The tension between the two largest space superpowers has reached a new peak. The unprecedented measure of Block the access of Chinese citizens To all the programs, facilities and networks of NASA remembers the last century, with some turns of the times that are running: the veto is so strict that It extends even to zoom meetings.
Beyond the Wolf amendment. US laws They already prohibited direct collaboration Between NASA and Chinese entities. The most famous law is the Wolf amendment, which prevents China’s access to the International Space Station since 2011, which is why the Chinese Space Agency has put in orbit Your own space station permanently inhabited.
The new veto, which entered into force on September 5, affects all citizens of Chinese nationality, although they reside in the United States with visas in order. NASA not only prevents them from working on agency projects as contractors, but also as postgraduate students or university scientists. All Chinese have restricted physical access to NASA’s facilities, materials and networks for a matter of “cybersecurity.”
In full lunar career. The veto is produced just when NASA’s acting administrator Sean Duffy has adopted an aggressive rhetoric against China. “We are in a second space race,” he said In a recent meeting With NASA employees. “We are going to win the Chinese on the Moon. We are going to do it safely. We are going to do it fast. We are going to do it well.”
Not everyone shares their optimism. The former NASA Chief Jim Bridenstine, the original promoter of the Artemis program, declared otherwise Before the United States Senate: “Unless something changes, it is very unlikely that the United States exceeds the calendar planned by China to reach the surface of the moon.” Duffy’s response? “That they condemn me if that is the story we write.”
A cold war for the control of the moon. The background of this new lunar career is both geopolitical and economic. Whoever first arrives at the South Lunar Pole and establishes a permanent basis will have a decisive advantage to exploit resources such as ice water and communications: the country that installs the first antenna in a high place will be the one who establishes the protocols and technical standards of the southern space.
But the greatest fear in Washington is that China can declare an “exclusion zone” installing a small nuclear reactor on the moon for its electrical systems. A concern that led the government to order NASA that Accelerate your plans to install your own nuclear reactor Before Ilrs do it, the Sino-Rusa Alliance to establish a laboratory on the Moon.
A spying plot. The distrust climate is also fed by a long history of accusations of industrial and technological espionage between countries. This fear has been revived with the Artificial intelligence boomtaking giants such as Google and OpenAi to harden their selection processes to avoid the filtration of commercial secrets.
The semiconductor sector, a pillar of modern technology, has been one of the most affected by blockages between the two countries. Not for reason: key companies such as Dutch Asml and Taiwanese TSMC have suffered Theft of commercial secrets by employees linked to Chinese companies. The United States even extends its concern to the renewable energy sector, where it claims to have found Non -documented communication components on Chinese manufacturing devices.
The veto to Chinese citizens is the last movement. An unequivocal sign that, before The internal problems of your lunar programThe United States is willing to take drastic measures to protect what its technological leadership and national security consider. The new space race has ceased to be an engineering competition to become an open conflict, where talent and scientific collaboration now have a passport.
Image | POT
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