NASA warns of a new space race with China with the possibility of China taking over the moon...

 

China's manned rocket. Politico/AP.

NASA warns of a new space race with China with the possibility of China taking over the moon. Politico. Bill Nelson, the administrator of NASA, said that China could use a foothold on the moon to keep other countries out. Nelson cited China's massive building projects in the South China seas as a possibility for the moon. Both America and China have aggressive moon programs with the United States using the Artemis rocket to circle the moon. China however also has a plan to get people on the moon by the end of the decade. China has had several major accomplishments in lunar exploration and they are making breakthroughs extremely fast. 

My Comment:

What is so entertaining about this is the idea that in a few years we could be having a war over the moon of all things. Or, even crazier, we could be having a war ON the moon. Such a thing would be science fiction come to life. 

With that being said, I don't find that too likely. The moon is huge and there is plenty of space for both China and the United States to have bases. I don't see why there would be a war over the moon when China could have it's onw base on part of the moon with the US base being hundreds of miles away. 

And that's assuming that a base is ever established. I am not particularly impressed with the competence of either China's or the United State's space program. As always wokeness is a huge problem for NASA, just like it is for all of the United States now. They have already said that the astronauts going to the moon would be based on what color the skin of the astronauts are and what gender they are. To be fair, it's possible that the best possible candidate for the moon mission could be a non-white, non-male, but if it isn't then I don't think the mission will succeed. 

China probably has a better chance of reaching the moon as they are both more competent and have a lot higher tolerance of risk than the United States. For China, it would probably an acceptable loss if they lost one of their astronauts if the overall mission succeeds. That would be utterly unacceptable for the United States. 

Still, I think that men walking on the moon was a one time thing. I personally think the economy of both China and the United States will probably collapse this decade and when that happens the first thing to be cut will be space exploration. And after that happens I honestly expect the economy to not ever recover so the window for space exploration will likely be closed.