CHINA has revealed plans to dominate the aerospace industry, leaving NASA officials worried.
From the Moon to Mars, China has been vocal about its ambitions for space exploration.
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One such plan includes sending a crewed mission to the Moon and building a lunar base.
Part of that plan is also to develop a system for detecting and destroying asteroids heading for the Earth,
Specifically, China hopes to use the Moon as a ‘shield’ as part of its action plan to protect the Earth from asteroid impacts, according to AS.
This is reportedly not sitting well with Nasa officials, who have expressed fears that China has ulterior motives.
“We must be very worried that China is going to land on the Moon and say: now it is ours and you stay out,” Bill Nelson, director of Nasa, said earlier this month.
What’s more, China is planning to work hand in hand with Russia to build its own lunar base together by 2035.
Tensions between Nasa and Russia’s Roscosmos have also escalated after Russia recently quit the International Space Station (ISS).
Yuri Borisov, the new Roscosmos head said in a meeting: “The decision to leave the station after 2024 has been made.”
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Other Chinese missions
Other notable space missions for China include exploring Jupiter and bringing back samples from Mars.
Bringing back samples from Mars – a feat that both Nasa and the ESA hope to achieve – seems to be one of the more important goals for China.
The plan was recently outlined by Wu Weiren, a senior scientist with the China National Space Administration.
According to Weiren, China would land a capsule on the Red Planet that would collect the samples.
The capsule would come equipped with an ascent vehicle (or a small rocket) that would fly the samples to an orbiter.
The orbiter would then ferry the collection back to Earth.
“The spacecraft for a sample-return mission to the Red Planet will be much heavier than lunar probes as it will carry a greater amount of fuel to fly a very long distance. Therefore, we need to build a powerful carrier rocket to transport the spacecraft,” Weiren said.
China’s major rocket manufacturer, the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology in Beijing, has hinted that its engineers are currently building a super-heavy rocket named the Long March 9.
This rocket, experts believe, would be used for potential crewed missions to the Moon, as well as other deep-space missions in the future.
