***"I think the U.S. will have to seriously consider getting back into the business of manned space exploration. It is hard to imagine that the U.S. will allow the Chinese or the Chinese in partnership with the Russians to explore and exploit the Moon. It also means that for the first time since Richard Nixon was in the White House serious talk can resume about sending humans to Mars," Dickson said.
Perhaps humans will be walking on the Moon again in 2007, Dickson suggested, on the 50th anniversary of the Sputnik launch which started it all.
"The first thing I thought about when I heard the news [about Shenzhou 5] was Sputnik. The second thing was the fable about the race between the tortoise and the hare," Dickson said. ***
ATTACHMENT A
"Lack of a National Vision for Space In 1969 President Richard Nixon rejected NASA's sweeping vision for a post-Apollo effort that involved full development of low-Earth orbit, permanent outposts on the moon, and initial journeys to Mars. Since that rejection, these objectives have reappeared as central elements in many proposals setting forth a long-term vision for the U.S. Space program. In 1986 the National Commission on Space proposed "a pioneering mission for 21st-century America: To lead the exploration and development of the space frontier, advancing science, technology, and enterprise, and building institutions and systems that make accessible vast new resources and support human settlements beyond Earth orbit, from the highlands of the Moon to the plains of Mars."
In 1989, on the 20th anniversary of the first lunar landing, President George H.W. Bush proposed a Space Exploration Initiative, calling for "a sustained program of manned exploration of the solar system." Space advocates have been consistent in their call for sending humans beyond low-Earth orbit as the appropriate objective of U.S. space activities.
Review committees as diverse as the 1990 Advisory Committee on the Future of the U.S. Space Program, chaired by Norman Augustine, and the 2001 International Space Station Management and Cost Evaluation Task Force have suggested that the primary justification for a space station is to conduct the research required to plan missions to Mars and/or other distant destinations. However, human travel to destinations beyond Earth orbit has not been adopted as a national objective. The report of the Augustine Committee commented, "It seems that most Americans do support a viable space program for the nation - but no two individuals seem able to agree upon what that space program should be."
The Board observes that none of the competing long-term visions for space have found support from the nation's leadership, or indeed among the general public. The U.S. civilian space effort has moved forward for more than 30 years without a guiding vision, and none seems imminent. In the past, this absence of a strategic vision in itself has reflected a policy decision, since there have been many opportunities for national leaders to agree on ambitious goals for space, and none have done so." ***
How did China make their economic great leap forward? Lest we forget, it's only those in Special Economic Zones that are direct beneficiaries. The majority do get some tax revenues from them but little else.
Deng Xiaoping's "open door" policy began two years after Mao's death (1976). Deng ruled from 1976 to 1997 and formed the core of the so-called "second generation" Communist Party of China leadership.
"The overall result has been a virtual dismantling of many Maoist institutions and practices and the beginning of a movement toward a more open society. The analogy is striking between China since 1978 and the Soviet Union of the 1920s, under the New Economic Policy (NEP). China today resembles the pre-Stalinist system in the Soviet Union rather than the Stalinist or post-Stalinist one. . . The scope of change has varied considerably from region to region within China. And just as the Soviet NEP was eventually replaced by Stalinism, so too the Chinese 'NEP' may ultimately give way to a harsher system."
The words are by Donald S. Zagoria in a Foreign Affairs, Spring 1984 article, China's Quiet Revolution.
In the 1920's the Soviets had the same question. Like today, American useful idiots lined up to deliver technology and money. Soviet "nepmen" became forty percent of the Soviet economy, lives were improving. Marxist ideologues were fretting.
IMO true capitalism comes from a free people's social contract. It is not "permitted" to happen by a one-party system. IMO it is not an invisible hand that is moving the Communist Party of China's leadership. They intend to be the super power by 2049, their 100th year.
Just hours before tanks squished people in Tiannaman Square our network airheads relayed glowing adulation about a kinder, gentler China. Not quite. It's the same harsh system as Mao's in that respect.