China can't help being part of the space race
Without the Cold War there never would have been a space program, let alone a Lunar exploration program. What spurred the early efforts of the US and USSR in the late 1950's were the possibilities for espionage and the launching of thermonuclear weapons from orbit. Alan Shepard and John Glen eventually got off the launch pad when they did simply because the US had been upstaged by the USSR time and again.
The first launches on both sides were unqualified disasters. Still the program went on, and eventually resulted in men on the moon, probes landing on Venus, robots on Mars, and interstellar probes that are now way past the borders of our solar system. But had the space program started right now, surely it would have been abandoned after the third or so subsequent launch failure.
We need competition in order to make progress, it seems. Unfortunately the Russians are no longer our favorite enemies, but fortunately this role has been taken over by China, the last Communist super power in the world. Let's hope their space program is very succesful, and that it will serve as an incentive for everyone else to make serious work of Lunar and space exploration.
Heinlein said it years ago: we will conquer space, but it remains to be seen what will become the Lingua Franca of space. Chances are it won't be English, but Russian or Chinese instead.
And that's fine with me. If others are too shortsighted to invest in space exploration, let evolution do its thing. Home Galactica will be naturally selected for brains and guts. If the Chinese get there ahead of the rest of the pack, that's obviously where they are supposed to be.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
