NASA, Google, and Lenovo Team Up for Space Station Educational Project

In the very near future NASA, Google, and computer manufacturer Lenovo are set to announce an interesting educational project. As I understand the gist of the effort from various sources, students will be asked to come up with ideas for experiments that can be performed on the ISS and submit a video via YouTube that describes their idea. Winners will be selected and the experiments described in the videos will actually be performed aboard the ISS.

This is an interesting way to get novel ideas onboard the ISS – and possibly to spark careers. Moreover, it is a way to show that the ISS has utility beyond the experiments proposed by a small cadre of insiders.

The odd thing about this, however, is that the largest shareholder of Lenovo is an agency of the Chinese government. According to Wikipedia: “50.4% of Lenovo is owned by public shareholders, 42.3% by Legend Holdings Limited … Because the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a Chinese government agency, owns 65% of Legend Holdings, effectively the Chinese government owns about 27% of Lenovo and is the largest shareholder.”

As such, this announcement is certain to gain attention from members of Congress (such as Rep. Frank Wolf) who are constantly putting NASA on the spot vis a vis any interactions with China – direct or by proxy. One would have thought that NASA would have found a way to work with a sponsor without such an overt link to the Chinese government.