The Future of United States – Chinese Space Relations

In recent years the U.S. space program has been in decline, mostly due to budget cuts. Because of those reductions, NASA is struggling to fund its space exploration programs. One solution to this problem is to collaborate with other space agencies to share the cost and the knowledge gained. The Chinese have recently put a lot of effort into becoming a global space power and are willing to collaborate with other agencies in their space exploration efforts. The United States, however, is very reluctant to enter into any type of collaborative effort with the Chinese for a host of reasons. In order to gain greater insight into this issue, a survey will be conducted using the following three control groups: 1) individuals affiliated with the U.S. space program and related agencies, 2) individuals affiliated with the U.S. military and related security agencies, and 3) individuals not affiliated with either group previously mentioned. It is believed that these three groups will give a good indication of the general feelings of the United States population towards cooperating with the Chinese in spaceflight and what obstacles need to be overcome. The central research questions will focus on whether the participants believe the United States should collaborate with the Chinese, what they believe are the main objectives of the Chinese space program, and what issues need to be addressed before collaboration is possible. The author predicts that the individuals affiliated with the space program and those of the military will be diametrically opposed to one another while most of the general public will support collaboration