Space governance, China cannot be absent
The international space order is entering a new stage of turbulent adjustment and reshaping.
In addition to space junk, the various activities of mankind entering, exploring, developing and using space also need to be regulated and governed. It is urgent to incorporate the governance of space activities into the national governance system.
Produced by Deep Eye Studio
Written by: our reporter Lu Chengkuan
Planning: Chen Lei
Open a picture of the eight planets in the solar system, and you will find that Saturn with its own "planetary ring" is very cool and very windy.
In the near future, the earth may also have its own "halo."
Unfortunately, the substances that make up the earth’s “halo” are not dust and meteorites, but “pollutants” created by humans—space junk.
Since the Soviet Union launched the first artificial earth satellite in 1957, mankind has begun the history of "launching satellites" into space.
What followed was an explosion of space junk.
Today, more than 50,000 abandoned spacecraft and space debris have been recorded near the earth.
Don't underestimate these space junk.
They are wandering in space, and once they "clip" with the running satellite, it is enough to destroy them directly and generate more debris.
Therefore, it is urgent to carry out the management of space junk.
In addition to space junk, the various activities of mankind entering, exploring, developing and using space also require regulation and governance.
Two weeks ago, nearly 30 experts from my country's aerospace field gathered at the Xiangshan Science Conference to plan a "China Vision" for future space governance.
Space is still a "virgin land" that has not been divided up, and the major aerospace powers are "staking a race"
A planet in the vast universe is like an island on the sea.
After land, sea and air, space is now the fourth territory of human activities.
In the era of great nauticals, all countries took their newly discovered islands and continents as their own through exploration.
Similarly, in the great aerospace era, space exploration has become an important means of seizing space resources.
Through continuous expansion of the ability to reach and detect deep-space celestial bodies, aerospace powers have become an important setter of new competition rules and an important leader of new competition venues, and they have taken the lead in the competition for space interests.
Therefore, to march into space, countries are ambitious.
In 2019, the United States established the Space Command, which is responsible for the unified command of U.S. global space operations, clarifying that space is a physical combat domain and battlefield, and improving relevant operational doctrines.
At the same time, the United States has also carried out regular space combat exercises with allies, covering all levels of strategy, campaign, and tactics.
In addition, France, the United Kingdom, Australia and other countries have successively established space combat command agencies; India established the National Defense and Space Agency and successfully implemented the first anti-defense test; Japan is preparing to establish a space surveillance force...
With the development of commercial aerospace, mankind's pace of "launching satellites" into space has further accelerated, and frequency and orbit resources have been predatory.
In August 2019, the Federal Communications Commission of the United States passed a document simplifying the approval process for small satellites.
The document relaxes the approval requirements for low-orbit constellations that meet specific conditions, lowers the application threshold, shortens the approval process, and greatly facilitates the small satellite application process of US companies.
Take SpaceX as an example. The company has occupied more than 40,000 frequency resources in advance, covering Ka, V, and Q frequency bands.
"This will cause scarce resources such as space orbit, location and radio frequency to become more tense, and the competition becomes more and more fierce." said Yu Dengyun, deputy director of the Science and Technology Committee of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation and deputy chief designer of China's lunar exploration project.
The United States and other countries encourage private companies or individuals to carry out commercial development of the earth, space, the moon, asteroids, etc., to "enclose the horses".
For example, the United States passed the 2015 Outer Space Resources Exploration and Utilization Act, which granted legality to the development of private outer space mineral resources; in 2017, Luxembourg also passed the Outer Space Resources Exploration and Utilization Act, giving companies the right to mine space.
"There is no doubt that these measures will further extend the competition for space resources to farther deep space." Yu Dengyun emphasized.
At the same time, the competition for dominance in space international governance has also intensified.
The United States replicates the "America First" strategy in the space sector and strengthens its dominance in space games by virtue of its technological advantages.
The United States led the implementation of the International Space Station (ISS) project, which joined 15 countries including Russia, France, and Germany to participate in the construction, and more than 60 countries participated in applications and experiments, which had great influence.
At the same time, the United States vigorously exaggerated the "China Threat Theory" and published the "Space Security Challenge" report in February 2019, stating that the development of space technology by China and Russia poses a "challenge" to US space security.
"The international space order is entering a new stage of turbulent adjustment and reshaping. my country must strengthen its modern governance capabilities for space activities." Wu Weiren, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and chief designer of China's lunar exploration project, emphasized.
There are still shortcomings in organizational management and laws and regulations: the normalized top-level decision-making mechanism needs to be improved urgently, and there is no space law in my country
After decades of development, our country has made remarkable achievements on the road of building a powerful space country: "Dongfanghong-1", Shenzhou series, "Chang'e" and "Tianwen" have been launched into space; Earth, moon, Mars, Chinese astronauts The pace of exploring the universe never stops.
However, “my country’s aerospace industry still has outstanding issues that restrict the development of aerospace, such as insufficient coordination of space resources, lagging in the construction of laws and regulations, and insufficient dominance of international discourse.” Wu Weiren said with emotion, which highlights my country’s ability to modernize space activities. Urgent improvement.
"Although my country has achieved certain achievements in the governance and development of space activities, in summary, there are still problems in four aspects: organization and management, laws and regulations, international cooperation, and supporting technology." Wu Weiren said bluntly.
The governance of space activities in my country lacks a systematic and perfect normalized top-level decision-making mechanism.
