More On The Space Race NASA is pulling out all the stops to get to Mars by 2040. Will we get there ahead of the Chinese? They are so desperate they are trying to get India to join us. We are doing this even though India has joined other countries in trying to defeat the use of the American dollar for trade. India wants to use the Rupee in trade. The last I checked there were over 83 rupees in a dollar, yet the rupee has risen to be the 15th most traded currency in the world. NASA is desperate to develop a nuclear powered electrically propelled rocket or some other type of nuclear powered one. I can’t help but think this is the beginning of polluting other bodies with radiation. When I say bodies I am talking about asteroids, moons and planets. Some satellites have come back to earth which had nuclear cores. The ones I know about were contained in strong enough metal containers that even though the satellite crashed and didn’t burn up, the fuel was safe. We can’t be lucky all the time. Think about this, we find intelligent life on Mars which is advanced. Does anyone think they would welcome a nuclear powered vehicle to their planet? I think it might be considered too dangerous to allow to land if the Martians could prevent it. I am not saying life exists on Mars, I am only using this for an example of what we might face in the future if we use nuclear powered rockets. If we are working on nuclear powered rockets it would be foolish to think China isn’t. China is building far more nuclear reactors than anyone else including us. As they build them they are getting more experience which may be able to be applied to other areas such as nuclear propulsion for big ships like aircraft carriers and even applied to space travel. China expects its moon base to be completed by 2028 and it is said it will be completely nuclear powered. NASA also wants to build not one moon base but more, I don’t know the exact number. The associate administrator for NASA said they want to build several bases. It is said some of the bases might be contributed by international partners. NASA projects have a history of not being completed on time. Take the Artemis program for example. The moon landing was supposed to happen in 2016. Now it is scheduled for 2025. This doesn’t exactly instill confidence in us beating the Chinese to a moon base. When we speak about bases on the moon, it has been rumored we already built at least one there and witnesses have said they have seen photos of it. If this is true, I am surprised it hasn’t come out already since so many countries are sending orbiters and landers there. Could it be there is a base but not a human one? It is starting to look like the Chinese will beat us there. If they do it will be our own fault. For decades we have put up with projects by companies which are terribly over budget and many years late. Sometimes they are also riddled with problems even when completed. We have put up with these things because of powerful lobbies and senators, and congressmen who are pushing for the business to go to companies in their states or districts regardless of quality or cost. Even with all this going on, the private sector has taken up some of the slack, but over burdensome regulations have made it very hard for them. The delays in launches has been a problem as has been some of the environmental reasons to stop launches. We need environmental inspections, but there is no reason for them to drag on for so long. It seems some of these inspections are being made to make the delays in NASA launches look natural where many are due to problems with the launches. If we are not careful, we might land up being like another Russia in the space race which seems to have lost their ability to keep up with the rest of the world in the field. They went from the world leaders in space, to a second rate space program which seems to concentrate only on building transportation to the space station. India made them look foolish when the Indians beat them to a landing of a rover on the moon recently. The Russian lander crashed, destroying their rover. Yes this could happen to any country, but tie this in with the lack of meaningful programs lately and the shifting of the budget for war, it has created an anemic space program. India on the other hand is surprising everyone with the advancements in their space program. India became only the fourth nation to land successfully on the moon. The four nations who landed on the moon were the United States, The Soviet Union, China and India. India launched its first satellite in 1975, it was named Aryabhata. India has aimed their space program at discovery and observation. In 1983 India launched geostationary satellites which were used for telecommunications, search and rescue, meteorology and broadcasting. They now have nine satellites in geostationary orbit and their INSAT system is one of the largest in the area. India has made three missions to the moon and one to Mars and is building their own launch vehicles and satellites. There are other countries which are making progress in space. One organization which has made great strides is the European Space Agency. In 1960 a commission was set up for cooperation in space. Two agencies were set up. The first was to develop launch vehicles, the second was to develop spacecraft. In 1973 they built a module for Spacelab in exchange for the opportunities of their astronauts to ride on the space shuttle. They have continued to be a partner with NASA in many projects. If countries could eliminate their defense budgets and put the money into the space program imagine where we might be. If only we mortals were advanced enough to see war serves no purpose but to kill, and what ever gains are made will be lost in time. I know I am sounding like some sort of priest, but what I said is true. If countries would use their budgets to better themselves what a better world it would be. I guess this is all just pie in the sky because it is hard to imagine the human race ever changing to accept this.
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