the United States, prohibiting any relationship between China and the United States related to NASA or organized by A joint scientific research activity coordinated by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy , the lunar base is obviously a scientific research activity related to NASA. If the U.S. lunar base dares to communicate and interact with the Chinese lunar base without authorization despite the thunder of Congress, then the first person to be investigated and dismissed or even "brought to justice" will be the head of NASA.
So Terry Wertz’s idea is good. In order to prevent their American colleagues from being framed by the US Congress, the Chinese decided not to interact with the US lunar scientific research base. Although China and the United States are competitors, scientists still need to pay attention to the appropriateness of colleagues and avoid adding insult to injury.
must get to the moon before China! China is progressing too fast, Is America running out of time?
Another statement by Nelson is that in order to avoid embarrassing the Americans after China builds a base on the moon first, the United States must land on the moon before China. POLITICO's report illustrates the urgency of this issue from two aspects. One is Bill Nelson's introduction to the Artemis program:
Nelson said that the 26-day Artemis I program was very successful. , in this mission, the unmanned Orion spacecraft successfully orbited the moon and returned to the earth, which will lay a solid step for the United States to send astronauts to the moon in 2025.
But Nielsen said that the United States cannot sit back and relax, because the entire Artemis program relies on a large number of newly developed hardware facilities, such as HLS (Manned Lunar Landing System) and lunar space station and other huge systems, each of which Any delay can make the U.S. moon landing plan fall short, allowing China's moon landing plan to take the lead, and NASA's moon landing schedule is already one year later than the era approved by Trump.
Nelson is concerned about this, and China's ambitious space program, including the recently launched space station, and Beijing has announced that it will send astronauts to the moon within the next 10 years, and in 2022 January In February, China also proposed a plan for an international lunar base to establish lunar infrastructure shared by multiple countries in an "attempt" to compete with the United States.
The U.S. Space Force is worried: The progress they have made is astonishing—astonishingly fast. "
It is not only Nielsen who has expressed concern about the progress of China's space program, but also US Space Force Lieutenant General Nina Armaño, who said during a visit to Australia last month that China was launching its first rocket to the Shenzhou Space Station. 10 astronauts. She said, "The progress China has made is shocking-astonishingly fast." The reports are "Why Many Scientists Around the World Choose the Tiangong Space Station for Scientific Research" and "Steady Development in Thirty Years, or Rapidly Catching Up with the United States." The two reports have different topics but reach the same goal. From the titles alone, we can see that the US media is worried about the rapid development of China's aerospace industry.
The "New York Times" report reviewed the establishment and development of China's manned spaceflight project and its major achievements. From 1992, China established the 21 project of manned spaceflight. It is expected to The space station will be built in 2020. On November 30, 2022, with the Shenzhou 15th space station docking with the Tiangong Space Station, the last manned mission in the construction phase was a complete success. The space station will be transferred to normal operations. This time is only 22 months later than the 2020 planned 30 years ago.
In addition, the "New York Times" also specifically mentioned that China's development is not affected at all under the "restraints" of the " Cox Report " and the "Wolf Clause". This is worthy of reflection by the US government:
- . Manned spaceflight, from Shenzhou 1 to Shenzhou 15, the Tiangong Space Station has been built, and scientists from all over the world are sincerely invited to participate in space scientific research projects;
. Planetary exploration: Tianwen No. 1 has completed its orbit and landing patrol in one go. At present, the Zhurong Mars rover has been working for 1579 days. In the future, it will also implement Mars sampling return, Jupiter and Saturn exploration plans. The current status of China's aerospace industry is that the Tiangong Space Station has entered normal operation, and countries around the world may seek cooperation with China for experiments, etc., and lunar exploration has entered the plan of the international lunar station. China and Russia have signed an agreement to jointly build the lunar research station on December 29, 2022, and the manned moon landing will be completed within the next ten years.
Deep space planetary exploration is also progressing steadily. The Tianwen-1 Zhurong Mars rover continues to carry out exploration activities on Mars, and future Jupiter and asteroid exploration plans are also gradually underway. Although we cannot predict the future implementation of these plans, one thing is certain. None of the Chinese plans intends to compete with other countries, including manned moon landing!
