China's 'All-Time Great Rocket' and the Amazing Mission It Aims to Achieve [Reading Science]

The Skylab space laboratory equipped with solar panels. Photo by NASA website

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bong-su] Since China declared its ambition in space, it has been challenging the United States' dominance in space as well. A representative example is the recent successful landing of the Mars exploration rover 'Zhurong,' which instantly caught up with the U.S. This time, China has attracted attention by developing the most powerful space launch vehicle ever and announcing plans to commercialize space solar power generation ahead of the U.S.

According to the U.S. space media 'SpaceNews,' Long Leihao, a rocket expert at China's Launch Vehicle Technology Research Institute, revealed this plan at a presentation held in Hong Kong on the 24th of last month.

It is a known fact that China is currently developing a super-large space launch vehicle called the Long March 9 (Changzheng 9). This is because the existing Long March 5, which China currently uses, has a payload capacity to low Earth orbit of only 25 tons, which is limited. Accordingly, Chinese authorities have been reviewing the development of the Long March 9 since 2018 and officially approved it in February this year. True to China's ambition to 'rise in space' and compete with the U.S., the goal is to develop the most powerful rocket ever. In early March, news came that a test run of an engine with four times the power of the existing one, producing 500 tons of thrust, was successfully conducted.

The Long March 9 is designed to have a total of 12 engines, including the first stage and boosters, each producing 500 tons of thrust, generating a massive 6,000 tons of thrust. According to the design, excluding its own weight (launch mass of 4,400 tons), China will possess a super-heavy super-power rocket capable of carrying over 140 tons to low Earth orbit and more than 50 tons to the Moon. The 500-ton thrust engine China is developing ranks as the third most powerful engine ever. Only the Russian Energia-Buran's RD-170 engine (740 tons) and the U.S. Apollo project's Saturn V rocket's F-1 engine (690 tons) surpass it; other engines cannot compare.

Especially, until now, only the Saturn V could send humans and exploration vehicles to the Moon in a single launch, but now the Long March 9 will follow suit. Since the Saturn V is no longer in production, the Long March 9 is the only one. Even NASA's Space Launch System (SLS), developed for the Artemis Moon landing plan, has a payload capacity to the Moon of only 27 tons, which is insufficient. SpaceX's Starship under development is roughly comparable to the Long March 9. Starship is being developed to carry 100 tons to low Earth orbit and, with in-orbit refueling, transport 100 tons to Mars. However, it has experienced about ten explosion accidents, and Elon Musk once joked that 'going to Mars will require risking your life.'

Returning to the main topic, Long Leihao announced that using the Long March 9, China plans to build a super-large solar power plant in geostationary orbit 35,786 km from Earth and establish a system to transmit power to the ground using microwaves or lasers. China plans to start small-scale solar power generation in geostationary orbit for testing in 2022 and upgrade to megawatt-class facilities around 2030. Particularly, once the Long March 9 development is completed, China aims to transport over 10,000 tons of equipment through more than 100 launches and complete and operate a gigawatt-class commercial power plant by 2050. Chinese experts are striving to solve challenges related to economic feasibility, manufacturing costs, and the safety and efficiency of power transmission.

The idea of building space solar power plants dates back to 1920 when Russian rocket scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky proposed it. Especially recently, as climate change caused by fossil fuel use has become severe, countries like the U.S., Japan, and Europe, which had postponed long-term plans, are now showing more active efforts. Solar power in geostationary orbit is much stronger than on the ground, producing up to ten times more power and enabling 24-hour generation, which can compensate for the shortcomings of renewable energy. However, as China is concerned, issues of safety, efficiency, and cost remain challenges.

The European Space Agency (ESA) recently began fundraising to build a beamed power plant that constructs a space solar power station and transmits power to Earth via light. The U.S. also had plans to deploy solar panels about 3 km in length in geostationary orbit at 36,000 km by 2040, generate solar power, and transmit it to Earth using microwaves. In 2014, the U.S. energy company PG&E announced plans to build a 200-megawatt-class solar power plant in geostationary orbit by 2025. Japan has actively pursued this since the 1980s and plans to start gigawatt-class power generation after the 2030s. South Korea's Korea Aerospace Research Institute announced in 2019 plans to launch two small solar power satellites by 2029 as test beds.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.