On Friday, a Long March 5 rocket launched China’s newest and most ambitious mission to the Moon. The second stage burn occurred 12 minutes into flight. A translunar injection burn occurred about 15 minutes later. The Chang’e 6 spacecraft then separated and is now on its way to the Moon. While the Moon has turned out to be a very difficult target for many nations and commercial ventures, China’s state-run program has continued to push the boundaries of robotic lunar exploration. They have had a series of successful missions including orbiters, landers, and rovers. Chang’e 5 even returned lunar samples to Earth, a task that NASA’s Mars program is finding very difficult to execute on time and budget, albeit at a more challenging destination. Chang’e 6 will repeat the sample return this time from the far side of the Moon and in a resource-rich area of its southern polar regions.
The bottom line is that China is now a near-peer competitor to the U.S. in a particularly critical and notoriously difficult area of space technology. There is no more pretending that the U.S. has a safe and commanding lead in this category or really in any other aspect of space exploration or defense. We should assume China’s planned human landings on the Moon will occur in 2030 as stated and that they will indeed build a permanently occupied International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) in cooperation with Russia and a selection of authoritarian-friendly nations.
Not all of China’s space efforts are focused on science or on exploration. There is a serious race to the Moon in a quest for mineral resources and China is sending us a message with this mission. Chang’e 6 will land in the resource-rich South Pole-Aitken (SPA) basin. Specifically, China is targeting a crater called “Apollo” which is named in honor of America’s great lunar achievement. Apollo’s interior and adjacent craters are named for Apollo astronauts and memorialize deceased NASA employees including the lost crew of the Space Shuttle Columbia. Chang’e 6 will literally raise a communist Chinese flag there. The Chinese are extremely careful with protocol, any small slight is intentional.
Apollo crater, on the Moon’s far side is rich in resources and memorializes America’s pioneering … [+] lunar program and many departed NASA employees and astronauts.
NASA
Beyond geopolitical messaging, the outcomes of space race 2.0 matter in concrete terms. In my testimony to the House Natural Resources Committee last December, I described the importance of lunar resources to our future in space and on Earth:
It is important to note that this bright future only materializes for everyone if America takes the lead and space minerals are extracted and sold by private actors in a free market. We should not expect Chinese state-controlled exploitation of the Aitken Basin mascon or the asteroid Eros to play out any differently than their terrestrial rare-earth monopoly or territorial aggression in the South China Sea have.
The story of why space matters in the contest between the U.S. and China extends beyond warfare. As you’ll discover in Red Moon Rising, it’s an economic story, a resources story, a technology leadership story, an energy independence story, and perhaps most importantly, an international prestige story.
Loverro knows which way is up, literally. A career U.S. Air Force officer he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy during the Obama Administration and lead NASA’s Human Space Exploration under President Trump. Resource competition has historically driven military competition and Loverro goes on to note:
Today, the range of demonstrated Chinese operational and test space weaponry is impressive and growing, and you’ll learn some frightening things about them in this book. This threat inspired a bipartisan group of U.S. space strategists and leaders (including both myself and Dr. Autry) to push for the creation of a U.S. Space Force, which was finally stood up under the Trump administration. Good but perhaps too late given the speed and boldness of China’s aggressive space warfare posture.
The good news is that, as long as conflict can be avoided, competition is a good thing. Space technology leapt from a beeping little ball, called Sputnik, to the iconic photo of Buzz Aldrin on the Moon in just 12 short years (1957-1969)! After the U.S. and Soviets made nice with 1975’s “handshake in space” America’s ambition for deep space exploration evaporated and we spent a half century in Low Earth Orbit. As I wrote in Red Moon Rising:
After decades stuck in LEO, the threat of competition with China for influence and economic development on the Moon has awoken our spirit of exploration and shifted American space policy out of low Earth orbit. President Trump was probably the first American president to clearly understand the nature of China as a rapacious global competitor, and we were proud to be part of the team that advised him to return America to the Moon, where China is clearly aiming to secure strategic resources.
The good news is that the Biden space team has continued all the Trump era programs including Space Force and NASA’s Artemis Moon program. Importantly the Artemis Accords have expanded from 8 to 39 nations, dwarfing China’s ILRS coalition. America appears poised to accept China’s lunar challenge, and perhaps even channel the not-so-subtle slight of their landing site selection into a new determination to go farther and do more. Space Race 2.0 promises benefits to everyone on Earth.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
