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Strategies & Market Trends : China Warehouse- More Than Crockery -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RealMuLan who wrote (1022)	10/14/2003 11:49:15 PM
From: RealMuLan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6370

Chinese space advances benefit everyone By James Oberg ... In the next few years, China plans to: • Fly many more orbits in space, including experiments involving docking small space labs together and visiting them periodically. • Demonstrate that its Shenzhou vehicles are more sophisticated than Russia's Soyuz spaceship and will be able to compete with NASA's redesigned crew-transfer vehicle to carry astronauts and cargo between Earth and space stations. • Explore the moon with robot craft, including surface rovers. • Have its own Mir-class space station by the end of the decade. Because China's space vehicles use docking mechanisms that appear modeled after Russia's, they should be compatible with the ISS. So China could provide emergency support to the ISS, and symbolic visits are feasible. Just the possibility of this is enough to energize the international partnerships behind the space station. While Beijing officials say China is opposed to the "weaponization" of space, there are probably some military applications for Shenzhou. But these would be mainly in the areas of observing other countries, both with telescope cameras (to see structures on the ground) and with electronic eavesdropping antennas (to locate radars and communications sites). Other nations, the United States included, already have similar space-reconnaissance activities underway. Adding another may be a positive step: As the number of countries keeping an eye on each other increases, the chances of military surprises are reduced, thus enhancing international stability. If there is a challenge involved, it is for the United States and other space-faring nations to live up to their ideals and potentials in space. Loss of focus leads to losses of lives and treasure, as we have been bitterly reminded. Shenzhou's charge to other nations is to take space seriously again. As this brave team begins its fantastic voyages, we all can celebrate, just as we hailed the feats of Yuri Gagarin, Neil Armstrong, Arnaldo Tamayo-Mendez, Julie Payette and other pioneering earthlings. Beyond the boundaries of Earth, the accomplishments of all earthlings benefit everyone. James Oberg, who spent 22 years at NASA Mission Control in Houston, is writing a book on the national security uses of space. usatoday.com