#头条创作挑战赛#
Text/Drunken Snow
Since China announced its "roadmap" to achieve the moon landing by 2030, the Biden administration, which originally thought that it could take the lead with the PPT of the "Artemis" moon landing program, finally could not sit still. Taking advantage of Kishida's visit to the United States, Biden pulled his younger brother and reaffirmed the goal of winning the space "race" with the "democratic camp", vowing to complete the moon landing before China.
According to overseas network reports, Biden announced at a joint press conference after the meeting with Fumio Kishida that two Japanese astronauts will participate in future U.S. missions to the moon, and the United States wants to make one of them "the first non-American to land on the moon."
(U.S. and Japanese leaders attend a joint press conference)
Kishida was naturally overjoyed, hailing the project as a "great achievement" and immediately paying tribute to a Japanese lunar rover under development. In a jubilant atmosphere, the United States and Japan issued a joint statement saying that the two countries are "leading the way back to the moon and solar system exploration," and the two sides have also laid out a roadmap for a joint moon landing. According to the U.S.-Japan summit plan, Japan will cooperate with the United States to send one Japanese astronaut to the moon in 2028 and a second Japanese astronaut to the moon in 2032.
Behind the harmony of the joint meeting was anxiety about the rapid development of China's space exploration undertaking. At the press conference, the China Manned Space Office announced that the main flight products such as the Chang-10 rocket, the Mengzhou spacecraft, and the lunar lander have completed the program development, and the rocket ground test vehicle and the Wenchang launch site project are all progressing in an orderly manner, and the fourth batch of astronauts has also been selected. It can be said that China's moon landing program is progressing steadily as planned.
(A model of a new generation of manned rocket displayed at the National Museum)
However, this steady progress has already made the United States and Japan look like a man. For the past fifty years, the United States has been the hegemon in space exploration. But now, the new rising power wants to plant a red flag in space. In order to defend space hegemony, in 2020, the "big mouth" we are familiar with, the Nelson director of NASA, announced the "Artemis" program, which is expected to complete the moon landing in 2024, but then "released pigeons" again and again, and has been postponed to 2027. If this momentum continues, I am afraid that sending Japanese astronauts to space will also become a technical verification for the Americans to land on the moon.
(Japanese Slim probe that landed upside down on the moon)
However, when encountering technical difficulties, we cannot lose our momentum. As we all know, the Biden administration has an average ability to do practical things, but the art of painting a big pie is unparalleled in the world, and this new big cake is not satisfied with the East China Sea and the Pacific Ocean, but directly draws the moon, so that the Japanese who come as far away can experience the "deep gratitude" of the United States.
People of insight in the United States and Japan have already seen the "little ninety-nine" of the joint statement. Suzuki, a professor of science and technology policy at the University of Tokyo, said that the importance of the agreement reached between the United States and Japan at the White House is mainly reflected in the symbolic sense, making the Japanese "the first non-American to land on the moon" is to prevent Chinese astronauts from doing this first, so as not to make the Chinese believe that they are equal to the United States in the field of space exploration. It can be seen that the sinister intentions of the Americans lie not only in the technological blockade and suppression, but also in a vain attempt to politically interrupt China's rise and maintain their status as the "world hegemon".
But the Chinese have always been not troublesome, nor are they afraid of trouble, China's space exploration program is carried out in accordance with its own road map, in line with national interests and scientific laws, every step is carried out through repeated experiments and calculations. China's development of space is aimed at better developing outer space and seeking benefits for the Chinese people and the people of the world.
(Shenzhou 18 Shot Success)
If the United States and Japan want to preemptively land on the moon before China, then technology speaks, and whoever is more technologically advanced and mature will be able to take the lead. If you set some unrealistic goals for the sake of momentary rapidity, and rush to start shoddy work, you will inevitably face a ruthless "slap in the face" from reality. What is even more serious is that every step of manned space flight is a matter of great importance, and if we pay a painful price like the "Challenger," it will be the US and Japanese governments themselves who will bear the price. Whether this account is settled or not depends on whether this "Artemis" is for science or for votes.