Space Collaboration with China? Elon Musk says US should do it.

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Published: September 21, 2021

Tesla's CEO Elon Musk hopes for friendly relations between the two countries - at least when it comes to space - while the US seeks to reaffirm its position of global domination by monitoring China's expansion and confronting it in the South China Sea.

In many earthly issues, the USA and China don't see eye-to-eye. Although these discrepancies are mostly linked to trade, marine and physical frontiers, national security and even carbon emissions, it is expected that they will be united as part of the human race when heading for the heaven and beyond.

That, unfortunately, is not the case. The disparities between the two countries extend all the way to low-earth orbit and beyond. The International Space Station (ISS), which has hosted more than 200 astronauts from 19 different countries, is off-limits to China due to US legislation. As the flying laboratory nears the end of its planned lifespan in 2024, China is building its own, putting US astronauts on a no-fly list and putting low-gravity research on hold.

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China has succeeded in sending a rover to Mars, becoming only the second country to do so after the United States, but it may also be speeding up a crewed mission to the Moon in order to compete directly with NASA's Artemis Program. While China is willing to cooperate with Russia on a Moon base, working with the United States does not appear to be a top priority. Rather, China appears to be on the verge of defeating the United States in a field that the US has dominated for decades since the end of the Cold War.

Does this attitude help when we broaden our horizons and plan multi-month journeys to far-away planets? Just like the U.S.-Russian cooperation yielded the ISS, wouldn't co-operation with China also lead to the development of technologies that would help the human race? These are the kind of questions that The Mars Society, an organization advocating for the exploration and creating settlements on Mars asked.

That was the answer from Musk.

The Wolf Amendment is the only thing standing in the way. Perhaps Elon Musk has a more intricate plan to do away with it as well.

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