Prominent US astronomers are boycotting a NASA meeting next month on exoplanets because Chinese scientists have been banned from attending
October 10, 2013 Leave a comment
Ban on Chinese sparks scientists’ boycott of NASA meeting
October 10, 2013
The final frontier: China’s first female astronaut Liu Yang leaves the re-entry capsule of a Shenzhou-9 spacecraft in Inner Mongolia in June last year. Photo: Xinhua
Prominent US astronomers are boycotting a NASA meeting next month on exoplanets because Chinese scientists have been banned from attending, experts say. The restriction is based on a law passed in 2011 and signed by President Barack Obama that prevents NASA funds from being used to collaborate with China or host Chinese visitors at US space agency facilities. Among those leading the boycott are Debra Fischer, an astronomy professor at Yale University, and Geoff Marcy, an astronomy professor at the University of California, Berkeley. ”In good conscience, I cannot attend a meeting that discriminates in this way. The meeting is about planets located trillions of miles away, with no national security implications,” Professor Marcy wrote in an email to the organisers.The ban on NASA co-operating with the Chinese has been on the books for two years. NASA administrator Charles Bolden told US politicians in March he was implementing more security measures following a potential security breach by a Chinese person working for a contractor at a NASA facility in Virginia.
”The person in question no longer works at Langley,” Mr Bolden said at a hearing on March 20 before the House subcommittee that oversees funding for NASA.
”I have ordered a complete review of the access which foreign nationals from designated countries are granted at NASA facilities,” he said.
”I have ordered a moratorium on granting any new access to NASA facilities to individuals from specific designated countries, specifically China, Burma, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Uzbekistan.”
Pascale Ehrenfreund, a space policy expert at George Washington University, said tensions between the US and China in scientific matters had persisted for years.
”Also at the International Astronautical Congress at the end of September in Beijing, China-US participation was scarce,” she said.
About bambooinnovator
Bamboo Innovator 