Is It Time to Invite China to the Space Party?

July 24, 2009

As the wise men and women appointed to present President Obama with some options for what to do with the country’s human space program barrel through their summer assignment, I’m wondering if there will be any serious consideration given to the elephant in the room.

I refer not to the retreating ranks of Republicans, but to what seems to be an obvious solution to a number of problems, first and foremost of which is defining a mission the space program can accomplish for our new president.

A child of the ‘60s, Obama reportedly has a keen interest in space, but he’s a clever man and a cunning politician and will be unlikely to take any steps to boost NASA’s profile unless it furthers a specific goal.

Even critics of the International Space Station program point to one incredibly valuable outcome -- the melding of two former arch-enemies into a fulfilling partnership. In her public debut this week, Lori Garver, the agency’s new deputy administrator, said the space program played a huge role in the “peaceful end to the Cold War.”

"What is that worth to us as a society?” she asked.

Of course, the congratulatory back-slapping quickly turns to brow-beating over how the country could have let itself become dependent on the Ruskies for transportation to the station after the shuttle is retired. Which brings me to the elephant: Maybe it’s time to invite China to join the space party.

China has something we could use -- spaceships. Their Shenzhou capsules, based on the Russian Soyuz design, have successfully flown three times. (Another option, of course, is to add public funds to the development of the Dragon capsule, a project of privately funded Space Exploration Technologies of California. Under the terms of SpaceX’s contract, they’ll be no cost to the public if the company can’t pull it off.  Seems like a no-brainer.)

Adding China to the station program could expand the cultural melding blossoming in orbit, give Obama a Kennedy-esque platform from which to flex his space muscles and maybe inspire  common ground for solving a whole bunch of other troubling issues that divide the U.S. and China, such as human rights, free speech, copyright infringement, etc., etc. 

Perhaps a U.S.-Russian-European-Japanese-Canadian-Chinese partnership could eventually fold in other warring factions of the human race. Wasn't that Walt Disney's original idea for EPCOT? Maybe building in Florida was his mistake. It'd be too easy to pull out when things got tough. In orbit, survival depends on the team.

As the celebrations of the Apollo anniversary wrap up this week, it might be a good time to remember that statement of purpose written on a plaque now sitting on the moon, that part about being there “for all mankind.”

Comments

[David Buchner]

Good points. Whenever I hear in the news about a "chilling" between the US and Russia, I look up at NASA TV, and the cosmonauts and astronauts are still taking turns being in command, and they're still buddies. What is that worth to us as a society, indeed.

I think it can set a terrific example. If only people were aware that it's going on over their heads every day.

[Matt Bille]

Nothing is quite that simple, politically or technically, as just "inviting them" - for example, I don't believe Chinese ships are compatible with ISS docking. All that said, though, a simple fact is that a comprehensive program of human and robotic exploration of the solar system can be done only with a global cooperative approach. I am not saying a "global ESA" - politically, that won't work. But a coordinating mechanism to share costs, technology, and risks is doable. An approach called Megacommunity thinking might be a new way to approach creating such an umbrella framework. I've been developing that idea and will have some publications coming out soon.

Matt Bille
Space writer/historian
See:
http://www.strategy-business.com/resiliencereport/resilience/rr00035

[EarthlingX]

It is time we do it together, bring Life to the Universe.
We are slowly becoming humanity, not tribes and nations and so on anymore.
Probably some commonly agreed upon standards, put together by engineers and scientists could do wonders.

[Carl Hewlett]

I see my comment was removed. I guess the truth about how china does business is not what the admin. wants the public to read. You have to make the public aware that these folks are evil! No Business should be done with them. I am not a right wing loon. I have seen with my own eyes the results of how they treat so called partners, It is not good!

Carl Hewlett

[David Buchner]

So they're evil. ...All of them? Really?

I still think it's an interesting idea -- I felt just the same way about the former Soviet Union. But never about any of those Cosmonauts. They're good folks.

This isn't a marriage; it's diplomacy. It's a lot harder to threaten to kill each other when citizens of your respective nations are having lunch together and fixing a toilet at 17,500 miles per hour.

I like "EarthlingX"'s optimism. And to an extent I agree. These are the first steps.

[Carl Hewlett]

David Buchner,

You would not want to hold hands and sing in LEO with folks a cobra, would you? The folks on the ground are held hostage by a government that is bent on stealing it's way to the top of the world trade heap. I have seen on the ground in China, and Angola what a workers paradise they have. There is no Chinese middle class, (Media lie), and the projects they have around the world are being populated with political prisoners as technical advisers. They have done a great con job on Angola. Built railroads, roads, and housing that is falling apart or unfinished, while they used all the resources that the country could supply them with. Diplomacy can't be a one side gives all deal. That is why you should not promote doing business with these EVIL, body part selling, resources stealing, representatives of the peoples republic of china.

Carl

[Kris Ringwood]

We'll have to apologise for our cavalier treatment of Space Pioneer Tsein-Hsu-Shei first! The Hollywood Black List people weren't the only sufferers:not that you'd know it mind you!
But the Chinese will do what they did with our industry. Take what they need, use it,and then make a fortune selling it back to us. Next time you go shopping try and find something that ISN'T made in China...even some of the food...

[Kris Ringwood]

I'm very glad to here that SPACE X's contract has that clause. Because the way things are shaping up, the company is likely to have a U.S monopoly after the legal hatchet job they pulled on Rocketplane Kistler and the $30Billion dog's dinner USG/NASA call ARES/Constellation.
Besides, to put men into Space, SPACE X are going to have to REALLY ramp up from a mere 40% success rate - especially in this day and age where it's safety...safety...mustn't lose anybody, etc etc.

[Kris Ringwood]

Never mind Dragon, lets make sure its launcher: Falcon 9 works as per the hyperbole of which SPACE X is particularly prone to IMO. NASA should insist on at least 3 successive and successful flights and ISS rendezvous before committing U.S astronauts to SPACE X hardware. Particularly with Musk involved: his other enterprise: TESLA Cars is also proving a bit of a suspect operation to put it charitably: or so the Auto magazines are reporting...

[Marcel F. Williams]

The US has contributed $55 billion to the ISS while our international partners have only contributed $15 billion. China's annual space budget is less than $3 billion a year. So I don't think inviting China to the party is going to help us out financially with the space station when nations that are, in combination, richer than the US won't even pay their fare share.

[Kris Ringwood]

Marcel:
Ah Ha,
so we're not really interested in cooperation but using other people's money whilst controlling completely what is or is not done. Sooner or later they're going to wise up you know. The Russians are already halfway there...