Commercial Payload From China to Fly on ISS
For the first time Chinese research to fly on NASA’s space station, Houston Chronicle
“A Houston company has negotiated a historic agreement to fly a Chinese experiment on the International Space Station, a small but symbolic maneuver around a law that bans any scientific cooperation between NASA and the communist country. Over a conference table adorned with an American and a Chinese flag, Jeff Manber last week agreed to take a DNA experiment into space next year. Manber’s Houston-based company, NanoRacks, helps scientists do research on board the station. Because of decades of suspicion about Chinese motives and the country’s regime, Congress prohibits NASA from working with the country in any capacity. But the new deal, which is apparently legal, could begin to change that. “It’s symbolic, and it’s meaningful,” Manber said Monday, after returning from Beijing. “But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”
Keith’s note: According to a NanoRacks source, in crafting this agreement with Beijing Institute of Technology, NanoRacks worked to assure compliance with the 2011 spending bill Amendment offered by former Rep. Frank Wolf which places restrictions on formal NASA cooperation with China’s space program. After consultation with NASA and the Obama Administration, NanoRacks approached Professor Feng of Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT) and invited him to continue his immune system research using NanoRacks’ commercial hardware on the ISS.
NanoRacks notes that money flows from China to the U.S.; that no hardware or technology flows to China (just a return of data and experiment samples); that this experiment has intrinsic scientific value; and that the payload uses NanoRacks hardware and is a NanoRacks customer payload as part of their normal ISS payload allocation. This is NOT a NASA/Chinese research project. In addition, this project (“DNA Mismatching During PCR Reaction Exposed to Space Environment”) reflies payload hardware that was flown on Shenzou 8. As such, the payload developer already has their own independent pathway to long-duration exposure in space. Lastly, The Beijing Institute of Technology Life Sciences Department publishes their scientific results in leading Western research publications thereby assuring a full dissemination of results in compliance with the spirit of ISS basic research.
NanoRacks was informed by the Obama Administration that it believes that this project is in compliance with the Wolf Amendment. Also, in accordance with ISS International Partners agreements, member nations of the ISS were informed of this project.
This is a very positive step. Sorta like ping-pong.
“that no hardware or technology flows to China”
Well, they have to have at least payload interface specs for the racks to design the payload, right ? Or i guess most ( all ? ) of this is ITAR-free anyway
I don’t think so. If I understand it correctly, Nanoracks, a US company, provides the interface to the space station. The experiment connects to the nanoracks hardware and wouldn’t require any knowledge of the interface to station itself.
Nanoracks hardware is still space tech designed and built in US – which i thought was under almost blanket export control.
Otherwise a ‘buffer’ company like Nanoracks could build payload adapters for example for Long March launch vehicles for whatever US satellite hardware, no ?
We do not live in the idyllic fictitious world of the Star Trek set. China is not a member of Star Fleet. There sole intention is to surpass the UNITED STATES as the worlds dominant super power….Imagine that world!
I, for one, do not want that. This is a mistake
I think they are near-term looking for regional dominance and (quite) long-term superpower parity.
Superpower dominance would be a tough row to hoe for them for the foreseeable future.
The Cold Warrior in me strongly tends towards getting into their face.
My hero:
http://modkraft.dk/sites/de…
Most Chinese I know were not particularly sympathetic to the Tianamin Square demonstrators because they endangered the nation’s highest priorities, political stability and economic growth. Because we have not lived through over a century of foreign occupation by the Western powers (including at times the US!), the invasion by Japan with about 20 million killed, decades of civil war and the massive suffering and poverty of the cultural revolution, we in the US tend not to have the same perspectives.
Remember what frankin said about trading liberty for security
That’s off-point, Yale. DW correctly points out that the Chinese have a different mindset.
Hell, I have a different mindset from the teenagers in my now country! Cant imagine how I would feel differently had our country lived through a similar history.
BTW – That quote from Franklin I have just learned is not what Franklin meant, altho our modern erroneous interpretation is actually quite useful and applicable.
China has not violently overthrown their thug leaders (yet) because, beyond the personal danger, there was a contract that the government would continuously raise living standards in exchange for total submission to that same government. As that phony prosperity is starting its inevitable decay and decline social strains are skyrocketing and instability is growing.
Everything from the US Civil War, thru the European experience including fascism, WW1, autocratic monarchies, centuries of external invasions, centuries of foreign occupation, the catastrophe of WW2, and so forth, have led most Western peoples to personal relative economic stability and personal freedom by following the enlightened path of democracy and the rule of law (created BY the people and FOR the people).
Don’t forget, that horrendous suffering you mention of the Chinese civil wars and the cultural revolution were CAUSED by the same gangster party in total control now.
An insiders view of the Tianamin Square murders:
https://www.washingtonpost….
The Chinese have to work out their internal politics themselves. It’s inevitable that we will have opinions, and root for one side or the other, but let’s not let ourselves be drawn into it too much, or we will inevitably become the Foreign Enemy, helping the government to unite the country against historic outside oppressors.
Wish them well on their journey….
You have no choice. The US cannot afford to rule the world.
Any power that wants to control the wold (for “good” or for evil) automatically makes itself the enemy of all other peoples. We in the USA have been learning this the hard way, as others have before us, and others likely will after us. Let’s just try to present a friendly face to all as much as possible to invite other folks into cooperation, but be prepared to act firmly when we have to, in concert with others as much as possible.
China has existed as a nation for almost 4000 years, and as a distinct culture for almost twice as long. Today it has the largest population and the fastest rate of economic growth in the world. China has more internet users, more cell phone users, and graduates more engineers and scientists every year than the US. China is one of only three nations that has launched humans into space.
The xenophobic policies of Frank Wolf are an embarrassment to every American. The US and China will be the world’s superpowers for a generation. The world our children will live in depends on whether we can learn to work together and avoid another superpower conflict. Working together in space can, in some small way, help.
Neither our friend nor our enemy. China is a proud and powerful nation with which we must learn to live in peace. Restrictions on cooperation in space will have no effect on China’s technological progress. They will simply act to create hostility and mistrust.
And yet Russia *is* our friend?
I think a possible difference is that russia is a decaying entity that we are attempting to manage as it declines, while China is a rising threat that needs to be managed differently.
Your point that nations around the world require different management is exactly so.
Great news. Let’s not carry our earthly quarrels into space unless it is absolutely unavoidable.
As a Chinese citizen, hell ya. We have been looking up to NASA for too darn long, but some magic prohibit us from reaching that. It’s about darn time that breaks down.
Can you specify which Chinese government policies may be slowing technological progress and which specific, by name, Chinese government officials may be responsible? If you prefer not to, you will now realize what the “magic” is that is prohibiting China from progressing as it should have been doing.
Fine. Fly it. But X-ray the cr*p out of it, first. Trust but verify.
I agree China is a competitor. We must learn to live in a world where businesses and nations can be competitors but still understand each other and work together for mutual benefit. All of our high tech manufacturers are doing a significant part of their manufacturing in China. China is our largest overseas trading partner. We can work for understanding and try to ensure a stable and peaceful world for our children, or we can make petty attempts to generate conflict. What we sow, we will reap.
This is a thread about flying an experiment to the ISS and you have turned it into an off topic political rant fest. Yet another thread I am closing. Soon I will simply not allow any comments.