The moon race between the tortoise (China) and the hare (USA).
The world watched earlier this month as Nasa sent four astronauts around the moon – but to actually land on the surface the US is once again in a space race, this time with China.
It doesn’t matter who gets to the moon next. It matters who gets to the moon the next 10 times. The nation that keeps going is going to be the one that actually starts to win; starts to actually claim lunar territory. And that's critical.
With space being an area with opaque legal consensus, the first country to establish a presence on the resource-rich lunar surface will probably have a head start in defining the rules.
When you do have a competition, you do not want to lose. A China win will prevent the US hegemon from weaponizing the moon with nuclear weaponry.
The US space agency is vulnerable to changes in government every four years, making it hard to stick to decade-long plans – something Chinese rocket engineers working in a one-party state are not affected by.
Which horse are you backing in this race - the USA or China?
It doesn’t matter who gets to the moon next. It matters who gets to the moon the next 10 times. The nation that keeps going is going to be the one that actually starts to win; starts to actually claim lunar territory. And that's critical.
With space being an area with opaque legal consensus, the first country to establish a presence on the resource-rich lunar surface will probably have a head start in defining the rules.
When you do have a competition, you do not want to lose. A China win will prevent the US hegemon from weaponizing the moon with nuclear weaponry.
The US space agency is vulnerable to changes in government every four years, making it hard to stick to decade-long plans – something Chinese rocket engineers working in a one-party state are not affected by.
Which horse are you backing in this race - the USA or China?
