After launching a sattelite around Luna many moons ago (pun intended), it looks like the Chinese are about to send a second satellite in order to take a closer look at Earth nearest neighbor.

(Space.com) China is preparing its second moon orbiter for launch in October of this year. The Chang’e 2 probe will carry a high-resolution camera capable of spotting lunar surface features as small as 3 feet.

Chang’e 2 will map potential landing sites for follow-on robotic missions that will attempt to reach the moon’s surface, another first for the Chinese space program. China has not set a date for Chang’e 3′s lunar landing mission.

The second satellite will probable help China compete against Japan’s SELENE (which has been mapping Earth’s moon in high definition).

Hopefully in the not-so-distant future China will consider landing a few good men (and woman) upon the lunar surface, although for now we will settle for a government rover.

As any regular space geek would inform you, America’s favorite frenemy China is envisioning space stations orbiting our home world in the future.

The question everyone is asking however is when are they going to launch it–and will it be friendly?

(Space Daily) We could be less than a year away from the launch of Tiangong-1, China’s first space laboratory. We’ve been expecting this launch for years, but relatively little is still known about this mission. [...]

What do we know for sure? Tiangong seems to consist of a short, cylindrical pressurized module, with not much more internal volume for the crew than a Shenzhou spacecraft. To the rear of this is a service module, containing two solar panel wings, a propulsion system and other gear. The service module has a slightly smaller diameter than the pressurized module.

Although we can guestimate the overall specs of China’s upcoming space station, we probably still do not know whether the new Chinese space station will be friendly or unfriendly (i.e. militaristic or challenging in nature).

China has made incredible strides in space in their attempt to catch up the NASA (as well as the Russians).

But until America can determine China’s overall purpose for embracing the stars, we may see a more confrontational approach later on–which could potentially translate into a second global space race.

(Image Credit: NASA)

(Image: a model of the Chinese space station at the Chinese Pavilion, Hannover Expo. Credit: © Mark Wade of Astronautix.com)

With the release of the Augustine Report not too long ago, there has been a flurry of outcry regarding the future of humanity, most notably from the Mars Society.

While some may lament the fall of the western space age (thanks in part to the Great Depression 2.0), others may have to look east for a new hope (pun intended).

(Space Daily) China will begin the construction of its own orbital space station in 2020, the Sina news service said on Monday, citing a top official with the country’s manned spaceflight program.

Gu Yidong said that China would sent two or three space labs into orbit in 2010-2015, while the basic module of the space station is to be orbited by 2020.

The fact that China is building a space station is hardly surprising, seeing as they are not exactly allowed on the International Space Station (due to political/security reasons).

However China’s heavenly ascent is in direct contrast to what is happening in the west, as NASA is (once again) being neutered by its bureaucratic overlords.

(Physorg.com) Five years ago, then-President George W. Bush proposed returning astronauts to the moon by 2020. To pay for it, he planned on retiring the shuttle next year and shutting down the international space station in 2015. [...]

The panel also said the space shuttle should continue flying until early 2011 to finish all its space station work and that it can’t realistically retire by Oct. 1, 2010 as the Bush administration planned.

The panel called “unwise” the Bush plan to shut down the space station in 2015 and steer it into the ocean, after 25 years of construction and only five years of fully operational life. The space station’s life should be extended, the panel said.

Note: Emphasis mine

Instead of the US canceling the International Space Station (especially with cheaper and safer models coming from the private sector), our glorious government is content to spend more money ensuring that we encircle the globe for the next few decades.

While NASA does have ambitious goals of eventually establishing a moon base, it can not do that without sacrificing the “fat,” and seems more concerned with offending international partners than advancing into the heavens beyond.

NASA’s hope may lie in partnering with the private sector, but unless they receive greater backing from their political superiors, the future citizens of the solar system may be reading space history in Chinese rather than English.

There is nothing currently more prestigious than for a space power to be welcomed aboard the International Space Station (or ISS).

Despite the fact that China has already conducted a space walk, the US is still refusing to allow China a presence on board (which may have something to do with their anti-satellite test earlier).

Since its very unlikely that the US will change their position (even with the new administration), China is now planning on eventually constructing their own fortress among the stars.

(People’s Daily Online) According to Zhang, China’s manned space flight program features a three-stage development strategy. The first step is to complete spacecraft tests for Shenzhou I to Shenzhou VI, make breakthroughs in manned spaced technology and carry out some space experiments.

The second step is to establish China’s own space laboratory and the third step is to build China’s own space station, developing large-scale space applications and realizing long-term space residence for taikonauts.

Unlike NASA, China’s space program is allowed to heavily collaborate with its military branch, which means that any space station built could contain more than just scientific instruments.

China could also use the station to host other nations unable to access to the ISS due to being perceived as hostile by the United States and/or Russia.

Unless Bigelow Aerospace decides to rent out their future space stations to the Chinese (with US permission of course), we may end up seeing two rival space stations orbiting our planet, which may not bode well in the long term for China or America.

After establishing an alliance between each other, it looks as if the two major eastern space powers will be exploring “all things Mars” by sending a probe to analyze not only the Martian weather, but its asteroid moon as well.

(Mars Daily) The first joint Chinese-Russian mission to Mars is set to take off in October and reach the red planet in August 2010, an exploration project designer said.

A Russian Zenit rocket will launch a Chinese Yinghuo-1 satellite and a Russian Phobos-Grunt unmanned lander, Chen Changya, chief designer of the China-Russia Mars exploration project, told Hong Kong’s Wen Wei Po newspaper.

Phobos-Grunt is expected to study Mars from orbit, including its atmosphere and dust storms, plasma and radiation, before landing on Phobos, one of Mars’ two small moons.

Phobos is one of the prime locations in our solar system, and any nation (or group of nations) that is able to secure this tiny satellite will probably end up dominating the Martian planet as a future space power.

Political ambitions aside, the Phobos-Grunt should help provide more information regarding how much radiation impacts the red planet, as that could determine just how safe living on Mars may be.

Despite the fact that neither of these countries have launched a human into orbit, both Japan and India have successfully launched satellites around the Moon, respectively.

While China has also launched a lunar satellite (not to mention conducted a space walk), they seem to fear an alliance between the two rival nations, one that seems to benefit the US and put the Asian giant at a disadvantage.

(Asia Times) India and Japan’s agreement in October to expand cooperation between the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), in the field of disaster management, has the raised the ire of a China fearful that the US is masterminding a powerful space alliance between its allies in the region.

All of Asia wants to see improved regional disaster management capabilities, but the growing ties between ISRO and JAXA come just as India and Japan are devising an action plan to advance security cooperation.

“China is concerned about the general effort of the US during the Bush Administration to form a Japanese-Indian alliance to contain China,” said Dr Gregory Kulacki, senior analyst and China project manager at the Massachusetts-based Union of Concerned Scientists.

One may wonder why this alliance would make China nervous since they have already created a similar alliance with Russia, as well as offered to train astronauts from other countries.

Even though China probably fears a military alliance between India and Japan, they may also be worried that an alliance between the two Asian giants could knock China from its current status the space super power in the region.

Such an alliance could also convince other space faring democracies (such as the US and most of Europe) to work together, leaving Aristocracies like Russia and China to fend for themselves in the vacuum of space.

Whether or not the US will actively partner with Japan and India has yet to be seen, but either way it looks as if America may have found a way to counter the rising space power by reaching out to China’s rivals.