Can the U.S. and China Cooperate in Space?

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August 05, 2021

Dear Reader, This week, we're thinking about the importance of partnerships. Our lead story examines the question of whether terrestrial tensions between the U.S. and China are destined to extend off-world. Can these two spaceflight superpowers collaborate on future crew habitats and interplanetary missions, or are they destined to always go separate ways? The answer, whatever it is, will probably define the landscape of 21st-century state-sponsored space science. Elsewhere, we have updates on new niches for life on Mars, the hype about hypersonic weapons, the far-out possibilities for mushrooms in space, and more. Enjoy!

Lee Billings, Senior Editor, Space & Physics @LeeBillings

Space Exploration Can the U.S. and China Cooperate in Space? China's meteoric rise in space science and exploration—along with its new partnership with Russia—is spurring U.S. experts to reconsider a long-standing prohibition on bilateral collaborations By Leonard David

Extraterrestrial Life Future Space Travel Might Require Mushrooms Mycologist Paul Stamets discusses the potential extraterrestrial uses of fungi, including terraforming planets, building human habitats—and providing psilocybin therapy to astronauts By Nick Hilden

Planetary Science Buried 'Lakes' on Mars May Just Be Frozen Clay Mineral deposits, not salty water, are the most likely cause of radar reflections spotted beneath the planet's south pole, a new study finds By Charles Q. Choi,SPACE.com

Space & Physics Martian Crust Could Sustain Life through Radiation Meteorites reveal that so long as groundwater is present, the Martian subsurface is habitable By Nikk Ogasa

Space & Physics Brown Dwarfs Could Reveal Secrets of Planet and Star Formation They're not quite stars and not quite planets but can help us understand both By Katelyn Allers

Space & Physics The Physics and Hype of Hypersonic Weapons These novel missiles cannot live up to the grand promises made on their behalf, aerodynamics shows By David Wright,Cameron Tracy

Extraterrestrial Life Harvard's Avi Loeb Thinks We Should Study UFOs--and He's Not Wrong As a SETI scientist, I'm grateful that he has the freedom—and the guts—to go where few would dare to go By Seth Shostak

Extraterrestrial Life To Understand UAP, We Need Megapixel Imagery If any of them represent advanced technology, high-resolution photographs might tell us whether they're metaphorically labeled "Made in China" or "Made on Exoplanet X" By Avi Loeb

Space & Physics The Human Framework for Alien Life By Andrea Gawrylewski

Weather 5G Wireless Could Interfere with Weather Forecasts Satellite tracking of water vapor, critical for accurate forecasts, may be foiled by cellphone tower transmissions By John Fialka,E&E News

FROM THE STORE Scientific American Space & Physics, Volume 4, Issue 4

QUOTE OF THE DAY "Psilocybin mushrooms should be an essential part of your psychological tool kit for astronauts to be able to endure the solitude and the challenges of space and isolation." Paul Stamets, mycologist

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