NASA APPLIES LESSONS OF COLD WAR IN SPACE RACE WITH BEIJING
▶ US set to complete manned lunar mission before China despite recent delays, say experts
During the first space race between the US and the Soviet Union in the 20th century, 12 Americans landed on the Moon’s surface.
Today, a new space race between the US and China is fuelling ambitious plans by both countries, including building lunar stations that would host extended crewed missions.
Both nations are looking to land on the same region of the Moon with similar timelines, with the US hoping to have astronauts on the surface by 2026 and China aiming for 2030.
No human has been to the Moon since the last Apollo mission in 1972, and more advanced technology is needed to ensure future lunar exploration is safe and sustainable.
Gordon Osinski, a planetary geologist at Western University in Canada, told The National the US is likely to beat China despite recently announced delays to Artemis, a Nasa programme that aims to send astronauts back to the Moon.
Artemis 3, a mission that involves the first US crewed lunar landing in more than 50 years, was postponed from late 2025 to September 2026.
“China’s plans are very secretive, but last year they announced plans to land humans on the Moon by, or around, 2030,” Mr Osinski said.
“With this schedule and assuming no more delays, America and its international partners should still be there first.”
Laura Forczyk, author and founder of space consulting firm Astralytical, said the Artemis mission delays were expected, and timelines could “inevitably slip” because technology to ensure crew safety takes time to develop.
She said Nasa was in a transition period where it is relying on contractors and buying services at a fixed price.
“These companies have never before provided lunar services such as landers, rovers, infrastructure and spacesuits, so we can expect delays,” she said. “Nasa established the Commercial Lunar Payload Services programme to land commercial landers and rovers on the Moon with the expectation that half would fail. We all learn from these setbacks.”
Nasa has contracted SpaceX and Blue Origin to develop landers that will help astronauts touch down on the Moon.
The space agency has already carried out a successful launch of the Space Launch System – a rocket powerful enough to send astronauts to the Moon.
The test flight in 2022 helped launch the Orion spacecraft, which will carry astronauts to the Moon’s surface in future missions.
Mojtaba Akhavan-Tafti, a space scientist at the University of Michigan, said the new public-private partnership adopted by Nasa is important in this new era of space exploration.
“That strategy prioritises sustainable space operations, instead of chasing PR points, as was the goal back in the Cold War,” he said.
“In the new strategy, it is the companies that are designed to commercialise every aspect of the process, from rockets to robotic landers. “This is a big lesson Nasa learnt from their scrapped Moon programme in the 1970s, due to disappearing public interest in using tax dollars for risky and expensive missions, from start to finish.”
China, meanwhile, is developing the Long March 9 rocket to send missions to the Moon.
It also announced plans to develop the International Lunar Research Station, and said it would need international partners to make it a reality.
The country is emerging as a global space power, having already landed uncrewed missions on the Moon and Mars.
It has also completed its new Tiangong space station in the Earth’s orbit, which is currently hosting astronauts. During a hearing on the Artemis plan on Wednesday, US Congress members said it was important that Americans be next to land on the Moon.
“I remind my colleagues that we are not the only country interested in sending humans to the Moon,” committee chairman Frank Lucas said.
“The Chinese Communist Party is actively soliciting international partners for a lunar mission – a lunar research station – and has stated its ambition to have human astronauts on the surface by 2030.
“The country that lands first will have the ability to set a precedent for whether future lunar activities are conducted with openness and transparency, or in a more restricted manner.”
Both the US and China are aiming to land people on the same region of the Moon’s surface and with similar timelines