BEIJING: An announcement by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NNSFC) recently invited Chinese scientists to conduct research on a "huge spacecraft / space station", among other major projects. But there is a wave of concern in the West, especially in the United States.
The spacecraft or space station will probably be about a mile long where astronauts will be able to stay longer. An amount of 15 million yuan has also been approved for preliminary research in this regard.
The news was first published on the website of the South China Morning Post, an English language newspaper from China, on August 24, 2021.
Based on this news, articles were also published on Live Science, The Next Web, Interesting Engineering and Universe Today, in which, in addition to objections to China's space projects, they also cast doubt on the idea of a very large spacecraft / space station in particular. Doubts have been expressed.
All of these articles state that مشتر 150 billion has been spent so far on the 16-nation Joint International Space Station (ISS), with an annual budget of about 3 billion.
The ISS is 361 feet long, while China's proposed space station / spacecraft will be about 15 times longer.
Therefore, it is certain that the cost of the Chinese space station / spacecraft will also be fifteen to twenty times higher than that of the ISS.
The website "Live Science" quotes Mason Peck, a former NASA chief technologist and current professor of aerospace engineering at Cornell University, as saying that the project is "extremely difficult" but not impossible. Can go
According to Mason Pack, the project will face two major challenges: the first is its size and the second is its cost.
It seems that even Chinese experts are not unaware of this aspect because the National Natural Science Foundation of China has made it clear in its announcement that they are looking for light but strong substances that are weightless and dangerous in space. Be able to withstand an environment full of rays for years.
On the other hand, Chinese space research institutes are also working on rockets that will be many times more powerful than the current most powerful space rockets and will be able to carry hundreds of tons of cargo into space in one flight.
In the light of this and other similar aspects, it can be said that preparations for such large-scale projects in China were probably started long ago and have been put into practice.
