Some time ago, on the Extranet, there was a piece of news that was hotly discussed, the publisher of this news, is a reporter in the United States, named Andrew Jones, his main interviews, reports, generally related to China's aerospace, it can be said that he has always been very concerned about the development of China's aerospace, but not to positive publicity, reporting on China's aerospace, but to find China's aerospace "inferior technology" place.
For example, this time, Andrew Jones did not know from what channel, obtained a PPT photo displayed at the internal meeting of China's aerospace, and from this PPT, it can be seen that China Aerospace intends to develop a reusable secondary rocket, in this regard, Andrew Jones said that China's aerospace is engaged in plagiarism, and the object of plagiarism is Musk's starship.
So, what exactly does Musk's starship look like?
Speaking of Musk, we all know that the starships he developed are mainly to transport humans to different planets, such as the moon and Mars, of course, this is something that will be achieved in the future.
In order to give everyone the opportunity to go to space, Musk has always been "compressed cost" in the development of starships, and rockets are more focused on reuse.
When the rocket is assembled, in fact, the rocket is divided into many stages, and the fuel and engine of each stage of the rocket are independent, and after the successful launch, each stage of the rocket will automatically fall off until it reaches the destination smoothly.
And Musk's starship, the most important part of the spacecraft cabin, is the secondary rocket, when it flies away from the earth and arrives at the destination, it will refill the fuel, and then take off again under the action of power, and return to the earth again, and this process will complete the reuse of the second stage rocket, that is, the starship.
Naturally, because the spaceship can be used many times, it is like an airplane, naturally, the cost has come down a lot, if it is really successful, then, the future of human beings can really use a lower price to achieve space travel.
So, is China Aerospace really copying Musk's starship?
Andrew Jones mentioned that China Aerospace not only wants to develop reusable secondary rockets like starships, but also uses liquid oxygen methane in terms of fuel innovation, just like starships.
What is "liquid methane"? This is a very easy to form, extract a new type of fuel, in the future, if the human spacecraft can really travel to and from the moon, Mars, then, when returning, is not necessary to be on the earth in advance, ready to return to the fuel, can be directly on the moon, Mars local materials, so that the cost will become lower.
And on the PPT displayed by Andrew Jones, in addition to the rocket form designed by China Aerospace, which does look a little similar to the starship, and in terms of fuel use, liquid oxygen methane is indeed mentioned, naturally, as soon as Andrew Jones released this news, many foreigners who are not friendly to China in themselves have "fried the pan" and thought that this was blatant plagiarism.
So, what is the truth? Is China's aerospace really "inferior to human"? The answer, of course, is no, as we mentioned above, this PPT published by Andrew Jones is just one of the ones displayed at an internal seminar of China Aerospace, and it is not the final draft, but only for everyone to discuss research.
To put it bluntly, this is a bit like when we are discussing the plan, we will give some examples worth learning from, and then we will analyze the feasibility and pros and cons, etc. To put it bluntly, this PPT itself does not have any meaning, but is deliberately used by Andrew Jones to "bo eyeballs".
And it is worth mentioning that as early as 2017, China Aerospace began to study "reusable" carrier rockets, the purpose is to carry out manned moon landings, manned fires, and the construction of lunar bases and Mars bases, so that astronauts, and even ordinary people can better travel to and from space.
And the reusable aircraft itself is not Musk's original, because as early as a few decades ago, the United States had a reusable space shuttle, the purpose is to perform space missions can save costs, but later because of frequent problems, it was deactivated.
So, does this mean that Musk's starship, itself, was originally a copy of NASA's space shuttle? And China's aerospace in the development of many years, is also always in the "way of their own", no matter what kind of fuel is used, itself is also to consider from the perspective of reducing costs, even if the final really want to use liquid methane as fuel, does not mean that this is plagiarism Musk, is the starship using liquid oxygen methane, other rockets can not use liquid oxygen methane? This is clearly unreasonable.
In addition, from the perspective of the development of China's aerospace, it is obvious that Musk's SpaceX and we are not comparable, Andrew Jones compared China's aerospace to SpaceX, which is actually demeaning to us, of course, no matter what he says, we are good to be ourselves, what do you think?