[ARTICLE] China in Space
Sep. 19th, 2003 01:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rfmcdonaldFrom the National Post:
'Divine Vessel' to blast China into space age
Manned flight to mark advent of Communist state
Peter Goodspeed
National Post
Friday, September 19, 2003
After more than a decade of secretive preparations, China is set to blast off into the space age.
Sometime soon after the Oct. 1 anniversary of the founding of Communist People's Republic, an elite air force fighter pilot will become a national hero and an instant historic figure as the first taikonaut, the Chinese equivalent of an astronaut or cosmonaut. (The word is derived from the Chinese word for space or cosmos, taikong.)
China will be only the third country, after the United States and the former Soviet Union, to send a man into space.
Final preparations are well under way for the flight, the first in an Apollo-like series the country hopes will lead to building its own space station and placing a man on the moon by 2010.
A Shenzhou (Divine Vessel) space capsule, based roughly on Russia's Soyuz spacecraft, now sits atop a Long March 2-F rocket awaiting launch from the Jiuquan Launch Centre in northwestern Gansu.
No exact date for the space launch has been announced, and the identity of the first taikonaut is not expected to be revealed until just hours before the flight.
This week, Xu Guanhua, the Science and Technology Minister, would say only that the long-anticipated launch will happen before the end of the year and preparations are proceeding "extremely smoothly."
A team of a dozen top fighter pilots has been training since 1999. The final panel of three candidates is now anxiously waiting to hear who will be picked for the flight some Chinese newspapers say could take place as soon as Oct. 10.
Hong Kong newspapers with good Chinese military connections say Chen Long, a 30-year-old fighter pilot who has trained with Russia's cosmonaut program, is widely tipped to become China's first spaceman.
To date, the Shenzhou space capsule has had four unmanned test launches, all described by China's state-controlled news media as successful.
The first test flight took place in November, 1999, when the capsule orbited Earth 14 times on a 12-hour mission that tested launch and re-entry systems.
Shenzhou II, launched in January, 2001, carried a menagerie of animals, including a monkey, a dog, a rabbit and some snails. It orbited Earth 108 times on a flight designed to test life-support systems.
But a news blackout after the flight raised suspicions the spacecraft may have suffered a re-entry failure.
A third flight test saw a Shenzhou capsule orbit the Earth for almost six months before touching down near China's space recovery facilities in Inner Mongolia.
A final unmanned flight, Shenzhou IV, went into orbit on Dec. 30 and returned to Earth on Jan. 5. The 162-hour mission was said to be equipped with everything needed for a manned flight.
After the flight, the state news agency Xinhua said space officials were confident "all the systems for manned space flights, including an astronaut system and a life-support sub-system, have been fitted on the spaceship and tested."
The flight of the taikonaut marks the culmination of the first phase of an aggressive space program in which China has set itself a goal of establishing a manned base on the Moon that could exploit its mineral wealth.
Some Western scientists speculate China may be interested in securing a supply of helium-3, a rare material found on the Moon that could be used as fuel in nuclear-fusion reactors.
While China's space program is generally wrapped in layers of secrecy, Chinese newspapers have openly suggested the country is aiming to launch a space probe capable of orbiting the Moon by 2005 or 2006 and hopes to establish a manned lunar outpost "perhaps by 2020 or 2030."
The main motivation is national pride. But there is also a determination to link China's future to potential economic, social and military benefits that spin off from an active space program.
Chinese leaders are also said to think it essential to challenge U.S. domination of space in order to protect their country's interests in the future.
Recently, senior scientist Liang Sili told the China Daily newspaper, "For mankind in the 21st century, space application will become as essential as electricity and oil in the 19th century."
There is a growing wariness in the United States over China's growing space capabilities.
Some U.S. experts feel China's space program is simply part of a larger military plan to compete with the United States in space by developing ways to combat the satellites the U.S. military increasingly depends upon to enhance its fighting capability.
A recent Pentagon study on China's military capabilities focused on electronic warfare programs, noting Beijing is intent on developing state-of-the-art technology to intercept and jam satellite receivers used in the Global Positioning System.
"Publicly, China opposes the militarization of space and seeks to prevent or slow the development of U.S. anti-satellite (ASAT) systems and space-based missile defences," the Pentagon report says.
"Privately, however, China's leaders probably view ASAT systems -- and offensive counterspace systems in general -- as well as space-based missile defences as inevitabilities."
"While one of the strongest immediate motivations for this program appears to be political prestige, China's manned space efforts almost certainly will contribute to improved military space systems in the 2010-2020 time frame," it concludes.
China may also be seeking a larger slice of the potentially lucrative commercial satellite launch market.
Earlier this year, the European Space Agency (ESA) signed a deal to place some of its space instruments on two Chinese satellites in an experimental package known as Double Star, which seeks to explore the magnetosphere, the magnetic "bubble" that surrounds the planet.
In the long run, though, China will face stiff competition in an increasingly crowded race.
While the United States is still recovering from February's Columbia space shuttle disaster, which killed seven astronauts, it is still actively participating in the International Space Station program and has two robot vehicles, Spirit and Opportunity, en route to Mars for a surface exploration expedition scheduled next January.
The ESA has an unmanned probe flying to Mars with an arrival date of Dec. 26.
Japan flew a test version of its own space shuttle in July and India has just announced plans to launch an unmanned Moon mission by 2008.
Brazil recently suffered a major setback in its attempt to become the first Latin American nation to launch a rocket into space when a launchpad explosion killed 24 workers. Nevertheless, it hopes to turn its new Alcantara space base, carved out of the Amazon rainforest, into one of the world's busiest commercial launch centres.
