The United States and China are engaged in an increasingly fierce race to be the first nation to set foot on the moon, and the outcome of this competition may not be known for another two years. NASA administrator Bill Nelson reportedly told Politico that China might claim control of large portions of the moon if they were to win.
New US Space Agency Director Bill Nelson warned in 2021 that geopolitical tensions between the US and China on Earth could spread to the Moon, signalling the beginning of a new space competition between the two countries.
“It is a fact we’re in a space race”, the former senator and astronaut from Florida stated in an interview. “And it is true that we better watch out that they don’t get to a place on the moon under the guise of scientific research. And it is not beyond the realm of possibility that they say, ‘Keep out, we’re here, this is our territory.’”
He used the South China Sea as a real-world illustration, pointing out that China has set up military outposts on islands that are the subject of territorial disputes. “If you doubt that, look at what they did with the Spratly Islands.”
In November, NASA’s unmanned Orion spacecraft returned after its Moon-circling Artemis 1 mission. Preceding Artemis 3, which plans to put humans on the moon’s surface in 2025, was the mission.
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China has just finished building its Tiangong space station and in November sent a crew of taikonauts to explore it. As part of its Chang’e lunar programme, Beijing wants to send three spacecraft to the moon within the next decade after announcing the discovery of a new lunar material that might be utilised as a source of energy.
It was found in the paper that China is getting better at making space launch systems, which will allow for more human exploration of space. The communist Chinese government, however, maintains that skepticism of its motivations is unwarranted.
However, two experts on space security and the Chinese space programme argue that no country has any chance of occupying the Moon anytime soon. It’s not only against the law, but also technically challenging; the expenditures would be astronomical, and the rewards would be very speculative.
Read: NASA Says Humans Will Live And Work On The Moon By 2030
