Beijing fights to keep space bid secret

smh ^ | 1 Oct 03 | Hamish McDonald

[RightWhale]

Beijing fights to keep space bid secret

By Hamish McDonald, Herald Correspondent in Beijing

October 2, 2003 About 650 years ago, an inventive Chinese mandarin named Wan Hu tied 47 large rockets filled with gunpowder to his chair and, firmly clutching a kite in each hand, ordered his servants to light the touchpapers. He vanished in a cloud of sparks and blue smoke, according to legend, with many of his Ming dynasty contemporaries believing he was somewhere in the heavens.

Some time this month, maybe even by the time this newspaper appears, China will attempt to pursue Wan Hu's ambitions in a more scientific manner, launching its first manned space mission.

One or two Chinese astronauts will be launched in a Shenzhou (Heavenly Vessel) spacecraft attached to a Long March 2-F rocket from the Jiuqian space centre in the sparsely populated north-western province of Gansu. Their identities, the precise launch date and the mission objectives have been kept a tightly guarded "national secret" by the General Logistics Department of the Ministry of National Defence, which runs the project.

This is to be able to minimise the loss of face for the Chinese leadership if anything goes wrong with the mission, timed for this month not for any technical reason but because it coincides with the October 1 anniversary of the founding of the communist state in 1949. If the rocket blows up on launch, for example, and the astronauts share the purported fate of Wan Hu, the news may be suppressed. How the propaganda apparatus would put a spin on a disaster in space, monitored by the world, is hard to imagine.

What is known is that China's venture into manned space flight, 42 years after the Soviet Union's Yuri Gagarin made the world's first space mission, is more about political prestige.

The project has cost $A3.5 billion, using the well-tested Russian space vehicle Soyuz as the model for the reverse-engineered Shenzhou, as well as an array of off-the-shelf technologies. The spacesuits for the astronauts were made for "a cost equivalent to a luxury car" each, a recent newspaper report said.

The astronauts will be chosen from a pool of 14 candidates who have been undergoing intensive training. All that is known about them is that they are all elite Chinese Air Force fight pilots, each with more than 1000 hours flying time, all about 1.7 metres in height, and weighing about 65 kilograms. Hong Kong press reports have suggested the mission leader could be a pilot named Chen Long.

The previous four unmanned missions by Shenzhou vehicles have been up to seven days in orbit, returning to a parachute landing in the Gobi desert.

Apart from prestige, the eventual objective of the space program is to catch up with the United States and other advanced nations in being able to use space platforms for high-tech military and intelligence applications.

The immediate practical result being offered to the Chinese population appeals to the stomach: the unmanned missions have carried vegetable seeds into space and the radiation is said to have mutated them into giant species of eggplants and other favourites. The picturesque lakes around the Forbidden City have meanwhile been replanted with lotus plants grown from seeds taken into space. The gardeners say that the size and quality of their flowers and edible roots is a quantum leap from normal.

[RightWhale]

American press has little of this. They would do better than the foreign press, though, if they thought there were a story here.

[FreepForever]

Considering those who cannot afford education and medical care in China's poverty regions, I can't figure out why the PRC government justifies that kind of money to prove that they are ONLY half a century behind competition.

[RightWhale]

Prestige is a very big part of this manned flight. All the same, if they are successful, they will continue with bigger and more impressive missions. When they have their space station, it probably won't be as well-built as the Russian space stations, and certainly not as luxurious as the American space stations, but they won't stop there like we did. The Chinese moon base will probably seem primitive, but at least they'll have one, and the Chinese Mars base will be horrible and alone for decades or centuries. They will end up, by default, owning outer space.

[Filibuster_60]

I don't think they'd be half a century behind the competition if things go well for them. A few successful launches and the gap would be closed to barely half a decade, considering the sorry state of NASA and the cash-starved Russians. It's an opportunity the Chicoms can hardly resist.

Have no doubt, they've probably taken near-paranoid safety precautions for this mission, as I've read they spent a great deal of time and money on the emergency escape system for their astronauts, which is a big reason they're about 4 years behind their original schedule charted in the early 90s.

[FreepForever]

From what I read on Chinese media, the mission is only a manned space flight orbiting the earth, someting that USSR's Yuri Gagarin did 42 years ago, not moon landing or space station. It looks more like a "me-too" project to me.

[RightWhale]

They are going slow, but they plan to be on the moon in a decade and on Mars eventually. Their space station will probably have purpose such as farming. Their program will grow slowly but without limit, not following the NASA model of doing something and then forgetting about it.

[Filibuster_60]

I don't think we'll be seeing taikonauts out in space on a regular basis anytime soon. But one has to crawl before one can walk and the PRC's gloating isn't entirely unjustified considering this puts them ahead of virtually every first-world nation other than America.

That being said, let us have no illusions about the military dimension of their space program, which in any case is a strictly PLA-controlled enterprise. They feel they need to assert their presence in space as no major power in the 21st century can afford to be cut out. They want space to be multi-polarized and a manned mission gives like-minded rivals of America (EU, Russia) the confidence that they can be leaders in the drive to break our virtual monopoly over the high ground.

[RightWhale]

they can be leaders in the drive to break our virtual monopoly over the high ground.

That's right. All they have to do is get there. Not easy even though it's been done, but to be #3 in space is not a trivial matter.

[RightWhale]

If the Chinese fly this twice in 2 weeks would they win the X-prize? If they do it would double their space budget. New pocket protectors all around.

[roadcat]

"The immediate practical result being offered to the Chinese population appeals to the stomach: the unmanned missions have carried vegetable seeds into space and the radiation is said to have mutated them into giant species of eggplants and other favourites."

Aw heck, I could save them some money. I've done the same thing by putting my cellphone on top of seed packets. ;)

[RightWhale]

Really? You grow eggplant? It's related to peppers, but otherwise inedible.

[roadcat]

No, no, no, I was kidding! Just questioning their motives! However, I do enjoy gardening and cultivating seeds from what I grow. And I enjoy Chinese food and spices - best advice I got was from a Chinese guy about tossing garbage to the plants - eggshells, old tobacco, rotten fish. Maybe it's culture clash, but there have got to be better reasons for space exploration than for growing giant eggplants.

[RightWhale]

have got to be better reasons for space exploration than for growing giant eggplants.

Chinese are big on GM food, and a few years ago they said their plan was to have farms in orbit. They have done a fair amount of work toward developing plants that would do well on such farms. Haven't heard much lately, except they keep mentioning progress, so they are probably still intending to have farms in orbit.

[KevinDavis]

Space Ping! This is the space ping list! Let me know if you want on or off this list!

[anymouse]

No. The X-Prize requires the use of non-government developed or funded hardware.