China is aiming to become the world's next space power. However, in an effort to achieve domestic policy objectives and boost national pride, the Chinese Communist Party is adding a new, unpredictable dimension to a stable and profitable Sino-American relationship.
Chinese plans to launch their first manned spacecraft and increasing competition from the European Space Agency are chipping away at U.S. dominance in civil space.
U.S. nanotechnology proponents advocate for yoking nanotechnology to a challenge akin to the ?man-on-the-moon? mission ? something dramatic and daring that will amaze the public and excite the scientists.
Decades after the U.S.-Soviet race to the moon captivated the world during the Cold War, China is quietly conducting a space race of its own, albeit at a more leisurely pace. Manned lunar and Mars missions seem nothing more than fanciful propagandist dreams, experts say, but China is on track to put people in orbit this year.
A 78-million-dollar unmanned lunar mission plan seeks to showcase India's scientific prowess and stake its claim to join a select club for future planetary missions, a top space official said.
India's prime minister announced at a recent conference that Indian scientists are now planning to send a "man to the moon." The announcement should heat up the undeclared space race between India and China.
Hal Plotkin argues that the U.S. should declare a goal of "developing a practical, working, cost-efficient nanovehicle within 10 years" to excite the public imagination and reinvigorate the ailing technological sector in the same way the "Space Race" did in the 1960s'.
The author analyzes the potential of the Chinese space program and argues that the U.S. should engage China in an ideological 'space race' as a way of invigorating our moribund space program.