Chris Hadfield urges space co-operation with China - "It's the next logical step"

[bananas]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/chris-hadfield-urges-space-co-operation-with-china-1.2477871

Chris Hadfield urges space co-operation with China
'It's the next logical step'

The Canadian Press Dec 28, 2013

"If you predicted in 1989 that I would fly on an American shuttle to go build a Russian spaceship, people would have said you were crazy," said Hadfield, who last March became the first Canadian to command the International Space Station.

Retired Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield is calling for more co-operation with China in space and he wants it to be part of any international effort to return to the moon.

And he's not alone in his thinking. Space experts agree the Chinese can no longer be left out.

"I think right now a lot of people see it as kind of crazy to co-operate with the Chinese, but I think it's the next logical step," Hadfield recently told The Canadian Press.

<snip>

NASA says on its website that Mir hosted 125 cosmonauts and astronauts from 12 different nations before it was deorbited and sunk into the ocean in 2001.

Hadfield, who became a Canadian astronaut in 1992, visited Mir in November 1995 on the U.S. Space Shuttle Atlantis. He was the only Canadian to ever board the Russian space station.

"If you predicted in 1989 that I would fly on an American shuttle to go build a Russian spaceship, people would have said you were crazy," said Hadfield, who last March became the first Canadian to command the International Space Station.

<snip>

Hadfield said a logical progression would be to include as many countries as possible in an international mission beyond Earth — "hopefully including China and India and the other countries that have launch capability and then progress to the next stepping stone, the next natural waypoint out to space, which is the moon."

<snip>

[riverbendviewgal]

1. 42 views..ignorance really is taking over DU

It is so shameful...

Hadfield is awesome person and astronaunt...but I guess DU has become a website filled with ignorant dumb people who could care less for science.....

Just shows how America is becoming so ignorant.

[DonCoquixote]

2. we do care for science

However, we do need to be wary that the Chinese are notorious for stealing technology that will make it hard for scientists in North America to make a living.

[Igel]

3. Science, good.

Geopolitical realities, something to keep in mind.

Apollo-Soyuz was more goodwill/confidence building than anything. Not so much cooperation as coordination. Post-Soviet realities made cooperation easier, and even if things are chilled now they're still much better than they were.

Things with China haven't worked out as neocons expected. Trade and prosperity were to lead to democracy. Unclear if that'll work in that culture. Unclear if it'll work given the urban/rural division. In fact, as they become more prosperous

It was a nifty correlation, but in social sciences correlations happen all the time while the underlying cause of both features stays undiscussed, unwanted, or unknown.

Of course, that happens in science, too, but with emphasis on "undiscussed" (mostly because of lack of awareness of how important the factor us) or unknown.

[jakeXT]

4. I think I'll rewatch AstroSpies

China takes great pride in its expanding space program and sees it as a way to validate its claims to be one of the world's leading scientific nations. But China does not participate in the International Space Station, due in part to American unease about allowing a communist dictatorship a place aboard.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/16/AR2007101600610.html