There are a few factors. The biggest is a shift centralized planning to the NSSC, which stands for the National Space Science Center. This will produce a spillover effect on all operations
Cyranoski, 11-15 – “China forges ahead in space,” Nature.com, http://www.nature.com/news/china-forges ... ace-1.9359.
For years, the lack of a clear national strategic plan that prioritized missions has hampered researchers’ efforts to launch space telescopes or planetary probes. The convoluted relationships between the various Chinese agencies involved in funding, building and launching satellites impeded many mission proposals, and decisions about their fate were at best “opaque”, according to one European researcher who has collaborated with Chinese space scientists.
Centralized planning under the NSSC could change that. The centre already has about 450 staff, including 50 scientists, inherited from its predecessor, the Center for Space Science and Applied Research, which last year had a budget of 300 million renminbi (US$47 million). (Individual missions have separate funding.) That will grow to 700 million renminbi as the centre develops space science missions over the next few years.
Will this push China ahead of the U.S. in the next two decades? Some think it will
Cyranoski, 11-15 – “China forges ahead in space,” Nature.com, http://www.nature.com/news/china-forges ... ace-1.9359.
“China is firmly committed to upping its profile in space science, both to expand its technological base and to boost its domestic and international prestige,” says space security expert Clay Moltz of the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. “As long as China’s economy continues to deliver strong growth, I expect space science missions will continue to expand.”
A European scientist who has worked with China’s space scientists agrees that its space science will flourish, particularly as Chinese senior scientists return from research positions in the West. “In twenty years, China will be dominating the United States,” he says. “There is a sense of national urgency and dedication in China, and the rate at which they learn is phenomenal. It won’t take that long.”
The looming question is what it heralds for international cooperation. The outward signs from initial NSSC gatherings have suggested a desire for cooperation
Cyranoski, 11-15 – “China forges ahead in space,” Nature.com, http://www.nature.com/news/china-forges ... ace-1.9359.
CAS president Bai Chunli, in his speech at the NSSC inauguration, confirmed that the centre will endeavour to “deepen international cooperation”, adding that “scientists from around the world will be able to access data” from the missions.
However, there are two big hurdles.
The first is China’s space selection process, which will remain opaque despite their new capability
Cyranoski, 11-15 – “China forges ahead in space,” Nature.com, http://www.nature.com/news/china-forges ... ace-1.9359.
But Wu must win the confidence of potential collaborators who have been frustrated in the past by bureaucracy and delays when they tried to work with China. Indeed, several scientists interviewed by Nature for this article were unwilling to speak on the record, fearing that future partnerships with China could be jeopardized.
Some worry that the new missions, like China’s space station, may be exclusively national projects. “In principle, it is relatively advantageous to European researchers to be involved in Chinese missions,” says one UK space scientist. “However, there has not yet been a Chinese mission with an instrument selection process that was open to the wider world, as opposed to ‘by invitation’.”
The other factor is built up resentment. It doesn’t just all go away overnight, and the state of the U.S.-China space relationship is fractious at best
Cyranoski, 11-15 – “China forges ahead in space,” Nature.com, http://www.nature.com/news/china-forges ... ace-1.9359.
Collaboration with scientists in the United States is certainly unlikely. That country has always vetoed Chinese participation in the International Space Station, and congressional antipathy towards China was ramped up earlier this year. In April, congressman Frank Wolf (Republican, Virginia), who chairs the subcommittee that funds NASA, modified a spending bill to prevent the agency from using federal funds on joint projects with China. But if China’s planned space science missions go ahead “and the United States is locked out, it will be a huge missed opportunity”, says a US-based astrophysicist familiar with Chinese science.
