NASA Administrator Bill Nelson recently said it was important for the United States to return to the moon before China could lay claim to its surface.
During the interview, NPR’s Scott Detrow asked Nelson about recent speeches in which he repeatedly returned to the subject of China, the media. report Monday.
Detrow asked why it was so important for the United States to beat China in returning to the moon.
A July 20, 1969 file photo released by NASA shows astronaut Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin Jr. saluting the U.S. flag on the moon during the Apollo 11 lunar exploration. (NASA/AFP/Getty Images)
In response to his question, Nelson said:
First of all, I don’t give many lectures about China, but people ask a lot of questions about China. And it’s important because of what China has done on Earth, like suddenly occupying part of the South China Sea with the Spratly Islands and saying, “This is ours, you get out.” ”
I don’t want them to reach Antarctica, which is a limited area where water is thought to be. It’s full of craters. Therefore, the area where you can land at the South Pole is limited. We don’t want them to get there and say, “This is ours.” You don’t go outside. ”
It should be for the benefit of the international community and for scientific research. That’s why I think it’s important to get there first.
In 2022, Nelson said China was “very opaque” and didn’t want to share information with anyone else, despite the fact that he “gave them ample opportunity.”
This photo released by the China National Space Administration (CNSA) via CNS on January 11, 2019 shows the Chang’e 4 lunar probe taken by the Yutu-2 lunar probe on the far side of the moon ( Photo courtesy – /China National Space Administration (CNSA), via CNS/AFP/Getty Images).
“I talked to their ambassador and said, ‘You’ve returned a sample from the moon. We shared it with the international community half a century ago. Why don’t you share it?’ We haven’t done that. So our idea of the moon is ultimately the South Pole. We think there’s water there, and if there’s water there’s rocket fuel,” he added. Ta.
On Friday, the communist country launched a probe to collect samples from the far side of the moon, AFP news agency reported, adding that the Chinese government is working on plans to send a crew to explore the moon’s surface in the coming years. It pointed out.
But “Washington has warned that the program is being used to hide military objectives and efforts to establish superiority in space,” the article said.
In March, Breitbart News reported that Russia’s space agency Roscosmos said it was “seriously considering” building a nuclear power plant on the moon and working with China to make that happen. .
“Russia has in recent years moved its space efforts away from the United States and the greater Western world in response to tightening sanctions aimed at deterring invasion of neighboring Ukraine,” the report said.
