'We're in a space race': Nasa sounds alarm at Chinese designs on moon - The Guardian

The US is locked successful a abstraction contention with China and the state needs to “watch out” that its rival does not summation a foothold and effort to predominate lunar resources, Nasa’s apical authoritative has warned.

The appraisal came from the Nasa administrator, Bill Nelson, a erstwhile astronaut and Florida senator, who went connected to pass that China could yet assertion to “own” the moon’s resource-rich areas.

The contention betwixt the US and China, helium added, was intensifying and the adjacent 2 years could find which state achieves an advantage.

“It is simply a fact: we’re successful a abstraction race,” Nelson told Politico. “And it is existent that we amended ticker retired that they don’t get to a spot connected the satellite nether the guise of technological research. And it is not beyond the realm of anticipation that they say, ‘Keep out, we’re here, this is our territory.’”

Nelson cited Chinese aggression implicit islands successful the South China Sea, wherever Beijing has established subject bases, arsenic grounds of its territorial ambition. “If you uncertainty that, look astatine what they did with the Spratly Islands,” helium said.

Last year, China’s abstraction programme enactment up an Earth-orbiting abstraction presumption and has mounted respective lunar orbiting and sample-retrieving missions. A 3rd signifier of the program, to found an autonomous lunar probe presumption adjacent the Moon’s southbound pole, is scheduled for 2025.

In December, the Chinese authorities offered its vision for a crewed lunar landing, abstraction transportation, infrastructure and abstraction governance. China has besides announced the extremity of landing taikonauts connected the satellite by the extremity of this decade.

Students perceive to an instauration to the Chang'e 5 satellite sample-return spacecraft, astatine the InnoTech Expo successful Hong Kong, China, past month. Photograph: Tyrone Siu/Reuters

Nasa, meanwhile, precocious completed the 26-day Artemis I ngo to instrumentality pictures of the lunar surface. Future missions are designed toward establishing much enactment connected the moon. However, the US is besides focused connected Mars.

US subject brass person besides sounded alarm implicit Chinese militarization of abstraction and attendant information concerns.

“It’s wholly imaginable they could drawback up and surpass us,” Space Force Lt Gen Nina Armagno said on a sojourn to Australia. “The advancement they’ve made has been stunning – stunningly fast.”

But Beijing has rejected immoderate US interpretations of the motives down China’s abstraction push. “Outer abstraction is not a wrestling ground,” Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for the Chinese embassy successful Washington, told Politico.

The spokesperson said that immoderate US officials had “spoken irresponsibly to misrepresent the mean and morganatic abstraction endeavors of China”.

“China ever advocates the peaceful usage of outer space, opposes the weaponization of and arms contention successful outer space, and works actively toward gathering a assemblage with a shared aboriginal for mankind successful the abstraction domain,” the connection added.