Chinese authorities have often seemed unable to reconcile the desire to advertise the achievement of manned spaceflight with the constraints imposed by military security. The result has been a space program that has certainly impressed those with a dedicated interest in pursuing it, but has failed to make much of an impression with much of the general public.

Even in China itself, many people still seem unaware that the mission even took place.

According to a recent report on the Chinese news portal china.org.cn, residents of Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and the global Chinese diaspora have been invited to contribute small items, but no precise information has been provided so far on where to send them, what will be accepted, and how the items that will be flown will be selected.

Curiously, the list of potential contributors does not explicitly mention residents of the Peoples� Republic of China. Is this just sloppy journalism, or have they been excluded from the offer? It�s possible that the main goal of this publicity gesture is to strengthen China�s profile outside the immediate borders of the PRC, and pleasing the locals is not a part of it.

The offer to carry souvenirs on board Shenzhou goes beyond any comparable gesture by other space programs. For several years, NASA has regularly launched disks bearing the names of members of the general public on its space missions, and the Japanese Hayabusa asteroid mission, due to reach its target later this year, carries a targeting sphere with thousands of names micro-etched into its foil covering. Contributing to these projects was as simple as filling out a form on a Web page.

China could easily elect to do the same with Shenzhou, by merely setting up a Web site and inviting people to type themselves into orbit. Perhaps this relatively straightforward way of boosting publicity will appear soon. But in the meantime, we have a project that apparently trumps this, at least for the people lucky enough to have their trinkets flown.

Will more information on the trinket project appear soon? It�s possible that consulates and government offices are receiving inquiries already, and may not be sure of how to reply. A campaign such as this is bound to attract significant interest, but it needs to be managed properly. Half-baked media releases only confuse people.

However the campaign is actually managed, the most important aspect of this project has already manifested. Shenzhou is gradually coming out from its veil of inaccessibility. If this trend continues, we can expect more developments in the future.

China has invested much time and resources to develop a human spaceflight capability, and deserves more credit for its achievement. It would seem that the generally lacklustre response to the flight of Yang Liwei in 2003 has provoked a revision of media strategy. Hopefully this will continue in the future.

(Note to readers: Neither the author of this article, nor SpaceDaily, can supply any advice or contact details for contributing items to this mission.)

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