U.S. must 'go deep' to win space race

It's no secret that our country is in a competitive struggle, mostly with China, in many areas including trade policy, cloud computing, solar energy, artificial intelligence, and the like.

The space race is no exception.

America needs to "go deep" to win the race against China for dominance in deep space. In particular, we need a national focus on the Space Launch System (SLS) if we are to preserve and maintain our leadership in deep space exploration. We not only need support from American industry but also from the American people for a truly united and patriotic effort that will succeed.

Several U.S.-based contractors have come together to create a rocket for the Space Launch System (SLS) that, according to NASA, is the "most powerful rocket" it has ever built. It's being billed as a "megarocket" that is more powerful than the historic Saturn V, which is really saying something.

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With the SLS's Orion-equipped crew vehicle, we will be sending humans farther from our planet than ever before. The SLS is currently the only system focused on deep space exploration, so we have a huge opportunity here.

One reason we need to lead the way in deep space exploration is because we are in danger of losing our leadership in space and several other key areas to China. That is if we haven't lost it already.

An October 2017 speech by Chinese President Xi Jinping showcased China's aspirations to become the world's number one superpower.

In his 3½ hour speech to China's Communist Party Congress, President Jinping said, "The Chinese nation has stood up, grown rich, and become strong – and it now embraces the brilliant prospects of rejuvenation. It will be an era of China moving closer to center stage."

Addressing the Chinese military, President Jinping said: "We must build a powerful and modernized army, navy, air force, rocket force (emphasis added), and strategic support force; develop strong and efficient joint operations commanding institutions for theatre commands, and create a modern combat system with distinct Chinese characteristics."

According to many, China has indeed already overtaken the United States in many key areas:

In November 2017, Bloomberg published an article titled "China has a real tech edge over the US, and it's cultural."

An October‎ 18, ‎2017,‎ article ‎on CNBC.com was titled "Who has the world's number one economy? Not the U.S."

A story at usatoday.com in April 2017 was titled "Why China is beating the U.S. at innovation."

And perhaps most interesting, an article in The Economist magazine in February 2018 was titled "China will soon have air power rivalling the West's: In some technologies, it has surpassed it."

How is China accomplishing this? Decades of advantageous protectionism in various forms. These include high import tariffs, quotas, theft of intellectual property, forced technology transfers, mandating American companies form joint ventures with Chinese companies to operate there, state subsidies for domestic firms, currency manipulation, and other forms discriminating against foreign companies to favor national champions. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, roughly one-third of our trade deficit with China involves "advanced technology products."

And we have allowed a steady flow of outsourcing of what were once American jobs to China thinking that the prospect of cheap products was the way to U.S. prosperity. But we have neglected to realize that workers in China don't pay taxes to America. Only American workers pay taxes to America. Without adequate revenue, we can't pay for the things that "We the People" have demanded from the use of our tax dollars including highly desirable space exploration.

As a nation, we cannot allow similar characteristics to develop when it comes to the space race. It's a critical area where we must remain number one.

If China does eventually surpass us in the space race as well as economically and militarily, will Americans then passionately go out in the streets happily chanting "We're number two, we're number two!"?

I doubt it.

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