While the Tech Lords in the US are busily scrambling about trying to buy political influence and whatever is left of NASA is recovering from last month's Pride events, Chinese social media is buzzing at the recent discoveries found in lunar samples from the successful return of Lunar Probe Chang'e-5. At China's Institute of Physics, researchers discovered a previously unknown mineral compound which is enriched with water molecules and ammonium, which they have named ULM-1.
Since the Apollo Moon Missions---from an era when the US still had a space program---scientists have held that the moon is completely arid. The last Apollo Mission was in 1972 when technology for more detailed analysis had not yet been developed. Instead of accepting the settled science and focusing on celebrating diversity, China developed its own space program with qualified engineers.
China's most recent lunar probe, Chang'e-6 returned to earth this year. The Chinese opened an international Space forum with a goal of building a permanent station on the moon, which they hope will be manned by 2035. The discovery of hydrolyzed water crystals opens new possibilities for bringing such a plan to fruition.
Zhang Chuanjun, a senior aerospace engineer stated that "if in the future our taikonauts can extract water vapor or water from these crystals, it would solve a major issue in future manned lunar missions and the construction of lunar research stations, as we would no longer need to transport water from Earth. This would address a significant concern in manned lunar exploration, meanwhile saving substantial costs."
Chinese scientists have also discovered that the newly-discovered lunar crystals have properties similar to basalt crystals formed on earth near volcanoes. This not only raises interesting possibilities about volcanic activity on the moon; but it greatly facilitates experiments leading to an extraction process which could be applied on the lunar surface. China currently is decades ahead of the US in biodome and terraforming technology, so the possibilities of building manned lunar colonies is well within China's reach.
The anti-China hawks in the US could do little more than seethe with impotent rage at the discovery. The real issue, though, goes back to the old saying that Nature abhors a vacuum, and the real reasons that we've fallen behind China are twofold. Wang Yanan, chief editor of Beijing-based Aerospace Knowledge Magazine, stated the most obvious problem: "One of the root causes for such problems is that the US has developed many large technology conglomerates, which for a long time have benefited significantly from government orders and industry monopolies. Consequently, in many complex engineering fields, the level of attention given is greatly insufficient. It also reflects the US' lack of long-term strategic planning for its manned space program...it reflects a systemic issue in the US space industry - the overall weakening of engineering capabilities."
On top of turning over our entire Space Program to crony capitalists who have anything but the interests of the United States in mind, government regulations imposed by these and other special interests discourage innovation and rewards for actual merit. Wang was completely correct in noting that this is a systemic problem, although it actually goes much deeper than what mere bureaucratic incompetence reflects. In the first place, we have a culture, now deeply rooted in our institutions, which has wholly alienated a generation of young men (primarily) from pursuing careers which would be of enormous social benefit. Another issue is that we no longer have a culture that prioritizes education. It was learned during the Trump Administration that the failed No Child Left Behind policies of the Bush Years created an enormous deficit in educational opportunities in STEM throughout most of our public schools. Vice-President Pence also led an initiative to revive the moribund Space Council; but Americans chose to panic over a flu outbreak and today we're right back where we started from.
The other main issue is that the same Corporate takeovers of our Space Program (another problem for which we can thank the Bush Administration) has led to the massive diversion of otherwise valuable technology into programs expanding Domestic Espionage and so-called 'National Security' programs. American technological advancements during the 21st Century has overwhelmingly focused on expanding the Surveillance State and paramilitary capabilities. What's worse, the current trend, led by Silicon Valley disciples of the Dark Enlightenment, seek to 'deregulate' the Oligarchy's power even further, proposals which have drawn praise from no less than Jeff Bezos.
As a culture, we need to stop pretending that China's successes are part of some nebulous 'China Threat' and that somehow Chinese motivation stems from envy of our way of life which, for some always unspecified reason, they seek to destroy. Unlike the US, China is working for its own good. If our technology has become inferior to theirs' we have no one to blame but ourselves. China recently celebrated the 20th Anniversary of their moon project---we need to ask ourselves what we have been investing in during the past two decades.
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