The space race was one of the defining features of the Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union. There is also a race going on this century between superpowers, only this time it is the Chinese who are taking on the Americans, warns NASA boss Bill Nelson. According to this former astronaut, there’s something else at stake this time than just the honor of being the first at something: raw materials, starting on the moon.
“It’s a fact: we are in a space race,” Nelson said in an interview with the news site Politics . This observation is followed by a warning, specifically for China’s space program: “We’d better watch out that they don’t get a place on the moon under the guise of scientific research. It is not unlikely that they will say: ‘Go away, this is our territory’.”
Space is traditionally a peaceful place. This was agreed upon even at the height of the Cold War. In 1967, the so-called Outer Space Treaty was concluded at the UN, which according to its title regulates the principles concerning “the activities of States in the exploration and use of space, including the moon and other celestial bodies.” This treaty states, among other things, that “the moon and other celestial bodies shall be used exclusively for peaceful purposes.”
Inhospitable
More than fifty years later, it no longer seems so certain that spacefaring UN member states will comply with this. Nelson suspects that China on the moon could behave the same way it does here on Earth: “If you doubt that, see what they did on the Spratly Islands.” The NASA boss points to the archipelago in the South China Sea that China has confiscated despite the Court of Arbitration ruling that Beijing has no right to the archipelago.
The Spratlys are a bit like the moon in a way. When the Chinese started to colonize the archipelago, it was a very inhospitable place. It took a lot of time and effort to quite literally convert the archipelago from some stray rocks surrounded by reefs into real islands. After years of dredging and other efforts, the Spratlys are now an important naval base for China.
And there are more parallels with the race to the moon. For example, raw materials are the main reason for China’s interest in the Spratly Islands. Because apart from the fishing grounds around the islands, it is mainly the oil and gas reserves in the seabed that Beijing preys on. On the moon, metals and rare earths in particular could make exploration attractive.
polar ice
Initially, however, water will be the most important raw material, because H2O makes a stay on the moon possible in the first place. Water itself is necessary for existence, just like oxygen, and hydrogen can be used again as a fuel. Therefore, wetland areas, such as the south pole of the moon, will initially be the most likely places for colonization.
The aforementioned Space Treaty should, in theory, prevent a battle for the moon. In practice, this will probably turn out to be more unruly. China’s refusal to accept the Court of Arbitration’s ruling on the Spratly Islands is a possible indication of this.
Despite this, Beijing denies that it has other than peaceful intentions with its space program: “Space is not a wrestling arena,” the Chinese embassy says. Politics know, in response to the statements of NASA boss Nelson. “The exploration and peaceful use of space is a common endeavor of humanity from which everyone should be able to benefit.”
Political contest
Former astronaut Terry Virts does not trust the Chinese denial. According to Virts, the race to the moon is “a political competition to show whose system works better.” The Chinese want to win the competition, says the former commander of the International Space Station, and they could “potentially cause a lot of trouble” on the moon: “If they build infrastructure, they could potentially disrupt communication lines, for example. Just having them there doesn’t make things any easier. There are serious concerns about Chinese interference.”
What Virts ignores is that American interests differ little from Chinese interests. For example, the US interprets the Outer Space Treaty in such a way that commercial exploration of the moon is indeed possible. President Trump underlined that again in 2020 with a executive orders . It is not for nothing that NASA is preparing for a permanent stay on the moon with the current Artemis missions. And that permanent residence will not only be aimed at scientific research. After all, the chimney must smoke, even on the moon.