(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)