Raising $15 million just seven months after creating its start-upstart-upthis is an impressive performance in the private Chinese space sector, where the creation of new companies is declining due to difficulties in finding investors. Clearly, offering the Starship in China works.
Prepare for the hidden phase of the conquest of the Moon
The Chinese lunar program is well put together: automatic scout missions, the first short-term astronaut expeditions to the surface in the same way as missions ApolloApollothen the installation of a lunar base and the necessary infrastructure to enable long missions.
The United States is using the Artemis missions to, firstly, return to the Moon in a more sustainable way than 50 years ago, but above all to use our natural satellite as a testing ground to prepare for the next phase. of manned exploration of the Solar System: Mars. This plan is good. This is why China plans to do the same, in the hope of sending astronauts to the Red Planet in 2049, for the centenary of the creation of the communist nation.
The phases of constructionconstruction and use of lunar bases will require insanely extraordinary logistical means, where the Starship proposed by SpaceXSpaceXcapable of carrying up to 100 tons of load to the Moon, is not ideal, but the minimum. For this purpose, the China Aerospace Science and Tech Corporation (Casc), dependent on the State, is developing an equivalent of the Starship.
The erosion of criticism
Many people took Elon MuskElon Musk for a weirdo when he announced his Starship at the International Congress ofastronauticsastronautics from Guadalajara in Mexico, in 2016. Progress in its development at Boca Chica – Starbase – in Texas has helped to remove some of the doubts about the benefit of having such a space vehicle.
SpaceX’s dominance in launches thanks to rocketrocket reusable Falcon 9Falcon 9judged today as economically reliable, and success in the field of satellites in orbitorbit low with the megaconstellation StarlinkStarlink (4 million users and strong demand from the Pentagon) show that the major projects carried out by SpaceX deserve to be followed and reproduced. China is now convinced of this for the Starship.
Finally, this is not the first time that a reusable vehicle with capabilities of the same order as those of the Starship has been developed. We recall that the American Space ShuttleAmerican Space Shuttle has put many astronauts and satellites into orbit with just four reusable vehicles. Ultimately, the Starship only industrializes this heritage.
A military interest and for megaconstellations
The Pentagon has been interested for years in using the Starship as a cargo ship, to supply areas otherwise impossible to cover in the theater of operations. This logistical asset could also interest China.
Finally, China could be interested in using Starship to accelerate the deployment of its satellite megaconstellations, such as Guowang or G60. The carrying capacity of such a vehicle would also make it possible to develop more efficient satellites without having to worry less about the size constraints of a conventional rocket.
Several space specialists are warning of a new revolution in the field that could be brought by the Starship and its heritage, because never before has a rocket with such capacity promised to be so accessible.
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