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Space Cooperation: Unlock the collaborative moment in space
When: September 13, 2023
Location: Venezuela
At a time of great hope, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro announced at a conference a major plan that will not only shape Venezuela's space dream, but also mark a deep cooperation between China and Venezuela.
Venezuela, the tropical country of South America, is known for its unique natural beauty and oil resources. Today, however, it will shine on the international stage with a whole new identity. Under the leadership of Nicolas Maduro, the country is heading for a sea of stars with plans to send astronauts to the moon.
But this ambitious plan is not alone. It has a strong partner behind it, and that is China. Space cooperation between the two countries has reached new peaks, showing fraternal closeness.
For China's and Venezuela's space dreams to come to fruition, they need to overcome a problem worth pondering: the cost of space missions. Outside the International Space Station, do foreign astronauts need to pay for Chinese spacecraft? This issue has become a hot topic because of the huge and complex cost of spaceflight.
Looking back at the manned spacecraft cooperation between the United States and Russia, we can conclude: yes, there is a fee. After all the US space shuttles were decommissioned, the United States relied on Russian spacecraft to send astronauts to the International Space Station, each time spending a huge amount of money to buy "tickets". Space tickets in Russia have also climbed, soaring from $20 million in 2006 to $81 million in 2018. This expensive way of cooperation is the same outside the International Space Station, and the astronomical numbers of space cooperation are staggering.
China's space program also comes with high costs. Taking the Chinese space station as an example, the cost of a Shenzhou spacecraft is as high as 850 million yuan and cannot be recycled. The cost of each ticket is about 283 million yuan, not including the cost of launching the rocket. Considering the cost of launches, China Aerospace would need to spend at least 600 million yuan to send an astronaut to the space station and live there for six months. These expenses do not take into account the cost of construction, operation and maintenance of the Chinese space station.
In comparison, the US Apollo program carried out 11 manned missions, costing about $25.5 billion (converted to more than $150 billion today), and the average cost of one lunar astronaut was more than $2 billion. However, China's manned lunar mission will cost slightly less than the United States. China's adoption of reusable technology has reduced the total cost of tasks. In addition, China's space program pays more attention to cost-effectiveness and makes full use of resources, compared with the American Apollo program, which focuses more on mission completion and does not consider funding.
So why did China help Venezuela land on the moon? After all, China itself has not yet implemented a manned lunar landing program. In fact, China plans to land a manned lunar landing by 2030, but before that, it will need to launch the Chang'e 6-8 probe.
The construction phase of China's space station is similar to the construction of the International Space Station. In the beginning, the space station was mainly occupied by Chinese astronauts until construction was completed. Only then was it considered to let foreign astronauts into the space station. This approach is intended to ensure the safety and stability of the space station and to provide opportunities for international scientific cooperation. Foreign astronauts will enter the Chinese space station as payload experts to conduct scientific research and realize the sharing of scientific research results, which is a win-win cooperation model.
China plans to carry out a manned lunar mission by 2030, and the first few batches of astronauts will be Chinese until the construction of the international lunar scientific research station is completed. As the International Lunar Research Station enters the operational phase, scientists from various countries will be invited to enter for experiments and research on the moon. The purpose of this cooperation model is to promote international scientific exchanges and cooperation to jointly explore the mysteries of space.
While there are many legitimate reasons for Sino-foreign space cooperation, including sharing costs and resources, there are also dissenting views. Some argue that China should place more emphasis on its own space industry and should not devote its limited resources to the missions of foreign astronauts. This has sparked controversy over domestic and international space cooperation, making people rethink the future of space exploration.
To sum up, China's space cooperation with Venezuela represents a new era and paves the way for space exploration. However, as plans for foreign astronauts to land on the moon gradually surface, the issue of cost and controversy over international cooperation will also become a focus. In any case, the future of space exploration is still full of challenges and opportunities, and we will be closely monitoring developments in this fascinating field.
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