<p>I've occasionally gotten emails asking me what I think about the Chinese space program.</p>
<p>Now, I'm prompted to respond, with this story about supposed plans to extend the Middle Kingdom to Luna, complete with resource extraction.</p>
<p>Well, I sincerely hope that they do so. If they do, there's at least a possibility that it will shake us from our continued complacency toward serious civil space policy in this country. That's not to say that I hope that we'll immediately drop everything and head back to the Moon a la Apollo, but that at least we'll have a useful national discussion about it, which hasn't happened in decades.</p>