“China can’t
send a potato to the moon. ”
Mao Zedong
By 2025, the first Chinese astronaut should
have set foot on the moon, 56 years after Neil Armstrong.
Since 2013 China has belonged to the elite
club of spacefaring nations by becoming the third to have successfully managed
a lunar landing.
But why it has taken so long?
The first successful launch of a Chinese
satellite took place in 1970, thirteen years after that of Sputnik 1, the first
artificial Earth satellite.
In the early sixties, Mao started a very
ambitious space program, but during the Cultural Revolution he sidelined
China’s space program for the more down to earth objective of building up
military strength.
Since 1970 Chinese space missions had lagged
behind American and Russian programs by 40 years.
A still relevant technical challenge
Even if the space race was won a long time
ago, going to the moon is still a technical challenge, and for China it’s the
opportunity to demonstrate its mastery of high technology.
The moon is only a stepping stone to Mars.
Getting to Mars will require large amounts of water for drinking, oxygen for
breathing as well as oxygen and hydrogen for fuel. A space craft cannot produce its fuel and water. Sending this from Earth is not an option because gravity must be
overcome using huge rockets, and so is far too expensive. That is why in space
stations water is recycled in a closed loop and oxygen is precious enough to be
put through a set of CO2 scrubbers, like on submarines. Another alternative
could be mining these raw materials directly on the moon.
Long term, China plans to venture further
into the solar system, onwards to Jupiter and Uranus. They also intend to study
gravitational waves and seek out evidence of an extraterrestrial life.
Nowadays, China is closing the gap and it is
likely that it will soon be at the cutting edge of aerospace technology.
Nevertheless, China’s ambitious space program comes at a cost.
Until 2008, the Chinese launch Center was
located in the very populated province of Sichuan. More than ten villages have
been hit by fragments from space rockets, at the rate of one per annum. May
residents, including a little girl who sustained head injuries, have been hurt.
It may seem odd that a country where 200
million people live on less than $1.25 should be able to find money for space
travel. However, the
country has chosen to focus on space missions costing hundreds of millions of
dollars, corresponding to the gross national product of France.
The main purpose of carrying out such complex missions is
building national cohesion. China’s moon program is also about demonstrating
that the Party can achieve what it promises and infusing the Chinese people
with a sense of pride that their county now belongs to a very small club of
technologically advanced nations.
Inés Rivoalen
http://www.liberation.fr/planete/2013/12/05/l-envers-de-la-conquete-spatiale-chinoise_964191 http://mashable.france24.com/tech-business/20160310-la-chine-va-utiliser-lespace-entre-la-terre-et-la-lune-pour-creer-de-lenergie
