Once the Americans watched with amazement how the USSR was rushing into space, and could not understand how it happened that they were being overtaken by a country that had recently been in ruins after a terrible war. It's 2013, and China is sending a rocket with a lunar rover on board into space, and India is launching a space probe designed to explore the Martian surface. Against this background, Russians develop feelings similar to those of the Americans (60 years ago). And the anecdotes that a Chinese rocket was shot down over the territory of Russia: “The pilot was caught, but the fireman escaped,” became an anachronism.
Prospects for space programs in Asia were discussed by the well-known Russian publicist Andrei Parshev, author of the book "Why Russia is not America" and many others. According to him, first of all, such space programs of India and China are aimed at strengthening and increasing the prestige of states, because the practical benefits of such flights are not obvious, although they have certain benefits for the development of science. Information and materials from the surface of Mars and the Moon are likely to be of practical value to scientists.
At the same time, it is absolutely clear that those states that are able to conduct research on the planets of the solar system are at a very high level of development that is inaccessible to many countries. In this light, the prestige of our country is greatly affected by the fact that our own Martian expedition, Phobos-Grunt, ended in failure. If the Chinese lunar rover succeeds, it will be possible to state that the country's prestige was put at the forefront. It is obvious that the Chinese are unlikely to be able to find something unusual and not yet known to science on the moon after the programs that were implemented by the United States and the USSR in the last century.
Chinese moon rover "Jade Hare"
China announced the launch of a lunar rover, India launched a probe to Mars
The PRC announced the launch of the first spacecraft in its history to a natural satellite of our planet. If the spacecraft successfully works on the moon, China will become the third country in the world that was able to take samples of lunar soil. China's new milestone in space exploration coincides with another historic event. At the same time, India launched its own probe to explore the Red Planet. The growing competition between Delhi and Beijing could lead to a redistribution of the multibillion-dollar market for space services and technologies.
The spacecraft called "Chang'e-3" with the "Yuytu" lunar rover (from the whale - "Jade Hare") was launched from the Xichang cosmodrome, located in the Sichuan province, on the night of December 3. Within 2 weeks, the lunar rover should land on the surface of the Moon in the Rainbow Bay. The goal is to take samples of the lunar soil there, as well as to carry out prospecting for minerals and conduct a number of other scientific studies. The launch of the first lunar rover in China's history took place 6 years after Beijing made its first step in exploring the moon: in 2007, the Chang'e-1 spacecraft was launched into lunar orbit, the main purpose of which was to photograph the lunar surface. The next logical step after sending the lunar rover should be sending a Chinese astronaut to the moon. Experts believe that this may happen after 2020.
The launch of the Yuytu lunar rover allowed China to enter the top three countries (together with the USA and the USSR) that sent their aircraft to the moon. Up to this point, the last lunar mission was the Soviet Luna-24, which was carried out back in 1976. Still lagging behind Russia and the United States in the space race, over the past 20 years, China has invested $ 20 billion in space exploration, which has allowed the country to make a real breakthrough, reaching third place in the world space race.
Long March II rocket at Jiuquan Cosmodrome
At the same time, the media report about the launch of the first Chinese lunar rover almost coincided with the news about another ambitious space project being implemented in Asia. The Mangalyan space probe, which was launched by India in early November 2013, is designed to conduct research on the Martian surface. This probe has already left the earth's orbit and entered the flight path to Mars. Having covered 680 million kilometers of path, the probe should reach Martian orbit in September 2014.
If the Indian mission to Mars succeeds, India will be the first country in Asia to join the International Mars Exploration Club (currently the United States, Russia and ESA). It is noteworthy that Beijing also tried to implement a similar project in 2011, but it failed. Thanks to this, lagging behind the Celestial Empire in the development of the space industry as a whole, India can get ahead of its competitor in such a large-scale project as the exploration of Mars.
As interest in the implementation of new, rather ambitious projects on the part of the United States, as well as Russia, decreases, the world space race, through the efforts of India and China, is moving to Asia. At the same time, as experts note, the surge of interest in the development of space is associated not only with the general development of the economies of these states, but also with the tasks of national prestige, the assertion of their new global status in the world. So says Rajeshwari Rajagopalan, an expert at the Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation.