Specifically, major decisions are generally discussed on a case-by-case basis, and no national-level space activity strategy has been issued.
More importantly, the phenomenon of offside and absence in the organization and management of space activities simultaneously exists. The management involves multiple departments and multiple units, and there is a phenomenon of "Jiulong Water Control".
Extensive resource allocation and management, and uneven development of military and civilian commercial aerospace.
Yu Dengyun said that from a global perspective, commercial investment and application of aerospace has become one of the main trends in the development of the aerospace industry in the future, but the extent to which my country's social capital and private enterprises participate in the development of the aerospace industry is basically at an early stage.
At present, more than 30 countries including the United States, Russia, France and other countries have formulated laws and regulations related to space activities.
A sound space law and regulation system is the basic requirement and important support for the building of a space power.
However, it is a pity that my country is the only country in the world without aerospace laws.
"my country's space activities governance is still in the management stage dominated by administrative policies, and the construction of the national industry legal system is seriously lagging behind the country's overall legal development level." Yu Dengyun explained.
my country's existing "Space Object Registration Management Measures", "Interim Measures for Civil Space Launch Project License Management", and "Space Debris Mitigation and Protection Management Measures" are mostly departmental regulations.
Needless to say, this seriously hinders the safe, orderly and sustainable development of space activities.
Core technology cannot meet demand, and international cooperation lacks top-level design
Space junk has always been a headache.
In reality, these space debris have posed a considerable threat to orbiting spacecraft.
By the end of 2018, more than 16 satellites in the world were "dead" or abnormal due to debris impact.
In 2009, the US "Iridium 33" struck the scrapped Soviet "Cosmos-2251" satellite at an altitude of nearly 800 kilometers over Siberia.
The consequences of this impact were very serious. Not only did "Iridium 33" directly "kill", it also produced a large amount of space debris.
The development of modern supporting technologies for space governance, such as space debris mitigation and removal, is essential to the safety of spacecraft.
"Space debris mitigation and removal technology is an indispensable disposal technology in the management of space activities. In addition to this, many monitoring technologies are also used in the management of space activities." Yu Dengyun said.
"Although my country has made certain progress in space situational awareness, debris mitigation and other governance technologies that support space activities, my country's core detection technology and perception capabilities still cannot meet the needs of space activities governance." Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, National Space of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Wang Chi, director of the Science Center, emphasized.
For example, in the area of space target monitoring, my country mainly relies on ground systems, and there is a problem of "incompleteness and slowness in seeing".
For another example, in the area of space debris mitigation and removal, my country’s active space debris removal technology has a weak foundation, and there is a significant gap in the requirements for a system that can be operated in a normal manner. The low-cost business service capabilities are not yet available; in terms of planetary defense technology, relevant research is still Basically, it remains at the stage of very shallow conceptual research and design on paper, and it is still unable to provide advice on defense decisions for the possible threat of asteroid impact.
In addition to supporting technology, international cooperation is also crucial in the development of aerospace industry.
In the opinion of experts, there are still some problems in my country's space international cooperation.
The most important thing is the lack of a comprehensive top-level design.
"Specifically, our country lacks long-term and overall strategic goals and policy guidance for international cooperation." Wu Weiren explained.
It is urgent to incorporate the governance of space activities into the national governance system
The governance of space activities is the strategic commanding heights of global public domain governance, and it is also an important means for my country to participate in global governance.
The international community is extremely concerned about space governance.
In order to promote the construction of a modern governance system for my country's space activities, experts have put forward a series of measures and suggestions.
The experts at the meeting unanimously recommended that the governance of space activities should be incorporated into the national governance system, continue to carry out research on major issues in the governance of space activities, accelerate the process of space legislation, increase policy support and investment in international cooperation, and strengthen the guidance of commercial space activities.
The state must establish a normalized research mechanism for the governance of space activities, give play to the synergy of the government, industry, and academia, and create a number of influential space activities governance research think tanks.
"my country should carry out long-term research on hotspots, difficulties, and frontier issues of space activities, and build a theoretical system for space activities in the new era. Actively shape the domestic and international expressions of China’s space activities, carry out a variety of comprehensive promotional activities, and improve China’s space activities. Influence and right to speak.” Wang Chi said.
Regarding space legislation, strengthen inter-departmental coordination, sort out the contradictions and problems existing in the "Space Law" legislation, promote the process of space law through reform and development, and accelerate the promotion of the top-level "Space Law" in accordance with the principle of "step by step, urgent use first". The legislative process.
In terms of international cooperation, Yu Dengyun stated that it is necessary to strive for the landing of international and regional space organizations in my country, strongly support Chinese scientific researchers to serve and participate in activities in international space organizations, and improve foreign affairs policies and systems based on the characteristics of international cooperation, and further relax scientific and technical personnel Restrictions on the time of going abroad and the number of countries visited at a time.
As a "rookie" in space activities, commercial aerospace should be promoted as an important component of the governance of space activities, improve the commercial space development environment, implement a market access negative list system, simplify various licensing procedures, and form a fair and orderly industry The competitive landscape.
"Strengthen the supervision of commercial aerospace activities, especially in compliance with national security laws, international space regulations, import and export control, launch site and test site safety management and control, etc., to ensure legal compliance. Give full play to the flexibility and innovation of commercial aerospace mechanisms Encourage them to actively explore international commercial markets such as space target monitoring and debris removal, and play an active role in the governance of international space activities." Wu Weiren emphasized.