China News Agency, Beijing, January 14 (Ma Shuisha) In the past year, while China Aerospace has made breakthroughs in the fields of manned spaceflight and deep space exploration, commercial aerospace has also made efforts in the fields of small solid rockets and satellite constellations to help the aerospace industry. Promote the development of the aerospace industry.

　　What is the current development status of China's commercial aerospace?

Where should the future be aimed at?

When will China achieve suborbital travel?

Will space "congestion" become a reality in the future?

Yang Yiqiang, the first commander-in-chief of the "Long March 11" and director of the Aerospace Flight Technology Center of the Institute of Mechanics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, recently accepted an exclusive interview with a reporter from China News Agency and gave a detailed explanation.

High reliability, low cost, flexible launch "commercial rocket dream"

　　In recent years, China's commercial aerospace has achieved many achievements. Commercial aerospace companies have not only made key breakthroughs in the development and manufacture of rockets, but also made progress in the constellation and networking of small satellites.

The number of Chinese space launches in 2021 will hit a record high, including commercial solid launch vehicles.

The solid launch vehicle "Lijian-1" developed by China Aerospace Science and Technology Co., Ltd. is scheduled to fly for the first time in early 2022.

　　Talking about why China's commercial aerospace prefers the technical route of solid launch vehicles, Yang Yiqiang said that the first is to solve practical problems. From the perspective of carrying capacity and launch cost, if these rockets are successfully launched, they will become the main type of China's low-orbit launch market. Rocket.

In addition, the threshold for the development of solid rockets is lower than that of liquid rockets, and relevant companies can establish a research and development system and a test system within 2 to 3 years.

　　This is also one of the shortcomings of China's commercial aerospace at present.

Yang Yiqiang pointed out that China's commercial aerospace is in its infancy, and will face difficulties and pressures such as low rocket success rates. This is related to the insufficient R&D system of commercial aerospace enterprises, the need to improve the test and verification capabilities, and the problems of quality and reliability support to be solved. .

　　Although there is a certain gap in the development of China's commercial aerospace compared with foreign first-class commercial aerospace companies, in Yang Yiqiang's view, commercial aerospace is an inevitable trend in the development of China's aerospace industry. The method is flexible, and the "new rocket dream" is technically closer to the aerospace power."

　　"The main task of China's aerospace industry is to complete major national space missions, and commercial aerospace companies still have unique advantages such as flexible mechanisms. In the future, technological innovation should be used to improve the reliability of spacecraft carriers and reduce R&D and manufacturing costs." Yang Yiqiang Said, "I believe that in the near future, China's commercial aerospace, especially commercial rockets, will definitely embark on a road of technological innovation and become a useful supplement to China's aerospace industry."

China may achieve suborbital travel by 2025

　　In addition to commercial rockets, suborbital travel is now the focus of domestic and foreign commercial aerospace companies.

In August last year, Zhongke Aerospace announced the suborbital travel service, which can carry 7 people into an altitude of more than 100 kilometers each time, and experience the feeling of weightlessness for 3 to 5 minutes.

　　Talking about the current research progress, Yang Yiqiang revealed that Zhongke Aerospace has completed the full-system test verification of the "Xuanyuan" liquid rocket engine, "We plan to launch a suborbital vehicle in 2022. If there are no major technical problems, we will go further. Improve the business model, and China will start suborbital travel in 2025, which I think is possible."

　　"It is the future development trend for human beings to carry out space tourism and go out of the earth." Yang Yiqiang pointed out that space tourism can be divided into three steps. The first step is suborbital travel. At present, the relevant technologies are relatively mature, which can solve problems such as rocket failure escape and life protection. , and the physical condition of most ordinary people can also be adapted; the second step is to build a civil space station, which can also be called a "space hotel". After humans enter orbit, they can stay in space for 7 days or even longer; The third step is to travel to the moon and carry out various scientific research activities on the moon.

Space orbit should avoid "staking"

　　In recent years, low-orbit satellite constellation networking plans have been announced internationally.

According to reports, there are currently two technological development trends for artificial satellites, one is large satellites with long lifespan and high value, and the other is the networking and constellation of small satellites. Small satellite networking has unique advantages in function and cost, but Due to the networking requirements and the characteristics of short lifespan and rapid technological iteration, the number of small satellite launches is relatively large.

　　How to reduce space "congestion" while giving full play to the advantages of small satellite networking?

Yang Yiqiang believes that this is actually a question of how many small satellites should be launched.

The constellation of small satellites does require the deployment of a certain number of satellites with different functions on different orbital planes, but the number of satellites can be designed and controlled according to indicators such as time resolution, and should not be aimed at preempting resources.

　　The large-scale "Starlink" satellite project in the United States has repeatedly caused controversy over "excessive occupation of space space".

According to reports, Elon Musk, founder of Space Exploration Technology, compared thousands of satellites in space orbit to thousands of vehicles on Earth in an interview before, denying that it would squeeze other countries’ space for space exploration.

　　In this regard, Yang Yiqiang said, "Even when the car is on the road, there are rules, not running around on the ground. Rules should be established between aerospace powers to share orbital resources and avoid the phenomenon of staking."

　　"Although we now have satellite measurement and control capabilities, we can take the initiative to avoid it, but when the number of satellites on the sky reaches a certain number, it is very difficult to avoid it." Yang Yiqiang pointed out that space is a rare resource for human beings, and rules should be established to cherish the shared space, It should not dominate space, and space powers should set an example.

(Finish)