For example, the American Artemis program was officially established during the Trump era, while China’s manned moon landing was only established in an unofficial announcement in 2022, and China’s moon landing schedule is scheduled for 10 years later. It is at least 5 to 7 years later than the 2025 planned by the Americans, so NASA Director Nielsen has to bring China as a competitor, and also puts a label on China that it will cause trouble to the United States after it first establishes a base on the moon. I think everyone should know what this is.
The reason is that NASA’s funding budget for 2023 is less than expected, and Nielsen insists that the funds to implement the Artemis II and III programs have not been reduced. But everyone knows that this is just Nielsen’s side of the story. After the congressional budget is approved, NASA has the right to allocate part of the funds to the moon landing program to meet the needs of the Artemis program, but this will make NASA’s other program funding budgets very tight.
Nelson is taking advantage of the progress of China’s space program to threaten the U.S. Congress. If NASA gets stuck again, don’t blame Nelson for not giving advance warning if the Chinese take the lead next time! This routine has never worked well. The US military wants a budget but also promotes the threat of China. Now NASA wants a budget to promote the threat of China's aerospace. But this idea has been used to death. Setting up an object that is not a threat at all creates a threat theory that NASA will soon be surpassed by China's aerospace. Is it interesting?
China’s moon landing: Can it really catch up with the United States? Whether
can surpass the United States depends on the smooth progress of the Artemis project. This is the most important milestone plan for the United States to return to the moon. It consists of the following parts:
- , Space Launch System (SLS rocket);
. Lunar Gateway Space Station; . Commercial Manned Landing System (Starship Lunar Version); On November 16, NASA launched the SLS rocket + Orion lunar landing spacecraft at the Kennedy Space Center . In addition, this launch was only an orbit around the moon and some scientific experimental orbits, and there was only one payload to simulate the human body on the spacecraft. The manned moon landing process of Artemis Project III (Plan II is for manned orbit around the moon) is as follows:
- . The SLS rocket will send the Orion spacecraft to the lunar space station;
. The Starship Lunar Edition breaks away from the space station and lands on the moon, and returns to the space station after completing its mission; . The Orion spacecraft returns to Earth with astronauts The Artemis plan is not a direct landing. Instead, after the Orion spacecraft arrives at the lunar space station, it sends a starship to land on the moon, and then returns to the space station and then returns to the earth on the Orion spacecraft. There are several important nodes in this plan that have not yet been implemented:
- 1, the lunar space station
- 2, and the starship lunar version
China’s manned moon landing plan
China has never officially announced a manned moon landing plan. The only semi-official announcement of a manned moon landing revealed in the interview is the moon landing within ten years. Is this a formal plan? The author believes that this is only of relatively reference value. As far as the current understanding is concerned, the following information is available:
- 1. Manned lunar landing rocket: CZ-5DY or CZ-9;
- 2. Manned lunar landing spacecraft: a new generation of manned lunar spacecraft;
- 3. Manned lunar landing rocket Spacecraft: still under development, not yet clear;
my country's manned lunar landing plan is much smaller than the Artemis plan. Of course, our country's aerospace industry is also based on the balance between strength and completion of the plan. The current manned lunar landing rocket has been replaced by CZ-9, which is launched twice and assembled in lunar orbit. CZ-5DY is a more pragmatic consideration.
So far, the main engine of CZ-5DY has been successfully tested. CZ-9 is planned to be changed to a recyclable version, which is expected to be a long way off. The new generation manned spacecraft has been successfully recycled and tested, but the manned lunar landing spacecraft is still being tested. So far, there is no clear structure, and there are only a few CG pictures published online.
So judging from this progress, unless there is a major change in the Artemis program of the United States, it is basically impossible for China's aerospace industry to surpass the Artemis program of the United States and successfully land on the moon first. Therefore, this matter is completely in the hands of NASA. As long as NASA does not drop the chain, it will not give others a chance. Therefore, Bill Nelson should take care of himself and don't blame others.
