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China’s in a space race of its own making, competing against nobody in particular. To the moon and beyond, apparently, sending unmanned vehicles and “taikonauts” (their term for “astronauts”).

The tone of the article at the above link is interesting. Is China interested in resources? Scientific exploration? Grabbing the galactic high ground, militarily speaking? There’s a sense of unease in the article, reinforced by a quotfrom the head of NASA:

China will be back on the moon before we are . . . I think when that happens Americans will not like it.

For those of us with memories of the 70’s and before, there’s a Cold War chill in his words.

But the interesting part, I think, is how Americans appear to regard China’s endeavor–a large, industrialized society making rapid technological and economic advances, seeking to expand itself in almost any way possible, seems threatening, perhaps even a little sinister.

In other words, Americans are getting a taste of how most of the world has felt about the US since the 1950s. While China proclaims its space exploration goals are always peaceful, it’s spent heavily on “Star Wars”-like weapon experiments. While America proclaims its’ intention to spread “freedom and democracy and peace”, it builds heavily fortified, permanent military bases arond the world, spends billions on space weapons research and has the largest stockpile of nuclear and chemical weapons in the world.

How long until the Moon becomes simply an offworld mining colony, I wonder? And will the perverse ideology of nationalism send us down an even darker path than we seem to be headed now? Why do we plant national flags when we go places, anyway?

Someday, perhaps, the Martians will be us.

There’s also India and Japan.