Asian powers open new chapter in space race


Barely a month later, China sent the Chang’e-3 mission, carrying the unmanned Jade Rabbit lander to the moon, raising the prospect that it will be China’s taikonauts rather than US astronauts exploring space in the future. The mission put China in the select club of only two other nations – the US and Russia – to have landed moon rovers successfully.

At the time, China’s space agency crowed that the successful mission showed “the new glory of China to scale the peaks in world science and technology areas".




Japan, too, has sent a space craft to an asteroid and recently tested a “space cannon” to be used for mining on an asteroid this year.





“If you don’t engage the scientific community constructively, and try to look for newer horizons, you will never able to develop science and technology,” says Ajey Lele, research fellow at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses in Delhi. Referring to India’s Mangalyaan orbiter, he says: “It is not only the ‘Mars moment’ will give you results; the entire process of learning will give you a certain amount of development.”


“Space is a profoundly 'dual use' domain, meaning that many systems have civil and military uses and it's really hard to separate the two,” says Canberra-based Brett Biddington, who has advised the Australian government on space programs.

That factor allows nations to use space missions “as a cover to develop and test systems that have direct military application – hiding in the open, so to speak”.


While North Korea is arguably the most extreme example, there are numerous areas of tensions in Asia. Among the most vexing is the China's feud with Japan over the islands in the East China Sea known as Diaoyu in Chinese and Senkaku in Japanese. The dispute flared again with China’s imposition of an Air Defence Identification Zone over waters that include the islands in December. The South China Sea is another hotspot.

"I do not believe the nations of Asia would be investing so heavily in space flight without so much regional tension,” Jones says.

And unlike during the waning days of the Cold War when space co-operation between the US and Soviet Union on the Apollo–Soyuz missions foreshadowed a thaw in countries’ relations, Asian nations do not typically co-operate with each other on space exploration.

Dr Clay Moltz, of the Naval Postgraduate School in the US, who wrote the book Asia’s Space Race, said: "At present, Asian military space programs remain highly secretive and countries have had few interactions aimed at reducing military tensions."

This competitive fear seems most pronounced “between China and India, but even in Japan”, Moltz says. “South Korea is concerned about North Korea's intentions in space.”






But the US is certainly watching China’s success. Soon after China landed the Jade Rabbit, NASA tweeted a congratulations to China. Within days, editorials appeared in the US media lamenting the loss of momentum for the US space program.



with Philip Wen and Ben Doherty

This story Asian powers open new chapter in space race first appeared on The Sydney Morning Herald.