The Chinese are coming ... just like legendary author Arthur C. Clarke predicted 27 years ago.

In his 1982 book '2010: Odyssey Two' - the follow-up to his mega hit novel, and movie by Stanley Kubrick, '2001: A Space Odyssey' - Clarke envisioned China entering, and then leaping ahead of both the US and the then USSR, in a prolonged Space Race.

While the makers of the '2010' film adaptation - released in 1984 - chose to leave them out of their version, the Chinese in fact played a pivotal role in Clarke's earlier novel.

The story obviously takes place nine years after the Discovery's disastrous mission to Jupiter to investigate a giant monolith that had parked itself near one the planet's moons, the icy Europa. The on-board computer HAL went a little nuts and crew member Dave Bowman became a 'Star Child' after disappearing into the monolith.

It is hoped a joint American-Soviet rescue mission will shed light on what happened, but not if the Chinese get there first.

Not long before the spacecraft the Leonov blasts off, a Chinese space station orbiting Earth reveals itself to be a rival craft named the Tsien, which rockets away to Jupiter, and ultimately reaching everyone's destination first.



The fact that the Chinese mission meets a rather untimely demise after the Tsien lands on Europa and is attacked by an indigenous life-form is not important ... well, to this post anyway.

Now we only a year out from 2010, don't expect to see any Chinese missions to Jupiter, or any other planet in our solar system for that matter, in the very near future.

But do expect them to target another heavenly body a little closer to our own, the Moon, in the next decade - according to the experts.

While debate might still rage over whether that famous moon-landing by the US - in particular Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin - in 1969 did in fact happen or whether it was faked (and for this post let's suppose it did), the US is keen to get back up there.

And just like they famously wanted to beat the Russians almost 40 years ago, this time they want to outdo the Chinese.

It has been 27 years since the 12th and last American, Eugene Cernan - as part of the sixth and last NASA Apollo mission - achieved the feat.

During that time, no other country has made an attempt.
The Space Race was won. Competition over.

Until now.


Last September an amazing milestone was reached when Zhai Zhigang (pictured) carried out China's first ever space walk (see below).

The country follows just the US and Russia to achieved such a technological accomplishment, and came five years after China first sent a man into space.

No doubt the Chinese are setting their sights a little higher - or a little further away - the moon.

With that in mind the American Aerospace Industries Association came out strongly last month when it urged the US Government to step up its space exploration campaign.

Speaking at the Reuters Aerospace and Defense Summit in Washington, Marion Blakey, chief executive of the Aerospace Industries Association, said "It has been a long time since we've had anyone breathing down our necks. Now we do."

And then, with a touch of arrogance, I might add, said, "The idea that the next boots on the moon are probably going to be Chinese is something that the public has not realized.''



Professor Alan Smith, head of the UK's Moonlite Mission to the Moon, one of a growing number of scientific programmes to send probes to the lunar surface, spoke to BBC News just last week and raised some great points.

"The Apollo missions left the Moon unfinished. The programme was scrapped after the public lost interest in it in the early 1970s," he said. "However, the science was barely touched, so we need to go back and complete the science.

"Now, the US plan, unlike Apollo, is to have a semi-permanent base on the Moon - that involves a much more elaborate infrastructure being established."

US president George W. Bush said as much during a 2004 speech outlining a bid to return to the moon in 2020.

"We can use our time on the Moon to develop and test new approaches, technologies and systems," he said, before adding, "We will then be ready to take the next steps of space exploration. He stated that these included "missions to Mars" and to "worlds beyond".

It was probably one of the most intelligent things he has said during his eight-year reign as president.



While Bush might be about to depart the White House, president-elect Barack Obama looks like focussing some of his own attention on the growing space race.

It was reported late last week, by bloomberg.com, that Obama will "probably tear down long-standing barriers between the US’s civilian and military space programs to speed up a mission to the moon amid the prospect of a new space race with China".

That means the Pentagon and NASA linking up for the first time.

NASA chief Michael Griffin, who is believed to be against the idea, visited the Chinese Space program in 2006, and according to bloomberg.com he believes the countrywill put a man on the moon before the US does.

"Chinese state-owned companies already are assembling heavy-lift rockets that could reach the moon, with a first launch scheduled for 2013. All that would be left to build for a manned mission is an Apollo-style lunar lander," the article says.

It later adds, "China plans to dock two spacecraft in orbit in 2010, a skill required for a lunar mission".

Let the race begin ....


THE FIRST CHINESE SPACE WALK




THE FIRST AMERICAN MOON WALK




Food for thought

This subject is for an entirely different post, but imagine if the Chinese landed on the moon and found no trace of the American flag, in fact, no trance of the US ever setting one foot on the moon ...