CHINA HAS CALLED hers
Shenzhou, meaning sacred vessel, because it will bring her people closer to the heavens.
Shenzhou, a rocket and the centrepiece of China’s secretive space programme, is scheduled to propel the first
taikonaut into orbit within the next year, earning China a coveted place in history as the third space superpower, behind America and Russia.
While American and European space scientists compete with each other to roll out increasingly ambitious unmanned missions — such as Europe’s Smart-1 probe, which is due for launch to the Moon next month — space industry insiders believe that the real battle for space supremacy is being fought elsewhere.
The protagonists are giant nations such as China, India and Japan, whose superior technological capabilities are matched by an intense desire to prove themselves on the international stage. All are spending vast amounts of money on their space programmes and launching unmanned missions to key destinations such as Mars and the Moon.
But what better way to achieve a head start than by pulling off what only two other nations have managed to do — dispatch an astronaut into space aboard a home-built rocket? With four test launches under its belt, China looks certain to sprint to victory. It says it will be ready to launch Shenzhou later this year, and would ideally like to sail to the heavens while the American shuttle fleet is grounded, thus sweetening the triumph. Interestingly, Russia has declared that it will help China to achieve this, as long as it does not conflict with its military interests. China is also reported to be aiming to construct its own manned space station.
Japan, the only Asian nation to have launched a lunar mission (it will reach the Moon in January) and joined the International Space Station, has grounded its manned space programme in the wake of the Columbia space shuttle disaster in February, reinforcing its position as the most risk-averse nation in the game. Nonetheless, it has devoted more than $2 billion (£1.26 billion) to its space budget.
India, meanwhile, has said it will launch an unmanned mission to the Moon by 2005 and a manned mission by 2015. Dr Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), has said that its lunar missions would “electrify the nation and show the world that India is capable of taking up complex projects at the cutting edge of space research . . . It is not whether we can afford it. It is whether we can afford to ignore it”.
India, which has a space budget of around $0.5 billion, has since been scared off by the Columbia incident, in which seven astronauts, including an Indian-born US national, perished. It is a measure of how seriously India regards space exploration that the Government declared an annual national day of mourning in honour of Kalpana Chawla and incorporated her biography into the national science syllabus so that pupils could be inspired to follow her example. While getting someone into orbit is certainly prestigious, ferrying them to the Moon — and back — would be better. It was Chawla’s presence on Columbia that prompted India’s Prime Minister to ask Kasturirangan what he thought about putting an Indian on the Moon.
“It’s early days yet, but there is no doubt that both India and China can get people back on the Moon within 10 or 12 years if they are willing to spend the money,” says Gwynne Dyer, a London-based observer of space issues. She believes that Asia’s space race could usher in an important new chapter in manned space exploration. Mars is seen as the next must-visit extra-terrestrial destination and, although plenty of unmanned probes are heading there, including the British-built Beagle 2, a vocal minority believes that the red planet can only properly be explored by human ambassadors.
Whoever manages to blast their own national into space will reap the glory of becoming only the third member of an exclusive club. All competitors, though, stand to benefit in the way that the Americans and Russians did in the Sixties. Space programmes, particularly manned ones, push existing technologies to their limits and demand the invention of new ones, creating fresh industries; they lure and retain the brightest brains that a country has to offer; they reinforce national pride and strengthen belief in the political regimes associated with them; they are badges of international honour.
Space programmes are also closely allied to defence and security — rocket science mirrors ballistic science, and launch know-how allows spy satellites to be placed above unfriendly neighbours.
That could be why both North Korea and South Korea are quietly investing in space programmes of their own, though not manned ones. North Korea is reported to have launched its first satellite in 1998, although Western governments were unable to find anything in orbit and there were later suggestions that it was, in fact, a long-range missile.
South Korea announced that it was devoting more than $4 billion to develop a launch vehicle by 2010 and so create a lucrative commercial launcher business. However, America fears that the project could destabilise the region. To some, the space race is really a thinly disguised arms race.
The new space-faring nations are forging celestial alliances of their own. Recently, India signed a space treaty with Israel, which also lost an astronaut in the Columbia disaster, agreeing to work together on several research programmes. While outsiders may be muscling in on the space domain, the old hands are waiting in the wings to show them who’s boss. America is already said to be discussing how to limit what space-faring nations can do beyond Earth.
Next year sees the inception of the Offensive Counter-Space programme, run by the US National Reconnaissance Office. It will research how to disrupt other countries’ communication networks, and how to stop the gathering of intelligence.
In fact, the Americans have these celestial borders sewn up in the form of a document — prepared last year — which outlines their national security strategy.
The document appears to endorse the country’s unilateral stance in space. Major General Judd Blaisdell, director of the Air Force Space Operations Office, declared recently: “We are so dominant in space that I pity a country that would come up against us.”
Moon facts
Scientists are unsure about where the Moon came from. It might have formed from chunks hewn from Earth which coalesced. Or it may have been a passing satellite that was snared by the Earth’s magnetic field.
