Space: the final frontier. And guess which country is going to conquer it? After all, the legendary Chang'e flew to the moon several thousand years ago, which definitely makes the moon a part of China’s sacred territory.
But getting to space ain’t easy! In fact, it’s harder than fighting a slew of fearsome monsters, climbing the sacred Mount Kunlun, finding the Queen Mother of the West, and convincing her to give you the elixir of immortality that will take you to the heavens!
First of all, if you fly an airplane high enough, there’s no more air. And once you’ve lost the air under the wings that give the plane lift and control, well, flight becomes much, much harder. That’s why, despite the great technological advances we’ve made as a species, the best idea humanity has come up with for getting into space involve strapping yourself to a massive explosion.
Space tourism is certainly ambitious. But when it comes to making the impossible only very improbable no one beats China.
Yeah, that is the most ambitious plan out there. A reminder that we’re still 200 years away from building the Enterprise.
The state-backed China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology unveiled this at the International Astronautical Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico.
The Chinese spaceplane design is also big. The largest design weighs in at nearly 100 tons with a 40-foot wingspan. The American space shuttle by comparison was just 82 tons.
The design team claims test flights will begin in two years, and payload launches in 2020—the same year Mission to Mars takes place. So someone’s prediction was off by a few years.
One of the things that make China’s space plane concept unique is that it will all be one piece. Like footie pajamas. It won’t have a separate booster unit like America’s old-fashioned space shuttle, nor will with be carried into the air on a separate craft, like Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo. Basically, it will take off like the rockets of yore, but land like a space shuttle, following these comforting circular bright red lines.
You see, the space plane designers say each ticket will cost $200,000 dollars or more. And that could make the airline industry want to get involved. Suddenly, you’re paying ten grand for each piece of checked luggage, you'll have to take your space suit off to get through the full-body scanner, and an upgrade to business class will cost you 100,000 frequent flyer light-years. That’s no way to travel.
But all that is years ahead of us. Meanwhile China’s space program has lost control of the Tiangong 1 space station which is due to crash somewhere on on Earth next year. Just something to look forward to.