China: Reaching For The Heavens
China’s launch of its third manned space mission – and its first to attempt a spacewalk – today underscores the rising importance with which it views the heavens. However, it is not alone, for India (which is planning its first unmanned moon mission next month) and Japan are taking space increasingly seriously. Even Iran’s state news agency announced in August that it hopes to launch a manned space rocket within the next 10 years. However, with hundreds of millions of Chinese and Indians living impoverished lives, and with Japan grappling with a 150%+ of GDP debt burden, can they really afford it? Isn’t space just a waste of money, and sheer economic lunar-cy? What has space exploration ever given us? Why go up there, when we have so many problems down here?
These are all pertinent questions. However, their governments’ answer might be, ‘how can we not afford it?’. There are several reasons why the world’s major powers are seeking to increase their activities in space:
• Prestige. The number of countries that have their own indigenous manned space programmes is very limited – it’s only really the US, Russia, China. Whoever can put a person (or even vehicle) in space gets kudos at home. For newly emerging nations, there is tremendous pride at stake (the Indian tricolour will be deposited on the moon).
• Strategic reasons. Given the increasing importance of satellites in the world’s defence and communications systems, whoever controls the high ground gains a significant advantage in war time (think of all the satellite imagery militaries need). That is why China’s successful shootdown of one of its ageing satellites in 2007 generated such big news, and why the US did the same thing earlier this year, and why Japan passed a law permitting Tokyo’s use of space for military purposes back in May.
• Technology and economy. Space programmes typically necessitate a major improvement in technology (computers, aviation, propulsion systems, etc.) that will eventually have civilian offshoots. In addition, the Moon and other astronomical bodies are believed to contain considerable mineral resources which the world may need some day. Right now searching for energy and resources in space is not cost-effective. However, one day it might be.
While I would hesitate to overplay space as ‘the next big thing’, I believe that it will become increasingly important for the world’s major economies over the coming decades, and serious investment will eventually be channelled there. As the world’s resources become ever more stretched, it is logical that we will start looking beyond our planet. After all, it’s a big universe out there.
September 26th, 2008 at 4:40 am
Europe has a space program called Ariane, which has taken 50% of the satellite launching market. May be it is not so unnoticeable?
regards
September 26th, 2008 at 11:59 am
Forgive my ignorance Risk Watchdog, what precisely are the ‘considerably rich mineral resources’ on the moon and other atrological bodies?
cheers
September 26th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
Good point about Europe’s space programme. I did not mean to play it down, although I do believe that the competition seems to be hotting up among the Asian powers.
The Moon is said to have vast quantities of Helium 3, which some people are touting as a potential energy source. Asteroids are believed to contain metals. At present the costs and efforts required to get things to and from the moon are somewhat prohibitive, but that could change in time. However, we are probably talking decades, if not centuries.
September 29th, 2008 at 11:57 am
How are we going to pump this helium 3 back from the moon? With a very flexible space elevator/pipeline?