China It is a country that, perhaps because it felt despised for so long by much of the international community or for other purely commercial reasons, has decided to bet everything they have and show, above all, that they can be ahead of any other world power in all kinds of fields, especially in technology. Because of this, it is not surprising that, in recent years, when we talk about such different topics as software, hardware and everything related to this world, we should always have one eye looking towards China.
This time it was nothing less than China Aerospace Science Corporation the one that has dazzled half the world with much more surprising news than you can imagine. According to the notes published officially by the agency, literally and in the face of 2040 it seems that they have proposed lead the new space race it seems we are living. Specifically in the published press release, we are shown the new roadmap that they will follow, in which they have not wanted to leave anything in the pipeline talking about topics as different as technology and special science with very clear notes on capabilities and competitiveness they hope to achieve in the aerospace sector.
China unveils all its plans in space matter until 2040
One of the points where the Chinese seem to be most interested, something that translates into a much higher investment than you can imagine, at least as specified in this document, is in the expanding your Long March rocket family, same that operate and remain in service since 1970 and whose family will be seen expanded with new models for 2020. These new units will stand out, among other things, for being cheaper to produce and become disposable, something that would make them finally able to compete in the commercial sector.
If we move towards 2025, China hopes to have a reusable space plane in production that, apparently, will be the main protagonist in all those tasks that have to do with a new sector of the market called to move billions of euros a year such as Space Tourism. On the other hand and already facing 2035, the China Aerospace Science Corporation hopes that all your spaceships are reusable, something that would literally put them, at last, on the same level as private companies of the magnitude and fame of Blue Origin and SpaceX.
The Long March 9 will have the capacity to put more than 100 tons of material into orbit
Leaving aside for a moment the ships that they hope to have developed for these dates and especially their characteristics, it should be noted that for 2030 the country's space agency hopes to have the one baptized as Long March 9, a rocket with the capacity to send more than 100 tons of material into space, a weight that far exceeds, for example, the 70 tons that the Falcon Heavy developed by SpaceX is capable of transporting.
In addition to this capacity in terms of transporting goods to orbit, this rocket would also serve, due to its power, to be the protagonist of Sample round trips to Mars or for sending manned missions to the moon.
In 2040, the China Aerospace Science Corporation hopes to have its new shuttle ready
Finally and looking forward to the year 2040, the China Aerospace Science Corporation hopes to have its new shuttle, a ship equipped with a nuclear engine of which, at the moment, we know little or nothing. This new shuttle will be ready in conjunction with an entirely new launch vehicle system that, in the words of the Chief Executive Officer of China Aerospace Science Corporation:
These vehicles will facilitate conducting multiple interstellar round trips, exploiting space resources through asteroid mining, and building megaprojects such as a space-based solar power station.