Gonzaga Debate Institute 2011 Mercury China Coop Aff
Solvency – Data Sharing – Solves Coop
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Solvency – Data Sharing – Solves CoopThe U.S. and China should cooperate over sharing data about space Cheng, Heritage Foundation Asian Studies Center Research Fellow, 9 (Dean, The Heritage Foundation's research fellow on Chinese political and security affairs, specializes in China's military and foreign policy, written extensively on China's military doctrine, technological implications of its space program, worked with Science Applications International Corp, with the China Studies division of the Center for Naval Analyses, studied China's defense-industrial complex for a congressional agency, as an analyst in the International Security and Space Program, spoken at the National Space Symposium, National Defense University, the Air Force Academy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Eisenhower Center for Space and Defense Studies, “REFLECTIONS ON SINO –US SPACE COOPERATION,” Space and Defense, Vol. 2, No.3, December 2009, pg. 2-3) KA The four levels of cooperation involve a steadily greater level of interaction between the two sides. At the same time, each subsequent level of cooperation also entails greater disclosure, and increasingly involves not only revealing types of data, but also decision-making processes. Sharing data. Most promising may be the possibility of sharing the data derived from space. With the increasing quantity and quality of data derived from space that is available commercially, it was suggested by some of the participants in the Eisenhower Center workshops that data-sharing may be a means of facilitating cooperation between the US and the PRC. Indeed, there is already some degree of data sharing already, in both bilateral and multilateral contexts. For example, the United States is on record as sharing debris data with the PRC prior to any manned Chinese launches. Some of this already occurs. The US, for example, has provided collision avoidance analysis to the PRC prior to several of its manned launches, including the Shenzhou-VI.1 In a more multilateral context, there are already several venues where the US and the PRC are both members. These include the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), to which both nations provide data from their respective meteorological satellites. In addition, the United States, the PRC, and the European Space Agency have all decided to allow unrestricted access to their respective Earth observation data and archives.2 Thus, the US can now examine Chinese data from its CBERS (China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite) system, while the PRC may examine the range of LANDSAT data. While this may not constitute direct sharing of data, each state can access the information that the other provides. Similarly, the United States decided years ago to make the GPS signal readily accessible. While it initially only provided a downgraded signal, today, the more accurate signal is made available. While not specifically aimed at China (or any other nation), this again suggests that there is ample room for sharing data. Less sanguine observers would not, however, that such cooperation is nonetheless extremely limited. Both nations, for example, are also party to the UN Convention on the Registration of Objects Launched into Outer Space, as well as the Outer Space Treaty.3 Compliance by both states (as well as others) to the UN Registration, however, has been described in the past as “spotty.”4 China Say Yes (1/3)China will cooperate – multiple incentives Foust, editor of Space Review, 6, (Jeff, Editor and Publisher of Space Review, “China, Competition, and Cooperation,” Space Review, April 10, 2006, http://www.thespacereview.com/article/599/1, JSkoog) After Luo’s talk, it was clear that China’s space program does not pose the threat to American space supremacy voiced several days earlier by some congressmen. Not only does China not have any stated plans to land humans on the Moon in 2017 (or at any time in the foreseeable future), China’s plans for the next five to ten years appear focused on trying to bring its space capabilities up to the level that the existing major space powers, including the US, have today. That does not mean that the US should become complacent regarding the Chinese, but it also means that there is no reason to fear them as well. Some might argue that there’s no reason to take Luo at his word, and that China may yet be developing in secret advanced space capabilities, including manned lunar exploration. True, it is wise to be skeptical about pronouncements of government officials, regardless of country. However, such capabilities, which may require the development of even-larger launch vehicles and a new spaceport, cannot be developed in secret forever. (See “Red Moon. Dark Moon.”, The Space Review, October 11, 2005.) Moreover, working on such projects in secret could negate what is one of the major purposes of the Chinese space program: international prestige. Some insight into that came during the question and answer session after Luo’s CSIS talk, when someone asked why China was pursuing both manned spaceflight and lunar exploration programs when he previously said the focus of Chinese space efforts was on practical applications. Luo argued that both programs fall into the space science and technology development aspects of China’s overall program. Moreover, in arguments not entirely unfamiliar to space advocates in the US, he said that the manned program also permitted research in biological and agricultural projects. However, one can argue that the biggest benefits of both the Shenzhou and Chang’e programs are prestige: China is only the third country to launch humans into orbit, and sending a series of probes to the Moon would put it into a similarly elite group of nations. By putting itself generally in the same tier of space powers as the US, it not only helps establish its credentials as a world power, it also elevates itself above the other major countries in East and South Asia, including spacefaring nations like Japan and India. Of course, one way for China to use space to make its mark as a world power is to race the US back to the Moon, as some in the US think China is doing. However, that would require a significant amount of money, which the Chinese program appears to be lacking. Asked bout the size of the Chinese space budget, Luo said that Chinese budgets were “very complicated” but estimated annual expenditures at about $500 million. That’s not only a small fraction of NASA’s $16.5-billion budget, it’s also smaller than what Russia—which, like China, benefits from low-cost labor—spends on its space program today. It may explain why some of the high-profile, but expensive, aspects of China’s space program, like Shenzhou, have proceeded at a relatively slow pace. Chinese get “very humble” when the two programs are compared, according to Congressman Tom Feeney. “I think [that’s] partly because they do not want to be a threat and partly because they do not want to overly excite expectations that they cannot live up to.” Given that modest budget, it’s no wonder that Luo emphasized cooperation, not competition, with the US in his talk. He noted that China is actively working with a number of other countries on various space ventures, and gently chided the US for not being nearly as open to cooperation with China as it was back in the 1980s. “I think one country, if it is open, it will have progress and prosperity, and if it is closed, then it is going to be left behind,” he said. He even suggested that China might be willing to participate in some way with the International Space Station. “ISS cooperation, we have always been interested,” he said. “We don’t have the ticket yet.” In any case, any US-China cooperation in space would provide a big boost in regional and international prestige for China, since it would be perceived as being an equal, in some respects, of the US in space—and it would cost far less than a space race. Others have previously pointed out that China does not appear competitive when it compares its space program with the American effort. Rep. Tom Feeney, who visited China earlier this year as part of the first Congressional delegation to go to the Chinese manned launch center in Jiuquan, told a Space Transportation Association breakfast in February that Chinese get “very humble” when the two programs are compared. “I think [that’s] partly because they do not want to be a threat and Directory: files files -> Answer True False 2 points Question 2 files -> Integer programming and game theory files -> 4 Integer Programming files -> Bpa vehicle Window Repair Scenario #1 task: Procure vehicle window relacement. Objective files -> Pop Warner History files -> North Carolina Inclusion Initiative Mapping Where Children with ieps are Being Served Purpose files -> Fall 2013 Spring 2014 Program Data: Standard 1 Exhibit 4d files -> Hanban – asia society confucius classrooms network 2010 request for proposal files -> Northern England’s set-jetting locations Download 0.99 Mb. Share with your friends:
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