2021 might go down in history as the year of the great space race. China, one of the
leading players in the space race, had not long ago revealed their intended plans for matching
up to the space travel pace setters, spaceX. Hi welcome to tech space, in this video we'd see
how China's starship clone might actually rival that of SpaceX. Remember to like,
share this video and subscribe to the channel for more interesting content.
Do stay with us to the end of the video. There's a saying that imitation is the best
form of flattery and China had unknowingly thrown tons of flattery at spaceX on April 24,
during their national space day conference. Or maybe they flattered spaceX without
knowing it. It's hard to tell. China's intriguing economic expansion
might be lagging behind, but the nation's dreams and aspirations
are definitely getting higher by the day. Coupled with strategic efforts to outdo NASA by
putting robotic Landers and possibly astronauts on the surface of Mars and the moon, China's
government is currently pumping huge support to it's space industry to come to toe with the well
known US manufacturers like Jeff Bezos Blue origin and Elon Musk's spaceX. spaceX recently launched
its latest version of the Falcon 9 rocket. The Chinese space authorities have publicly
announced the country's ambitions to forge itself into a major space power by the early 2030s.
President Xi Jinping's government is also considering ways to direct spending that will
push Chinese tech companies toward breakthroughs in downstream technologies like robotics,
aerospace, artificial intelligence, big data analytics and other 21st-century technologies.
The majority of China's space ambitions remain focused on boosting
Chinese prestige at home and abroad. Yet a push within Xi's government to triple
spending on space science as well as the emergence of a small but growing group of privately backed
space start-ups suggest that both Chinese industry and government see long-term economic benefits in
their investments in space technologies. That increasing flow of capital toward both
China's state-run and private space-related tech companies could place increased pressure
on NASA, and eventually on commercial space companies in the United States and Europe.
It is not a secret that China has long had what I call a crush on spacex,
but they have recently made that fact more public by unveiling their rocket design that
looks exactly like the starship. On many occasions, Elon musk has welcomed
competition from other space companies and it seems china has stepped up to meet the challenge
with its own brand of reusable orbital rockets which appears to
be direct clones of spaceX's starship. Analysts reckon the space tourism industry,
worth around £300billion today, will be worth over £600billion by 2030.
Of course this, point-to-point rocket flights would make up a £15billion industry that threatens
to cannibalize long haul plane flights. As well as SpaceX, rocket companies
Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin are attempting to take tourists to space.
Now the question is, can China's starship clone someday measure up to, or possibly out match
spaceX's rockets. Well, let's find out: Before we go on, remember to subscribe
During the celebration of the 6th national space day also referred to as the Aerospace Achievement
exhibition day in Nanjing province on April 24 2021, China unveiled a series of technological
advancements and achievements in the rocket industry and interplanetary transportation.
The event was to show China's improvements over the years in rocket technology and also as a
source of motivation to the generations of future astronauts and potential Aerospace engineers.
China's Chongqing 5 mission was the main focus of the exhibition including most of
the lunar samples it returned with. The Chanqin 5 mission holds the record
of the only space mission to bring back lunar samples in over 4 decades
after the Soviet Union lunar 24 in 1976. This mission made China the third country to ever
bring back lunar samples with the United States coming up as second after the Soviet Union.
The exhibition also revealed China's first Mars Rover called the 'Zhurong'
which arrived on Mars on the 14th of May 2021. This placed China on record as the second country
to successfully land and establish communications from the surface of the Martian planet.
NASA being the first to land rovers on the Martian surface has actually had 5
successful Rover landings but only two of these rovers are currently functional.
China does not intend to watch from the sidelines as the world takes on interplanetary travel.
They have proven this in a promotional video aired at the exhibition clearly revealing how
China is developing a rocket system that looks and probably works exactly like spaceX's starship.
Linkspace which is China's first private rocket company has revealed the designs of
its very 1st new line of launch vehicles with the potential to match and probably overshadow
spaceX's falcon 9 in the near future. China is currently building a Chinese
space station, something like the international space station.
Amongst China's numerous ambitious goals are plans to build their own moon base and a crewed
space station. most of their future separations clearly are clones of spaceX's current goals.
A recent viral video on China's micro blogging site Sina Weibo, captioned 1 hour global arrival
in space transportation systems reveals China has adopted two futuristic concepts
in the hope of achieving suborbital passenger point to point flights in the near future.
These concepts carry out two stage vertical takeoff and landing.
These rocket designs are almost the same in appearance to the starship,
these rocket concepts will lift off from the Earth,
fly off into space and return to land at some point on the planet in less than an hour.
The rocket shown in the video appeared to be exactly like the starship
with it's shiny exterior resembling the starship's stainless steel design.
It is also designed with the same triangular aerodynamic fins found on the starship and
it's first and second stages are seamless making it an obvious starship clone.
The second concept revealed a horizontal takeoff and landing vehicle powered by an
electronic catapult. China had previously stated intentions of achieving point to point travel
across the globe by 2041 and these two concepts are a start to achieving those goals.
China has no doubt been observing spaceX for some time,
biding their time and picking up on the design and production of reusable rocket first stages.
During spaceX's first launch in 2006, a Chinese spy boat was said to have been spotted docked
on the little patch of ocean where the falcon 1 rocket first stages was supposed to touch down.
In 2019, the Chinese Long March-2C launch rocket was designed with grid fins that were seen to be
alike with those used on the falcon 9s first stage to implement automatic navigation and control
through the atmosphere during reentry. China makes these copies similar to those
employed by Musk's spaceX because they intend to build their Long March 8 rocket
to land on a sea platform similar to how the falcon 9 booster lands.
it is undeniable that spaceX's concepts have greatly influenced China's initiatives
and this is not because china cannot come up with their own genuine ideas and concepts,
but because spaceX has already captured and directed the attention of the public
back to the wonders of space exploration. linkspace recently revealed it's intentions
of making a new rocket called New Line 1 which embodies similar features with spaceX's starship
both in appearance and Operations. Most of these features include the
reusable first stage and it's propellants powered by kerosine and liquid oxygen.
The new line 1 rocket will stand at about 21 meters tall with a diameter of 1.8 meters,
a lift off mass of 33 tons and take off thrust of 400 KN.
With such power ratings, it can hold a payload capacity of 200kg.
The estimated initial launch cost is about 4.5 million dollars which might drop to 2.5 million
if the reusable stage is made feasible. China also plans to engage the second stage
reusability concept that spaceX is currently working on.
These systems are part of China's previously announced plans to develop global
point-to-point transportation by 2045. The china aerospace industry had stated that
it would start global cargo delivery using suborbital travel by 2035. It could possibly
begin passenger transportation by 2035. The company spearheading the aerospace project
is the Academy of launch vehicle technology of China, which is
China's Main state owned rocket producer. Similar to the physical appearance of spaceX's
starship, China's clone is a huge vehicle with the potential to take off into space in
the vertical plane and land the same way. This tells us that just like the starship,
China's clone might be capable of taking people from earth to other planetary bodies.
In the video, passengers were seen cruising around in anti-gravity space
as they moved around the globe before they got to and dropped at Target locations.
The video footage almost exactly resembles a clip released by spaceX
in 2017 showing a rocket touchier down on a mounted pad in front of a skyline.
Do you think can finally copy every steps taken by spacex and do exactly what they do?
Please do well to share your thoughts in the comment section below. Until next time,
please like, share, subscribe, And while you're still around why
don’t you click on one of those amazing videos on the screen for more content.