Space, the risk of accidents between Elon Musk and China, a symptom of the Washington-Beijing dispute
The busier a road, the more accidents are likely. The same principle also applies in a broader sense. For example in the Pacific and South China Sea, where the past few months a submarine of the United States hit an unidentified object in one of the busiest areas of the sea, geopolitically and militarily hottest in the world. Now the same script seems to be able to reappear even in an even larger space, yet it too is increasingly busy, the Space precisely.
The signal came from the news leaked in recent days, namely the risk of collision between two satellites of Space X of the billionaire Elon Musk and the Chinese space station. On two occasions he would have come close to the incident and Beijing has not only blamed them spacecraft of Musk’s company, but has also extended the complaints to the relevant government, namely the United States. Thus bringing the maxi dispute with Washington also on the spatial terrain, which is added to the very long list of the chapters of the challenge between the two powers.
Elon Musk’s billionaire business in China is now at risk
The episode could have serious economic repercussions for Musk, the richest man in the world and “person of the year” according to Time magazine. In China, Musk has been present and known for years for its Tesla electric cars, which are very popular on the Asian giant’s market. Tesla sells about a quarter of its production in China and has one factory in Shanghai. Internet users went wild: a proposal to boycott its cars reached 87 million views in just a few hours. The near-miss incident adds to the dispute with the Chinese authorities over the archiving of data, which the Chinese government would like to keep on its territory of jurisdiction.
But, beyond the story involving Musk, the risk of an accident is the signal of one increasingly fierce competition in the space sector, which affects both the private and the political and geopolitical sectors. China is aiming for its space station to be fully operational by the end of next year and continues to invest heavily in the sector. By 2045 there is the ambition to operate over a thousand space flights a year. The Chinese shuttle was recently launched Shenzhou 13, which brings three astronauts (among them for the first time a woman, Wang Yaping) to the Tiangong space station for the first six-month mission. It was the rocket that brought the shuttle into orbit Long March 2F, launched from the Jiuquan base, in the Gobi desert. But soon there may also be helicopters deployed in space. China’s National Space Science Center is developing a miniature helicopter prototype for surveillance tasks, which could find use in upcoming missions to Mars. China wants to bring a human crew to the red planet by 2033, after successfully landing a rover last May.
China and Russia among other things, announced in March that they would jointly establish a lunar base, with at least five structures to be completed by 2035. But Beijing wants to get the boots on the ground monthly well before that, by 2030. To do so, there are new variants of the Long March launch vehicles, those that according to news in recent weeks would have carried the hypersonic missile tested by the army.
The space race of the US and China and the role of private individuals
The US does not stand by and is already on Trump have returned to take care of their space program, which also includes the goal of returning to the moon after decades of absence. And Washington also deploys private actors on its “team”. In addition to SpaceX, there are other companies that aim to have their own space station in orbit in the coming years. There Nasa awarded $ 140 million to the Axiom Space, a Houston company that is already building a private station. It will soon distribute another $ 400 million to two, three, or possibly four other companies hoping to enter the market.
The first Axiom module will be launched in September 2024 and will dock in one of the ISS’s two ports. It will be joined, six and 12 months later, by a second and third module. After a fourth and final module, equipped to generate extra solar energy, arrives in 2027, Axiom Station, as the whole group will be known, it will detach and become a “free flyer” with almost double the usable volume of the iss. The total cost, according to The Economist, will be around 3 billion dollars, a small fraction of what it cost the iss. Each year, the British weekly explains, NASA spends around 3.5 billion dollars just to maintain and operate the station.
Space is preparing to become more and more crowded. Better prepare for the (hopefully) friendly findings, but incidents in orbit could prove more lethal than those on Earth. Even at a geopolitical level.