Is China competing against the United States with space exploration?

中国是否在太空探索方面跟美国竞争？

以下是Quora网友的评论：

Peter Kaye

NO, only the US thinks everything is a competition, what about India? Aren’t they going to the moon also? Are they competing with the US as well? Or are they all just doing their own thing? What about Europe and Russia? Are they all in competition? What prise is there for the winner?

不，只有美国认为一切都是竞争，印度呢？他们不是也要登月吗？他们也在跟美国竞争吗?还是说他们只是自己在闭门造车？那么欧洲和俄罗斯呢？他们都有在跟美国竞争吗？获胜者有什么奖励呢？

Victor Luke

Yes, of course they are. Although they are more likely competing against Space X rather than the US. Space is the high ground. Anyone that loses the high ground loses in general. China has a dread of being embarrassed more than almost any nation on earth. They have a need to be considered worthy of respect than most nations. So they have to compete almost everywhere.

是的，他们当然是在跟美国竞争了。但他们更有可能是跟Space X公司竞争。太空是制高点。任何失去高地的人都只能甘拜下风。中国比几乎所有国家都更害怕尴尬。他们比大多数国家更需要受人尊重的感觉。所以他们必须在几乎所有领域展开竞争。

Yew Yowboo

Whatever China put their heart and mind into, they aimed to be the world best. Their 4.5k culture taught them to be self sufficient as much as possible and dependents on other comes with a heavy price where they could lose their sovereign.

Hence to understand China is to understand the 4.5k culture.

China ancient saying, “if you give me one inche I'll give you one feet", if you respect me once I'll return 10 folds.

无论中国把重心放在哪个领域，他们的目标都是要力争成为世界第一。他们4500年的丰富文化教会他们要尽量实现自给自足，依赖他人只会导致沉重的代价，可能会失去主权。

因此，了解中国就是了解4500年的文化。

中国有句古话，“敬我一尺，我还之一丈”，如果你尊重我，我就会回敬你十倍。

Nathan James

Everybody seems to think that China is competing with the United States in everything…economic growth, military expansion, technological innovation, space exploration, etc.

China does not care about competition. That’s not what China is about. China only wants to do what’s best for its people. That includes growing its economy as large as possible. That includes elevating the people out of poverty and into the middle class.

That includes improving the safety and stability of society.

That includes giving the people a sense of national pride. Space exploration will do this.

似乎所有人都认为中国在所有领域都跟美国开展竞争，经济增长、军事扩张、技术创新、太空探索等。

中国并不关心竞争。中国志不在此。中国只想做对人民最有利的事情，比如将中国经济尽可能发展壮大。这就包含了让人民摆脱贫困，进入中产阶级。

这也包含了提高社会的安全度和稳定度。

这还包含了让中国人民获得民族自豪感。太空探索就能做到这一点。

Jason

I mean. The United States and Russia have already gotten the most “key” milestones. Getting on the moon and getting into space. If China wants people to know that they are able to compete in the space exploration race, I think that they best way to do it is to get people on Mars. That is the only way to let the world know that they are able to form a space team.

在我看来，美国和俄罗斯都已经取得了最“关键”的里程碑，登上月球，进入太空。如果中国想让人们知道中国也有能力参与太空探索领域的竞争，我认为他们最好的办法就是把人类送上火星。这是让全世界都知道中国有能力组建太空团队的唯一方法。

Guo Qiang Tang

Many people think that China's competition with the United States in space exploration is just like the space competition between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

In fact, China only focuses on its own long-term development.

China has a long-term plan for space exploration. Take China's lunar exploration project as an example.

许多人认为，中国跟美国在太空探索方面的竞争很像冷战时期美国跟苏联之间的太空竞争。

但事实上，中国只关注自身的长远发展。

中国制订了太空探索的长期规划。以中国的探月工程为例。

Begng in 1999, the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense organized relevant departments to systematically demonstrate the scientific goals of lunar exploration.

In 2000, the Chinese Academy of Sciences passed the review of the scientific goals and started to develop payloads based on the scientific goals.

