14 DAY TRIAL // As space technology progresses, conducting a manned mission to Mars is becoming a real possibility, and an expensive one at that. In conducting such a difficult task, the United States is considering all of its alternatives, including cooperating with China on the matter.
A senior official at the White House told the House Appropriations commerce, justice, science subcommittee on May 4 that US President Barack Obama views China as a potential partner in this regard. Obama believes the mission is too expensive to be carried out by any one country.
The only way to reach the level of commitment and mutual trust needed to make this a reality, added White House science adviser John Holdren, is to engage in smaller-scale, near-term projects with the Asian nation.
This should foster the development of friendly relations between the two countries, and would help set the foundations for a more durable cooperation in the future. Before testifying, however, Holdren explained that the nature of his speech is purely speculative.
Any type of cooperation with Beijing on this matter needs to be discussed beforehand. Holdren merely transmitted the point that Obama wanted to make, which is that all options should be considered first.
In the past, the White House official also said that NASA would stand a lot to gain from collaborating with the China National Space Administration (CNSA) in tracking and monitoring space debris.
“[What] the president has deemed worth discussing with the Chinese and others is that when the time comes for humans to visit Mars, it's going to be an extremely expensive proposition and the question is whether it will really make sense – at the time that we're ready to do that – to do it as one nation rather than to do it in concert,” Holdren said.
“But many of us, including the president, including myself, including [NASA Administrator Charles] Bolden believe that it's not too soon to have preliminary conversations about what involving China in that sort of cooperation might entail,” he went on to say.
“If China is going to be, by 2030, the biggest economy in the world […] it could certainly be to our benefit to share the costs of such an expensive venture with them and with others,” the official added, quoted by Space.
But Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.), the leader of the subcommittee and a critic of China and its agenda, disapproved of Holdren's statements, and disagreed with the President's point of view.
“When you say you want to work in concert, it's almost like you're talking about Norway or England or something like that,” he told the White House official.
“As long as I have breath in me, we will talk about this, we will deal with this issue, whether it be a Republican administration or a Democrat administration, it is fundamentally immoral,” he added.