nitesh
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A European On The Moon - EURSOC - News and comment from Europe
Blueprints uncovered by British reporters show France plans to bolster the European Space Agency's mission.
The BBC reports that France wants to wrest control of ESA from the bureaucrats currently running it, and bring it under the control of nations. If Europe doesn't take its space program more seriously, it warns, it risks falling behind China, India and Japan's efforts to explore the final frontier.
France feels that a manned mission to Mars would be a suitable goal for the EU's space program to aim for.
It's amusing that only days after EURSOC observed that the EU had entered a new "Geopolitical Phase", France is pushing Cold War tactics upon the ESA.
Russia and the US measured their superpower status against one another via the Space Race; China announced its own superpower status by putting a man in orbit earlier this century. Now, it's Europe's turn to pose with rockets, and possibly to get that blue and gold flag fluttering in the Martian wind before the Chinese or the Americans do.
Well, it's one way of stirring pride in all things European. Could that pride eventually evolve into something resembling European patriotism?
China is believed to be concentrating on putting one of its citizens on the Moon first; joint Mars missions (unmanned or otherwise) are being considered with Russia. NASA is considering a manned mission to Mars before 2030. Should the EU really be getting into the starting blocks beside China and the US on the race to Mars?
Blueprints uncovered by British reporters show France plans to bolster the European Space Agency's mission.
The BBC reports that France wants to wrest control of ESA from the bureaucrats currently running it, and bring it under the control of nations. If Europe doesn't take its space program more seriously, it warns, it risks falling behind China, India and Japan's efforts to explore the final frontier.
France feels that a manned mission to Mars would be a suitable goal for the EU's space program to aim for.
It's amusing that only days after EURSOC observed that the EU had entered a new "Geopolitical Phase", France is pushing Cold War tactics upon the ESA.
Russia and the US measured their superpower status against one another via the Space Race; China announced its own superpower status by putting a man in orbit earlier this century. Now, it's Europe's turn to pose with rockets, and possibly to get that blue and gold flag fluttering in the Martian wind before the Chinese or the Americans do.
Well, it's one way of stirring pride in all things European. Could that pride eventually evolve into something resembling European patriotism?
China is believed to be concentrating on putting one of its citizens on the Moon first; joint Mars missions (unmanned or otherwise) are being considered with Russia. NASA is considering a manned mission to Mars before 2030. Should the EU really be getting into the starting blocks beside China and the US on the race to Mars?
