China's space cleaners worry the West, a satellite suddenly disappears!
The near-Earth space region close to the Earth's surface is not only one of the gateways to space, but also one of the resources of near-Earth space. A number of satellites and space stations operate in this area. Therefore, the near-Earth zone is very important for the development of the space industry.
For example, the concept of 6G technology is the interconnection of space and earth, that is, through the low-earth orbit communication satellite in space and the base station on the ground. This shows the importance of low-Earth orbit resources, which affect not only the development of space technology and the space industry, but also the development of other fields.
A lot of people have heard about Musk's SpaceX company and its"Starlink"plan, which was originally planned to launch 120,000 communications satellites, which were later increased to 420,000 pieces. At first glance,"Starlink"The purpose of the plan is to provide global communication signals and is also part of the development of 6G technology, but in reality, the mass launch of communication satellites into low-earth orbit is also an act of grabbing resources on the Earth scale.
If the 42 000 communication satellites of the Starlink program are launched, one can imagine how much NEOs will be"Busy", how difficult it will be for us to continue to launch communication satellites on NEOs.
The Starlink program has completed the launch of 5 694 satellites, which is arguably a very high number. What's more, as SpaceX continues to make technological advancements in satellite launches, so does its satellite launch capabilities.
For example, SpaceX previously used the Falcon 9 launch satellite, which is not an advanced launch rocket that can only launch about 50 communications satellites at a time. But now, SpaceX is developing a Starship rocket that can launch up to 400 satellites at a time.
However, what we didn't expect was that a technology we developed in 2021 to clean up space junk has attracted the attention of the United States and Western countries. The PRAXIS 21 satellite is an experimental satellite that we launched in September 2021 with the primary purpose and purpose of validating space debris mitigation technologies.
Not so long ago,"Practice No. 21"The satellite successfully captured a defunct Beidou satellite and dragged it into the target orbit in four days.
At that time, the U.S. commercial space inspection company was not aware of this situation, but only found that a Beidou satellite suddenly disappeared from orbit, and after a series of finals, it was discovered that the practical 21 price of this Beidou satellite was dragged into the target orbit of the initiative.
This also worries the United States very much, because after all, in the field of space technology, we have undoubtedly caught up with or even surpassed them. Not only that, but they are also worried about the impact this technology will have on their space resources.
In fact, the development of our country in the field of space technology has already entered"Fast lane"In recent years, there has been good news about the progress of aerospace technology. For example, we have made progress in relaunchable rocket technology, foldable satellites, etc., and we have also developed"Global Chinese Constellation Project", which is expected to launch tens of thousands of satellites.
In the field of space stations and manned spaceflight, we are also developing very rapidly, and our Shenzhou-16 rocket has set a record for carrying non-professional astronauts into space for the first time in the history of astronautics"Moon Rabbit"The lunar rover also successfully carried the lunar soil of the moon. In addition, our Beidou satellite is also the world's leading navigation satellite with excellent performance.
postscript：
Today, we have developed rapidly in the field of aerospace technology, and have made many technological breakthroughs and research and development achievements, and even achieved them in some aerospace fields"Overtaking in corners"to become a world leader. This undoubtedly proves the outstanding performance of China's science and technology, and also proves the rapid development of China's science and technology.
If you agree, please give a thumbs up and feel free to **, comment and share.