从1999年开始，国防科工委组织有关部门系统论证月球探测的科学目标。

2000年，中国科学院通过了科学目标的审查，并开始根据科学目标研发飞船载荷。

In January 2004, the State Council of China approved the establishment of the lunar exploration project and named it the Chang'e Project.

The specific implementation steps are:

In the first phase, from 2004 to 2007, lunar exploration satellites were developed and launched to carry out lunar exploration.

2004年1月，批准设立了月球探测工程，并将其命名为“嫦娥工程”。

具体的实施步骤分为：

第一阶段，2004年至2007年，研制发射月球探测卫星，开展月球探测。

In the second phase, around 2013, the first lunar soft landing and automatic patrol exploration were carried out.

In the third stage, around 2020, the first automatic sampling and return exploration of lunar samples will be carried out.

第二阶段，2013年前后，开展首次月球软着陆和自动巡逻探测。

第三阶段，2020年前后，进行第一次月球样本自动采样和返回探测。

real situation:

On October 24, 2007, Chang'e-1 was launched and successfully completed the lunar exploration.

On December 2, 2013, the Chang'e-3 was launched, successfully realizing a lunar patrol and survey.

On November 24, 2020, Chang'e 5 was launched, and the soil was successfully retrieved from the moon. On December 17, the Chang'e 5 returner carried lunar samples and landed safely in a predetermined area in Inner Mongolia.

实际进展：

2007年10月24日，嫦娥一号发射成功，完成了对月球的探测。

2013年12月2日，嫦娥三号发射成功，完成了对月球的巡逻和考察。

2020年11月24日，嫦娥五号发射成功，成功从月球取回土壤。12月17日，嫦娥五号返回器携带着月球样本，安全降落在内蒙古的预定区域。

It can be seen that the goals of China's plan were almost completed on time.

When China began its lunar exploration project in 2000, China’s national power was far smaller than that of the United States, and it had no intention of competing with the United States at all.

On September 28, 2010, the official website of the chinese reported on the three-phase plan of the lunar exploration project.

At that time, China had only completed the first phase.

可以看出，中国几乎按时完成了目标。

当中国在2000年开始探月工程时，中国的国力远不如美国，中国根本没有与美国竞争的意图。

2010年9月28日，中国官方网站公布了探月工程的三期规划。

当时，中国还只是刚完成了第一阶段。

Steven Mak

If China wants to learn more about music, does that mean it wants to compete with the US on music as well? The US does not have the monopoly on space exploration, any nation that has the will and knowledge can try.

如果中国想要多学点音乐知识，是不是也意味着它想在音乐方面跟美国竞争？美国并没有垄断太空探索，有意愿有能力的国家都可以尝试。

Oliver Schwarz

Yes. But China's focus is not exploration. It's political and a public relations campaign. The Chinese public -or any nation's — is not interested in scientific insights. For the political elite: Is there political gain from that? Sometimes yes.

是的。但中国的重心不在勘探。这是一场政治和公共关系的运动。中国民众—或者全球各国的民众—对科学见解都不感兴趣。对政治精英而言：这样做有政治益处吗？有时候是的。

Ben Waggoner

Has the United States lost its predominant position in space exploration?

You do realize that right as you were asking the question, NASA was receiving this picture, right?

美国在太空探索领域失去了主导地位吗？

你在提出这个问题的时候应该也意识到，NASA收到了这张照片，对吧？

That thing—unofficially named Ultima Thule—is about 20 x 10 miles (31 x 19 km), it’s about as shiny and reflective as potting soil, and it’s over six billion kilometers away from Earth. The US-made Hubble Space Telescope was used to discover it in 2014. And just a few days ago, on January 1, 2019, the US-made New Horizons probe zoomed past it, passing only 2200 miles (3500 km) from it, and took pictures.

Ultima Thule is the most distant object ever visited by a human spacecraft. It’s going to take 18–20 months to download all the data that New Horizons captured on its flyby; this is only the first high-res image to be sent. We’ll be seeing more and better images as the data comes in. And there’s talk of trying to steer New Horizons to yet another Kuiper Belt object in the next few years. New Horizons successfully visited Pluto in June 2015, and now it’s reached Ultima Thule—and it’s still got some life in it.

