Cina: strategia Luna

Un esperto di cose spaziali, essi', perche' Bob Bigelow e' un riccone visionario che non fa il bunga-bunga ma investe molte energie e soldi in cose strane, sopra di noi: lo spazio ed il soprannaturale. E' lui che ha finanziato il primo lancio riuscito di una navicella spaziale privata. In questa puntata della radio Coast to Coast AM esprime la sua convinzione che la Cina potrebbe avere un piano strategico per impadronirsi della Luna.

Qui sotto il riassunto della parte di trasmissione con Bigelow, tratto da:
www.coasttocoastam.com/show/2011/02/27

During the first half of the program, George Knapp was joined by entrepreneur Bob Bigelow, who shared his concerns that China is poised to own the Moon. "Either by accident or by design, they are putting themselves in an excellent position for successful execution of this," he said of China's ability to not just travel to the Moon, but to stay there and harvest its resources. He explained that the abundance of Helium-3 and iced water, along with the position of the Moon as a launching pad for further exploration, make it an extremely valuable asset for any ambitious nation. "It's probably one of the few things that you could actually use the word 'quadrillion' as a dollar value," he estimated, "by the time you added everything up."

Regarding the legality of physically owning the Moon, Bigelow said that the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, of which China is a member, declared the Moon "is to be used for the betterment of all mankind" and cannot be owned by any particular nation. However, he noted that a clause in the treaty allows for any nation to opt out of the agreement with one year's notice. This relatively small window of time would allow for China to easily lay claim to vast areas of the Moon, since it would have a significant lead before any nations could react to their plan. "It could be, by the time we get there, we'll have to ask the Chinese for permission to land," he observed. While he acknowledged that the entire premise of China owning the Moon is theoretical, Bigelow lamented that there appears to be no viable method to actually stop the Chinese from undertaking such a plan should they decide to pursue it.