'Divine Vessel' to blast China into space age
Manned flight to mark advent of Communist state
Peter Goodspeed
National Post
Friday, September 19, 2003
After more than a decade of secretive preparations, China is set to blast off into the space age.
Sometime soon after the Oct. 1 anniversary of the founding of Communist People's Republic, an elite air force fighter pilot will become a national hero and an instant historic figure as the first taikonaut, the Chinese equivalent of an astronaut or cosmonaut. (The word is derived from the Chinese word for space or cosmos, taikong.)
China will be only the third country, after the United States and the former Soviet Union, to send a man into space.
Final preparations are well under way for the flight, the first in an Apollo-like series the country hopes will lead to building its own space station and placing a man on the moon by 2010.
A Shenzhou (Divine Vessel) space capsule, based roughly on Russia's Soyuz spacecraft, now sits atop a Long March 2-F rocket awaiting launch from the Jiuquan Launch Centre in northwestern Gansu.
No exact date for the space launch has been announced, and the identity of the first taikonaut is not expected to be revealed until just hours before the flight.
This week, Xu Guanhua, the Science and Technology Minister, would say only that the long-anticipated launch will happen before the end of the year and preparations are proceeding "extremely smoothly."
A team of a dozen top fighter pilots has been training since 1999. The final panel of three candidates is now anxiously waiting to hear who will be picked for the flight some Chinese newspapers say could take place as soon as Oct. 10.
Hong Kong newspapers with good Chinese military connections say Chen Long, a 30-year-old fighter pilot who has trained with Russia's cosmonaut program, is widely tipped to become China's first spaceman.
To date, the Shenzhou space capsule has had four unmanned test launches, all described by China's state-controlled news media as successful.
The first test flight took place in November, 1999, when the capsule orbited Earth 14 times on a 12-hour mission that tested launch and re-entry systems.
Shenzhou II, launched in January, 2001, carried a menagerie of animals, including a monkey, a dog, a rabbit and some snails. It orbited Earth 108 times on a flight designed to test life-support systems.
But a news blackout after the flight raised suspicions the spacecraft may have suffered a re-entry failure.
A third flight test saw a Shenzhou capsule orbit the Earth for almost six months before touching down near China's space recovery facilities in Inner Mongolia.
A final unmanned flight, Shenzhou IV, went into orbit on Dec. 30 and returned to Earth on Jan. 5. The 162-hour mission was said to be equipped with everything needed for a manned flight.
After the flight, the state news agency Xinhua said space officials were confident "all the systems for manned space flights, including an astronaut system and a life-support sub-system, have been fitted on the spaceship and tested."
The flight of the taikonaut marks the culmination of the first phase of an aggressive space program in which China has set itself a goal of establishing a manned base on the Moon that could exploit its mineral wealth.
Some Western scientists speculate China may be interested in securing a supply of helium-3, a rare material found on the Moon that could be used as fuel in nuclear-fusion reactors.
While China's space program is generally wrapped in layers of secrecy, Chinese newspapers have openly suggested the country is aiming to launch a space probe capable of orbiting the Moon by 2005 or 2006 and hopes to establish a manned lunar outpost "perhaps by 2020 or 2030."
The main motivation is national pride. But there is also a determination to link China's future to potential economic, social and military benefits that spin off from an active space program.
Chinese leaders are also said to think it essential to challenge U.S. domination of space in order to protect their country's interests in the future.
Recently, senior scientist Liang Sili told the China Daily newspaper, "For mankind in the 21st century, space application will become as essential as electricity and oil in the 19th century."
There is a growing wariness in the United States over China's growing space capabilities.
Some U.S. experts feel China's space program is simply part of a larger military plan to compete with the United States in space by developing ways to combat the satellites the U.S. military increasingly depends upon to enhance its fighting capability.
A recent Pentagon study on China's military capabilities focused on electronic warfare programs, noting Beijing is intent on developing state-of-the-art technology to intercept and jam satellite receivers used in the Global Positioning System.
"Publicly, China opposes the militarization of space and seeks to prevent or slow the development of U.S. anti-satellite (ASAT) systems and space-based missile defences," the Pentagon report says.
"Privately, however, China's leaders probably view ASAT systems -- and offensive counterspace systems in general -- as well as space-based missile defences as inevitabilities."
"While one of the strongest immediate motivations for this program appears to be political prestige, China's manned space efforts almost certainly will contribute to improved military space systems in the 2010-2020 time frame," it concludes.
China may also be seeking a larger slice of the potentially lucrative commercial satellite launch market.
Earlier this year, the European Space Agency (ESA) signed a deal to place some of its space instruments on two Chinese satellites in an experimental package known as Double Star, which seeks to explore the magnetosphere, the magnetic "bubble" that surrounds the planet.
In the long run, though, China will face stiff competition in an increasingly crowded race.
While the United States is still recovering from February's Columbia space shuttle disaster, which killed seven astronauts, it is still actively participating in the International Space Station program and has two robot vehicles, Spirit and Opportunity, en route to Mars for a surface exploration expedition scheduled next January.
The ESA has an unmanned probe flying to Mars with an arrival date of Dec. 26.
Japan flew a test version of its own space shuttle in July and India has just announced plans to launch an unmanned Moon mission by 2008.
Brazil recently suffered a major setback in its attempt to become the first Latin American nation to launch a rocket into space when a launchpad explosion killed 24 workers. Nevertheless, it hopes to turn its new Alcantara space base, carved out of the Amazon rainforest, into one of the world's busiest commercial launch centres.