Mars probe
According to Madame Rajagopalan, although there is no direct connection between India's "Mars mission" and the PRC's "lunar mission", both missions must be viewed in the general context of the intensifying competition between the two leading Asian states, which increasingly affects the space industry. The result of such rivalry may be a possible future redistribution of the world market for space technologies and services, which is estimated at billions of dollars, in favor of the leading Asian states. At the same time, the cost of the Martian project of Delhi is estimated at 72 million dollars, which is 6-7 times less than the cost of similar projects of NASA, said Rajagopalan. According to the expert, this can become an important factor that will contribute to the shift of the world space race to the Asian region.
China space program
The PRC's space program officially dates back to 1956. For 14 years, with the help of the USSR, the necessary production was formed here. In 1970, China successfully launched its first satellite, Dongfang Hong-1, which made the PRC a space power. At the same time, the most difficult task in astronautics today is the development of a manned spacecraft. China became the third state in the world (after the USSR / Russia and the USA) with its own manned spacecraft.
October 15, 2003 Yang Liwei - the first cosmonaut (taikonaut) in the history of China - made 14 orbits around our planet in less than 24 hours on a Chinese replica of the Russian Soyuz spacecraft (Shenzhou-5) and returned safely back to Earth on a descent vehicle … By 2013, 4 cosmodromes were built on the territory of the PRC, each of which has several launch sites.
Today, one of the most ambitious programs of the Celestial Empire is the creation of a heavy launch vehicle of the "Great March 5" series, the program was launched in 2001. The three-stage CZ-5 missiles, with a length of more than 60 meters, will be able to launch up to 25 tons of payload into orbit. The first launch of the rocket is scheduled for 2014. Also, since 2000, the PRC has been developing a national satellite navigation system Beidou / Compass (like GPS and GLONASS). The system operates at 1516 MHz. It is planned to complete the deployment of the satellite constellation by 2020. By the end of 2012, 16 satellites had already been launched into orbit.
In parallel, Beijing is actively funding two more large-scale space projects. Thus, Tsinghua University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences are completing joint work on the creation of the HXMT observatory - Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope, which is planned to be launched into orbit in 2014-2016. At the same time, work is underway to create a huge solar telescope (CGST), which will be the largest telescope created for observing the Sun in the optical and infrared ranges. The main purpose of its creation is to study the phenomena of the atmosphere of a celestial body and its magnetic field with high resolution. The estimated cost of building such a telescope is $ 90 million. The start of work is scheduled for 2016. At the same time, China's ambitions and the amount of funding for the space industry are growing every year. By 2020, China expects to build its own orbital station, and in the distant future - to carry out manned flights to the Moon and Mars.
Space program of India
At present, India is the 6th space power, which in the coming years may well press Japan and the EU in this race. Already, the country is able to independently launch communication satellites into geostationary orbit, has its own reentry spacecraft and automatic interplanetary stations (AMS), and is also engaged in the conclusion of international agreements, providing its launch sites and launch vehicles. The Indian Space Agency (ISRO) plans to build its own rover. In parallel with this, the development of an ambitious project of a space transport system called "Avatar" is underway.
The Indian Space Agency ISRO was formed in 1969 through the takeover of the National Space Exploration Committee. Delhi launched the first satellite called "Ariabhata" with the help of the USSR in 1975. After another 5 years, the Rohini satellite was launched into low-earth orbit using its own SLV-3 launch vehicle. Over time, India developed two more types of launch vehicles that are used to launch satellites into geosynchronous and polar orbits. In 2008, India, using a PSLV-XL rocket, sent the Chandrayan-1 AMS to the Moon. Exactly half of the 12 scientific instruments on board the station were created at ISRO
Rocket PSLV-XL at the Indian cosmodrome on the island of Sriharikota
It is worth noting the fact that supercomputers are actively helping to bring India's space program to life. With their help, the most successful engineering solutions are worked out, models and situations are simulated on them. Since 2012, India has been using the SAGA supercomputer, which is the most powerful in the country and is among the top 100 most powerful supercomputers on the planet. It is designed on the basis of 640 Nvidia Tesla accelerators and is able to deliver peak performance of 394 teraflops. So India is successfully participating not only in the space, but also in the supercomputer race. At the same time, it invests billions of dollars in these areas. India currently does not have its own manned space flight program, but ISRO is going to fix this by 2016.