这个被非正式命名为Ultima thua（天涯海角）的天体大约有20 x 10英里(31 x 19公里)，它和盆栽土壤一样闪亮、可以反光，距离地球超过60亿公里。2014年，美国制造的哈勃太空望远镜发现了这个天体。就在几天前，也就是2019年1月1日，美国制造的新视野号探测器从它身边掠过，距离它只有2200英里(3500公里)，并拍下了照片。

天涯海角是人类宇宙飞船访问过的最遥远的天体。下载“新视野”号在飞掠过程中获取的所有数据需要18-20个月的时间；这只是即将发送的第一张高分辨率图像。随着数据的输入，我们将看到更多更清晰的图像。有传言说，在未来几年里，新视野号将尝试驶向另一个柯伊伯带的天体。2015年6月，新视野号成功地访问了冥王星，现在它接近了天涯海角—而且它仍然有生命存在。

I’m quite willing to admit and discuss the flaws and shortcomings of the United States; there are so many ways we could be upholding our ideals better than we are. And I don’t mean to put down the USSR’s Venera and Lunokhod, or JAXA’s Hayabusa, or India’s Mangalyaan, or the ESA’s Mars Express and Rosetta and Huygens, or Russia’s capability to launch humans into space (which the US currently doesn’t have), or the Chinese Chang'e 4 probe that’s just landed on the far side of the moon. Or even the different countries that have contributed expertise and equipment to the US space program, or the scientists from all over the world that collaborate with US scientists.

我非常愿意承认和讨论美国的缺陷和不足；有很多方法可以让我们更好地坚持自己的理想。我并不想贬低苏联的金星号和月球车，或者JAXA的隼鸟号，印度的曼加里安号，欧洲航天局的火星快车号和罗塞塔号和惠更斯号，又或者俄罗斯将人类送入太空的能力(美国目前还没有)，中国的嫦娥四号探测器降落在月球背面，甚至是为美国太空计划提供专业知识和设备的不同国家，与美国科学家合作的来自世界各地的科学家。

I know darn well that science is an international endeavor, and the US isn’t always first in every accomplishment. Nor should it be. There’s room for everybody to score “firsts” in space. I’m not going to disparage any peaceful contributions to humanity’s knowledge of the universe, just because some of the brains responsible for gathering it didn’t come in bodies that happen to have US passports.

我非常清楚科学是一项国际事业，美国不可能在所有领域中都位列第一。事实也不该如此。每个国家都在太空中获得“第一”的潜力。我不会单纯因为某些负责收集宇宙知识的人才没有美国护照，就贬低他们对人类的宇宙知识的一切贡献。

Felix in

Americans achieved a leading position in exploring outer space as early as the 20th century. China will not compete with the United States, China has its own stable rhythm. Although China's economic strength is comparable to that of the United States, China has a huge population, so China will not spend too much money to pursue glory that cannot improve people's living standards.

早在20世纪，美国人就在探索外太空方面取得了领先地位。中国不会和美国竞争，中国有自己稳定的节奏。虽然中国的经济实力与美国相当，但中国人口众多，所以中国不会花费太多的钱去追求无法提高人民生活水平的虚名。

Morris Kamelgarn

China is now definitely right behind the United States in space exploration. They are definitely ahead of India and Japan. One thing they have in their favor is that their economy and government isn't as monolith and centralized as that of the old Soviet Union, though it is still in theory. The have the second largest economy in the world, and whether it is they or us who take the lead in the exploration of space depends primarily on who has the will and the imagination. We've shown little of either since Apollo. I thing it's doubtful that our government, disfunctional as it is, will be able to do this, but private companies like SpaceX, who aren't bound by government bureaucracy and infighting, might.

在太空探索方面，中国现在绝对落后于美国，但也绝对领先于印度和日本。对中国有利的一点是，中国的经济不像前苏联那样庞大和集中。中国是世界第二大经济体，在太空探索领域中国或美国谁能胜出，主要取决于谁有决心、谁有想象力。在阿波罗计划后，我们愈发低调了。我认为，我们的政府已经失能，能否做到这一点值得怀疑，但像Space X这样的私营公司，不受政府官僚主义和内斗的束缚，可能会做到。