NPR: China Heads for Moon, Eyes Mars

China Heads for Moon, Eyes Mars

If you really want to mark the point when you enter the big time as a country, don't pay any attention to the fact that you produce almost every toy American children play with, or that you manufacture ingredients for much of the pet food we Americans buy (even if many of us don't know that until it starts poisoning the pets), or that there are shoe stores around the world that only carry products manufactured within your borders.

No, if you're China, and you've achieved all the economic milestones mentioned above, and you've already got the other marker of the big-time club -- the bomb -- there is only one direction you can go to show you belong in the top echelon -- straight up.

On Sunday, China National Space Agency chief Sun Laiyan announced that his country would launch its first lunar probe later this year. Sci-Tech Today reports that the orbiter, known as Chang'e, will "collect information about the moon, including data about the availability of 14 usable elements on the moon's surface, the thickness of the moon's surface, and analysis of lunar microwaves." It will also take 3-D pictures of the moon. (China, which already put a man in orbit in 2005, plans a space walk in 2008.)

But the Shanghai Daily reported today that it's not just the moon that China is eying. China is also developing its first Mars orbiter and plans to launch it in 2009 using a Russian rocket. China currently does not have a rocket powerful enough to reach Mars but plans to develop one -- codenamed Long March V -- within the next 10 years. China also is building its own Cape Canaveral on Hainan Island in the South China Sea.

My friend, former Christian Science Monitor Ideas editor Jim Bencivenga, who is an astute an observer of China's role in the world as anyone I know, has been telling me for years that the 21st century will belong to the Chinese. I'm becoming more inclined to agree with him.

11:30 AM ET | 05-22-2007 | permalink

Comments (Send a comment)

There is nothing wrong with straight up. China's achievements benefit not only the Chinese, but all of mankind. So if China can do space explorations at 1/10th the cost of America, it just means that mankind will benefit 10 times more for the same buck.

Sent by Tong, Luren | 4:12 PM ET | 05-22-2007

good point

Sent by lizheng | 12:57 AM ET | 05-23-2007

But NPR has no addressed why everyone is "racing" to get to the moon. The Discover Channel argues that the real reason is energy, Helium 3. Helium 3 appears to be an energy efficient, environmentally friendly subsititute for modern fossil or nuclear energy sources. Thus, the race to the moon may be a drive by the US, China, and others to claim this resource and change our dependency on oil and gas, and the world politics that come with this dependency.

Sent by Christopher Ocasal | 9:07 AM ET | 08-12-2007

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