鈥淲E CHOOSE to go to the moon鈥� because that goal will serve to organise and measure the best of our energies and skills,鈥� said US president John F. Kennedy in 1961. Fair enough. But the space race was about international rivalry as well as national endeavour.
Now China and India seem to be picking up where the US and the Soviet Union left off. India鈥檚 Mars Orbiter Mission will launch next month, having been fast-tracked after a Chinese mission failed (see 鈥�India set to launch its debut Mars mission鈥�). China, for its part, plans to put a rover on the moon in December.
Will we see a repeat of the space race, this time aiming for Mars? Competition drives innovation, to be sure. But the engineering and financial challenges involved in putting humans on Mars may be so huge as to daunt even the two Asian superpowers. Perhaps this time, collaboration will prove to be the winning strategy.
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This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淎sian space race shoots for Mars鈥�
