It is quite possible that the US has frittered away the last 35 years of space superiority, legitimately creating a bona fide fear on Capitol Hill of the US being shoved into second place by a new generation of challengers. The main challenger today is China, which continues to bolster its space programs while the US public and its representatives continue to lose interest.
Despite America's dependency on outer space, their interest in space continues to wane. Rep. Terry Everett (R-Ala.), a senior member of the House Armed Services, Intelligence and Agriculture Committee, said space is mostly an unsecured resource, and few Americans understand their dependency on it (see here). The dependency on outer space goes beyond military dependency and encompasses many modern conveniences such as weather reporting, global mapping, ATM machines, agricultural reports, global positioning systems, the trucking industry, communications, airlines, the scientific community and many other areas.
A NASA administrator recently stated that China may win the new space race. "I personally believe that China will be back on the moon before we are," said NASA Administrator Michael Griffin. "I think when that happens, Americans will not like it. But they will just have to not like it." China plans to send a probe to the moon by the end of the year, and by 2017 they have planned a robotic mission to return with moon rocks. The US plans to put men on the moon again by 2020 and it is unclear whether China can beat this deadline or if the US can meet this deadline.
Joan Johnson-Freese, head of the Naval War College's national security decision-making department, said the U.S. is "more technically advanced. We certainly could be back on the moon faster than the Chinese, but we don't have the political will and therefore the resources to do it."
While American interest in outer space declines, others are obviously taking a keen interest in outer space. Malaysia's first astronaut, Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, flew in a Russian rocket to the international space station earlier this month. The orthopedic surgeon and university lecturer from Kuala Lumpur is the first Muslim to fly into space. Also aboard the flight was US astronaut Peggy Whitson. As of this mission, she is the first female commander of the space station. Although this flight seems to symbolize an era of international unity and cooperation, it is actually accompanied by acrimonious posturing amongst all of the players.
Russia recently lashed out at the US in response to reports concerning the US's intentions to place missiles in eastern European countries and to produce a new generation of missile defense shields similar to the 1980's "Star Wars" program (see here). The Russian Space Forces Commander Colonel-General Vladimir Popovkin said that no country had the right to declare itself the sole proprietor of outer space and strike forces should not be deployed there.
"We need to have strong rules about space, to avoid its militarization, and if any country will place a weapon in space, then our response will be the same," he said. The Russian commander's comments were directed at China as much as they were aimed at the US.
A year ago, the US enacted a new jingoistic space policy that basically declared outer space to be the 51st state of the Union. The US policy rejects future arms control deals that would limit US flexibility in space and asserts a right to reject access to space to any country considered hostile to the US. A few months later, China used a ballistic missile to shoot down one of its own weather satellites, making China the third country to ever successfully shoot down a satellite after the US and Russia. This demonstration caused major international concern that this would precipitate an outer space arms race (see here).
A treaty making outer space a weaponless sanctuary would benefit the US far more than it would benefit China. War strategists in China have recognized that the US's assets in outer space are the Achilles' heel of the US military. They have determined that the best way to defeat the US military is through anti-technology technology, spawning a number of space warfare programs, including the ominous sounding "Assassin's Mace" (Shashoujian).
The main idea of the "Assasin's Mace" is to blind and stun an attacker, providing China with enough time to launch an array of supersonic cruise missiles and "squall" rocket torpedoes, which are all meant to destroy aircraft carriers, while also launching unmanned combat aerial vehicles, which will fire anti-ship missiles at accompanying vessels within the aircraft carrier group before dive bombing into naval ships. China will blind its attacker(s) by disabling satellites and hacking into the computers of its opposition.
To do this, the Chinese will utilize various forms of anti-technology technology. They will use maneuverable "parasite" micro-satellites that have secretly attached themselves to vital radar and communication satellites. Also, they will use space mines that will move close to satellites and then detonate, and they will use ground-based anti-satellite lasers. To ensure that their attackers are sufficiently blinded, the Chinese will utilize hackers to disable enemy computer systems.
According to the Times, Sami Saydjari, who has been working on cyber defence systems for the Pentagon since the 1980s, told Congress in testimony on April 25 that a mass cyber attack could leave 70 per cent of the US without electrical power for six months.
All of this should be a signal to us, the American people, to wake up and demand that our representatives push for more money in all kinds of space programs. Outer space and the moon are rich in resources, and the military advantages of outer space cannot be denied. It is imperative that we become as interested in the space race today as we were a generation ago.
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