Lyceum & Book Club - Week 51 - Excerpts About Space Competition

From wiki:

International co-operation

China's incentive to build its own space station is amplified after NASA refused Chinese participation in the International Space Station in 2011, a move that was criticized by various parties, with China, Russia and Europe intented to keep cooperative and multilateral approach in space.Cooperation in the field of crewed space flight between the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) and the Italian Space Agency (ASI) was examined in 2011, participation in the development of China crewed space stations and cooperation with China in the fields such as astronauts flight, and scientific research was discussed.An initial cooperative agreement with China National Space Administration and Italian Space Agency was signed in November 2011, covering collaboration areas of space transportation, telecommunications, Earth observation, etc. Italian experiment High Energy cosmic-Radiation Detection (HERD) is scheduled to be onboard the Chinese station.Tiangong also involves cooperation from France, Sweden, and Russia.

On 22 February 2017, CMSA and Italian Space Agency (ASI) signed an agreement to cooperate on long-term human spaceflight activities. The agreement holds importance due to Italy's leading position in the field of human spaceflight with regard to the creation and exploitation of the International Space Station (Node 2, Node 3, Columbus, Cupola, Leonardo, Raffaello, Donatello, PMM, etc.) and it signifies Italy's increased anticipation in China's developing space station programme. European Space Agency (ESA) started human spaceflight training with CMSEO in 2017, with the ultimate goal of sending ESA astronauts onto Chinese space station.

International experiments are selected by CMSA and United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) on a UN session in 2019. 42 applications were submitted and nine experiments were accepted. Some of the experiment are continuation to the ones on Tiangong-2 such as POLAR-2, an experiment of researching Gamma-ray burst polarimetry, proposed by Switzerland, Poland, Germany and China.Tricia Larose from the University of Oslo of Norway develops a cancer research experiment for the station. The 31-days experiment will test to see if weightlessness has a positive effect in stopping cancer growth. Tiangong is also expected to host experiments from Belgium, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Kenya, the Netherlands, Mexico, Peru, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Spain.

Regarding the participation of foreign astronauts, CMSA repeatedly communicated their support for such proposal. On the press conference of Shenzhou 12 mission, Zhou Jianping, the chief designer of China Manned Space Program explained that multiple countries have expressed their wish in the participation. He told journalists that foreign astronauts' future participation "will be guaranteed".Ji Qiming, an assistant director at CMSEO told reporters that he believes "in the near future, after the completion of the Chinese space station, we will see Chinese and foreign astronauts fly and work together.”

Life aboard

The station has a Wi-Fi network for wireless connection. Each astronaut wears a bone-conduction headphone and microphone for easy communication. In food, 120 different types, selected based on astronauts' preference, are stored aboard. Staples including shredded pork in garlic sauce, kung pao chicken, black pepper beef, pickled cabbage and beverages including a variety of teas and juices are resupplied by trips of the Tianzhou 2 cargo ship. Fresh fruits and vegetables are stored in coolers. Huang Weifen, chief astronaut trainer of CNSA, explains that most food is prepared to be solid, boneless, small-piece. Condiments such as pork sauce and Sichuan pepper sauce are used to compensate for the mainly temporary loss in taste during microgravity. The station is equipped with a small kitchen for food preparation and the first-ever microwave oven in spaceflight so that astronauts can "always have hot food whenever they need.”

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From Newsweek:

Other countries that have sent astronauts to the ISS include Canada, Brazil, the U.K., the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, South Korea, Malaysia, Japan and others.

China is conspicuous by its absence from this list, and the reason lies simply in the fact that the U.S. does not want it to be there.

The 2011 Department of Defense and Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, which set rules and funding for defense and other U.S. government agencies for that year, states in section 1340 that NASA may not use funds from that division to collaborate in any way with China unless a law specifically authorizes it.

Reuters reported in 2015 that the ban was due to human rights issues and national security concerns.

In 2015, space analyst Miles O'Brien told CNN the idea of the U.S. collaborating with China "gets shut down immediately" whenever it is brought up near Congress, adding that the Chinese Communist Party is "viewed as a government that seeks to take our intellectual property."

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From The Drive:(note - this is a right wing publication promoting a decidedly aggressive worldview)

Already, the Chinese space station is raising concerns about its plans for its space program, given the program's close ties with the Chinese military. U.S. Space Command (USSPACECOM) commander Gen. James Dickinson told the Senate and House Armed Services Committees earlier this year that China’s anti-satellite weapons, in particular, could soon pose a threat as China’s space program continues to advance and expand.

“They invest heavily in space, with more than 400 satellites on orbit today, and China could have as many as 1,000 on orbit by the end of the decade,” Dickinson told Congress. “China is building military space capabilities rapidly, including sensing and communication systems, and numerous anti-satellite weapons. All the while, China continues to maintain their public stance against the weaponization of space.”

In addition to other satellite and ground-based anti-satellite technologies, Dickinson specifically cited China’s deployment of a robotic arm aboard the experimental Shijian-17 satellite in his opening remarks to the Senate Armed Services Committee. Dickinson claimed the satellite could “be used in a future system for grappling other satellites,” although the China Academy of Space Technology has stated Shijian-17’s purpose is “high-orbit space debris observation technologies.”

There have long been concerns about the ability of certain space systems to have dual military-civilian capabilities. Much of the entire "killer satellite" discussion concerns what are publicly described as benign "inspector satellites" that inherently have the ability to maneuver close to other objects in orbit and engage with them, potentially in hostile ways. Any of these so-called inspector satellites could very well be described as being designed and intended to manipulate and observe space debris, while also being perfectly capable of being able to move other satellites out of orbit or otherwise render them inoperable.

As the Shenzhou-12 mission and other recent milestones show, China is a rising space power and, like any space program, this rise has military as well as civilian dimensions. Orbital space has quickly become a site of not just scientific exploration, but also geopolitical competition as nations become more and more dependent on space-based assets that support early-warning defenses, weapon guidance, intelligence gathering, navigation and communications, and more. As China, Russia, and the U.S. continue to expand their orbital presence, the development of space infrastructure, anti-satellite technologies and rapid launch capabilities will without a doubt become more of a priority.

Beyond the competition of space-based capabilities, the actual environment of space looks to become an increasingly contested domain. Competing space stations, using space as a transport route, could potentially become platforms to support various missions and operations including as a launch platform for cargo deliveries bound for Earth. The discussion has historically been about threats to space-based capabilities with respect to activities on the ground, but there is a clear push, especially in the US military, to at least explore the idea of developing different kinds of military presences in space itself.

While the U.S. has traditionally held the upper hand when it comes to space-based capabilities, the rise of China’s space program could tip the balance. Some experts have forecasted that China’s rapid progress could fuel a new space race, which could advance a wide range of technologies for both civilian and military applications as did the space race of the mid-20th century. It could also have potentially disastrous consequences during a conflict.