Seventy years after the United States rose to the challenge posed by the Soviet launch of the Sputnik satellite, Americans are only dimly aware that the race to colonize the Moon and access its resources is just as business. Indeed, the stakes are even higher.
The mantra of my “Dust Mites” novels is that he who controls the Moon controls cis-lunar space. He who controls cis-lunar space dominates the Earth.
While Americans fixate on the Moon as a launchpad for scientific research and exploration, the Chinese have begun thinking of the orb as an integral part of an Earth-Moon economic zone. Bao Weimin, director of the Science and Technology Commission of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, shared his thoughts on the Moon’s economic potential at a seminar on space economy Wednesday.
Bao pledged to complete basic research and make a breakthrough on key technologies before 2030, and establish a transportation system by 2040, according to Global Times. The publication quote “insiders” as saying the zone could generate $10 billion a year in economic activity.
Writes Global Times:
“In May 2018, China launched a relay satellite to set up a communications link between the Earth and the then planned Chang’e-4 lunar probe, which accomplished the first-ever soft landing on the far side of the moon in January. Chinese scientists and engineers hope the Queqiao satellite will form a communications bridge between controllers on Earth and the far side of the moon.
“Aerospace fans predicted that the plan will accelerate many important projects, including the Long March-5 carrier rocket, China’s largest launch vehicle, which is expected to be used to send the Chang’e-5 probe in 2020 to bring moon samples back to Earth, and China’s heavy-lift carrier rocket, the Long March-9, which is expected to make its first flight around 2030 and will support manned lunar exploration, deep space exploration and construction of a space-based solar power plant.”
The article made no mention of what industries would be capable of generating $10 trillion of economic activity.
