(bright music)
- [Narrator] Every two years,
there's a critical window to go to Mars.
This summer, the planets aligned
so that a spacecraft can get there
with the least amount of fuel.
NASA is sending its ninth spacecraft
to the red planet's surface
and other nations are trying to go too.
One is China, which is launching
its first solo expedition.
Aiming to send in one go,
as much equipment as the
U.S. did in several missions
to potentially find evidence
of past or present life.
- That's a whole lot of steps at once.
China will really have made a
stand for their space agency
and for their country.
- We're in a space race today
just as we were in the 1960s.
And the stakes are even higher.
- [Narrator] The U.S.
and China are contenders
for science, profit, and
pride beyond the stratosphere.
And China has made a lot of progress.
Since 2018, it has sent more rockets
than any other country
and has become the second biggest spender
in space programs behind the U.S.
Here's what China is aiming for in space
and how those plans can challenge the U.S.
(dramatic music)
- [Namrata] In China, since
you have a continuance
of a Communist Party of China,
its ability to focus on
one mission spans 10 years.
- [Narrator] Namrata Goswami
analyzes space programs
in China and the U.S.
She says China's space
program's greatest advantage
is that once the single
party government sets
a longterm goal, plans
are unlikely to change.
For instance, China is scheduled
to set up mankind's first
permanent lunar base in 2036.
Experts say China envisions the moon
becoming a sort of pit
stop and gas station,
charging other countries
to refuel spacecrafts
that need to reach farther destinations.
Meanwhile, NASA, Congress,
and the wider space community
have debated for decades,
whether to refocus on the moon.
- In the U.S. the problem is
that you have a change in perspective,
with the change in administration.
Obama said that we do not need
to go to the moon anymore.
- We've been there before.
- [Namrata] Suddenly you have
Trump come in and he argues
that no, we need to go back to the moon.
It's the moon to Mars.
- [Narrator] Well, the
debate continues in the U.S.,
China is breaking new ground.
It landed a robotic explorer
on the moon's far side last year.
Something no other country
has ever done before.
- The first step is the moon.
China want to make this step very solid.
And to build our ability
and to get good technology
and that we can go farther.
- [Narrator] Long Xiao says
China's Chang'e 5 probe launch
later this year could return
lunar samples to earth
and help advance research
into turning them into rocket fuel.
- The United States is still talking
about getting somewhere first in space,
showing off new technology.
- The first woman, and
the next man on the moon
will both be American astronauts,
launched by American
rockets from American soil.
(audience applauding)
- [Narrator] But the one
advantage the U.S. may have
is a number of collaborations between NASA
and private space companies led
by high profile billionaires.
The space agency has signed
billion dollar partnerships
to do things like sending NASA astronauts
and space tourists into orbit.
- We have all these rich
guys, they love rockets.
- [Narrator] Space experts
say the pooling of money
and brains from various
companies and universities is
what makes the U.S. program so special.
As of today, the U.S.
remains a model for China,
which is actually learning
from NASA's legacy and space.
Still.
- The little one, just to learn from us
that we want to contribute
to our new knowledge
to the human being.
This is also,
I think the some kind
form of national pride.
- [Narrator] In recent years,
China has surpassed the West in areas
like 5G and quantum encryption.
Technology that experts say
could accelerate China's space progress.
But Xiao says China has had
its fair share of failures.
Almost a decade ago,
the country's first orbiter
to Mars had to hitch a ride
off a Russian rocket
and never made it there.
This summer, Tianzhou 1
will demonstrate technology
that NASA is also rolling
out for the first time,
a radar mounted on top of the Rover
to detect subsurface water.
But there's one big difference.
While NASA is partnering with
the European Space Agency
to bring back the Martian
soil and rock samples
to earth in 2026,
China is doing it solo, and
it's not necessarily a choice.
NASA has never worked with China
because of national security concern.
The U.S. barred Chinese astronauts
from entering the
International Space Station
and excluded China from
being part of the Gateway,
a moon orbiting space station.
- There's not a good
thing about the tension
between China and the United States,
but I understand it to
share the technology
is harder for any country.
- [Narrator] So instead, China has planned
its own Mars' sample
return mission in 2028,
not far from the NASA and ISA timeline.
- The U.S. does not seem to realize
that because it ban any
kind of space collaboration
between the U.S. and China,
China develop its own indigenous capacity.
So they turned a disadvantage
into an advantage.
- [Narrator] In the long term,
some scientists from both
the U.S. and China have said
they hope cooperation will
help share costs and expertise.
- [Xiao] For science, we hope
we can share scientific
resource, exploration data,
and that will allow
scientists to work together.
(bright music)
