Astronauts from China and the U.S. met last week in Beijing to discuss international planetary friendship and cooperation along with space travelers from 16 countries. Among the topics at hand were plans for China's space station, ready to launch in 2022 and a space lab that will enter orbit by 2016.
The Association of Space Explorers along with China's Manned Space Agency gathered 93 attendees from 18 countries to Beijing, including Russian Alexey Leonov, the first person to walk in space, American moon walker Buzz Aldrin, and the first female astronaut, Russian Valentina Tereshkova.
The conference's theme is "Cooperation: To Realize Humanity's Space Dream Together." Chinese astronauts are also expected to present information regarding their spacewalking skills and the flight of China's first female astronaut on the country's Shenzhou spacecraft last year. They will also outline future space station construction plans. Attendees also were scheduled to view a clip from last year's hit space film Gravity in which the Chinese space station makes an appearance.
"This is our first ASE Congress in China and our fourth in Asia," said Andrew Turnage, executive director of ASE–USA. "We have been working with China for some years now on hosting a congress, and we are excited to have the opportunity to visit China and learn more about their space program and plans for exploration, in low-Earth orbit and beyond."
Did you know there is a U.S. law banning official cooperation with China on its space program? I didn't. It's a relic that would be more appropriate during the Cold War than in these days of globalized economies. Space exploration is expensive, and there doesn't seem to be anything up there that would make the first explorers on the scene fabulously wealthy. Haven't we evolved past sticking our flag on unclaimed rocks and declaring it the property of whatever country funded the expedition?
However, this law banning U.S.-China space cooperation was enacted in 2011. Hawkish politicians who see China as an inevitable opponent both economically and militarily promoted it. These leaders cannot conceive of a peaceful future where power does not come from wishing nuclear extinction on any country large enough to pose a threat.
The U.S. must focus on two questions. First, would outer space cooperation between the United States and China be beneficial to the national security interests of the United States? Second, what are the risks the U.S. takes in sharing technology, intellectual property, scientific methodologies and funding?
It seems the U.S. would have much to gain from partnering with other countries on space exploration and little to lose. We have already benefited from partnering with our space race competitor Russia. Why would partnering with China be any different? Let's leave militarization of space on Earth, and make space a purely scientific venture.
Even during the Cold War, the U.S. cooperated with the Soviet Union on some aspects of space exploration, Scott Pace, who heads the Space Policy Institute and is a professor of international affairs at George Washington University, told Voice of America.
"It was in very specific scientific areas: earth science, solar physics, some biometrical data. And I think similar levels of cooperation can certainly occur with China today, and probably should," Pace said.
Already there are signs that the U.S. is warming to the idea of ending the ban on space joint ventures.
"China is an obvious addition to the international [human spaceflight] partnership, both for the ISS program and beyond," Leroy Chiao, a former NASA astronaut, said during a hearing of the Senate Science and Space Subcommittee earlier this year. "China is in a position to provide hardware and capability in-kind."
With the benefits to humanity that space exploration presents, cooperation on scientific research outweighs the risk to national security. Perhaps if we all work together, one country will not gain advantage over another, and will have less incentive to turn discoveries into military might.
Let's do things differently this time. Let's leave all the bickering back on terra firma and make space a no-border zone. Once you leave the stratosphere, you become a citizen of Earth – leave your passport behind.
The author is a columnist for Beijing Review, living in New York City
