Will China Spark Another Space Race?

A mugshot of China’s first moon rover, Yutu, was transmitted back to Earth. China’s national flag was displayed. pic.twitter.com/p9gtf3WUWy

— Xinhua News Agency (@XHNews) December 16, 2013

Annalee Newitz applauds the Chinese:

Yutu, similar to rovers like Curiosity on Mars, is the first robotic observer to be deployed on the Moon in roughly three decades — and it’s a first for China, which has now taken the next step on its path into the Space Age. CNSA [the China National Space Administration] will be sharing all the data it gathers with scientists in other nations. This is truly a time to put aside national interests, and celebrate the international achievements of scientists and explorers working together to make new discoveries in space.

David Cyranoski details why scientists “around the world are excited by the possibilities”:

Carle Pieters of Brown University, in Providence, Rhode Island, responded to the news of the location in an email to a lunar community group. “Terrific! That landing site is in some of the unsampled young hi-ti [high titanium] basalts!” she said, referring to the relatively late-forming magmatic rock that scientists hope will hold clues to the Moon’s evolution. The landing success was followed about seven hours later with more celebration when Yutu, the “Jade Rabbit” rover, drove off the lander via a ramp. The six-wheeled, 140-kilogram [309-pound] machine is due to carry out a three-month tour of the Moon’s surface. Its most important challenge, [chief scientist Jun] Yan says, will be to use its deep-probing radar – capable of reaching 100 meters below the surface – to survey the composition of shallow subsurface and lunar crust. The next milestone, Yan says, will be analyzing the composition and distribution of minerals on the surface with it infrared spectrometer and alpha particle X-ray spectrometer.

Becky Ferreira is impressed by the sophistication of the venture:

[T]he Chinese have made no secret of their ambition to achieve leadership in outer space, and Chang’e-3 is a compelling piece of evidence that the country is not messing around. China expects to launch a permanent space station in roughly seven years, followed by a manned moon landing during the 2020s.

Space exploration advocates, damaged as we are by decades of watching lofty goals fail to pan out, are right to be skeptical of such claims. Even so, the sophistication of the Chang’e-3 genuinely speaks to the nation’s dedication to more aggressive space exploration. For example, in addition to being China’s first soft-lander, the Chang’e-3’s is equipped with a lunar-based ultraviolet telescope (LUT) and an extreme ultraviolet imager (EUV). These instruments make it the world’s first moon-based observatory.

And while some commentators disapprove of the Chinese government spending so much on the venture, Alex Berezow sounds a little envious:

It may be tempting for Americans to think, “Been there, done that.” However, China is now envisioning the very same sort of ambitious megaprojects that the US once dreamt of more than 50 years ago, when President John F. Kennedy urged America to “commit itself to achieving the goal … of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.” For instance, China hopes to mine the moon for natural resources and to use it as a staging ground for further space exploration, although some believe the former goal is unrealistic because the cost is likely to exceed the value of the materials.

Still, China’s wild-eyed aspirations are inspiring. It should make us yearn for the days when we, too, thought we could do anything. But those days now seem so long ago.

Meanwhile, Glenn Harlan Reynolds notes that if China wants to make a territorial claim, “there’s not a lot to stop them.” But that doesn’t mean he’s worried:

If the Yutu rover finds something valuable, Chinese mining efforts, and possibly even territorial claims, might very well follow. And that would be a good thing.

What’s so good about it? Well, two things. First, there are American companies looking at doing business on the moon, too, and a Chinese venture would probably boost their prospects. More significantly, a Chinese claim might spur a new space race, which would speed development of the moon. The 1960s space race between the United States and the old Soviet Union saw rapid progress in space technology. We went from being unable to put people in Earth orbit to landing men on the moon and returning them safely to earth, repeatedly, in less than a decade. It happened so fast because each nation was afraid the other would get there first.