Daily Planet #11: 循序渐进

Today's Daily Planet has two links, not one. They are to articles in Ars Technica by Eric Berger about the Space Race between the US and China.

Why Space?

Because its there, and more importantly:

You can't think of planets without talking about the space that surrounds them.

The advent of planetarity in the first Cold War saw the first space race alongside the first nuclear standoff. The two are clearly intertwined.

SpaceX is developing the Starship rocket to carry humans to the Moon and Mars. I am sure Musk wants to go to Mars - after all NASA went to the Moon 56 years ago, so why would he want to be so late to the party?

However, this year has been challenging for SpaceX, as several test flights of Starship have failed, causing delays and uncertainty about when the rocket will be fully ready for important missions like NASA’s Artemis Moon program. Kind of sad that NASA can't even replicate its earlier successes with ease. Meanwhile, political tensions and Musk’s public controversies have led some government officials to consider alternatives to SpaceX for space contracts.

China is OK getting to the moon first - I believe the slogan is crawl, walk and run, “循序渐进”. They are in the walking phase of their ascent. If progress goes as planned, China is likely to land astronauts on the Moon before the United States does so in round two, possibly by 2030. This will shift the balance of power in space, ending the era of American dominance and giving China a strong influence over lunar activities and space traffic management.

SpaceX has built the machine to build the machine. But what about the machine?

SpaceX has built an impressive production site in Texas. Will Starship success follow?

After recent tests, China appears likely to beat the United States back to the Moon

An expert explains why this will be enormously bad for the United States.