Asia races to the Moon

September Japan brought an orbit to the moon. In October China launched its first moon exploration satellite. India has planned to follow. New South Korea declared: " The moon is the goal !".

Ambitious plan

On November 21, South Korea officially announced its space exploration program. One plan in the program was to launch a lunar exploration ship in 2025. According to the Korea Times, the Korean Ministry of Science and Technology said: "We plan to launch a satellite into orbit around. the moon by 2020 and for a exploration station to land on the lunar surface by 2025. By 2017 we will build a 300-ton thrust rocket with our own technologies and join efforts. global space exploration ".

South Korea's space exploration roadmap represents a shift in the country's space programs - shifting from focusing on developing existing small missiles to large-scale space exploration activities. for the future. This plan has been prepared in detail after the Ministry of Science and Technology of Korea completed the project for activities after 2016.

The moon became the target of the space race in Europe (Photo; SGTT)

Korea will promote the completion of its satellite technologies and conduct basic space exploration studies from now until 2016. Starting from 2017, space exploration programs are diverse, including craft of spacecraft, will be conducted. The Korean government also decided to continue its astronaut training efforts, after the space flight of its first astronaut, Ko San, is scheduled for April 2008.

Also from 2017, Korea will start exploring the moon with other planets. Korea will build missile launch facilities to support space exploration and bring manned spacecraft to space.

Ko San - a robot expert of Sam Sung Group was recruited to train the first astronaut of Korea.Ko San will be flying to ISS International Space Station in April 2008 (Photo: SMS)

Big boys race

Asia's space race began to heat up after China launched the Hang Nga 1 satellite onto the moon's orbit on October 24. A month earlier, Japan launched its first moon orbit, Selene. India claims to be ready for a similar moon station to launch next year. The giants of Asia are competing for a place farther away than the Earth's atmosphere.

The satellites flying around the lunar orbit of the Asian giants today are all designed to learn more about the atmosphere and the surface of the moon. Officials in three Asian space powers quickly asserted: there is absolutely no military purpose. But in an area where civilian technological advances are easy to apply to the military, these countries are closely monitoring each other's progress.

Bates Gill, director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, said in Science Chrisrtian Monitor: "This means more competition because of security issues related to all three countries. to the military, it will be difficult to have true cooperation for space science ".

Chinese Shenzhou 6 ship carrying Hang Nga 1 satellite was launched on October 24 (Photo: SGTT)

India is tense over China's unpublished intentions after a series of tests of Beijing's anti-satellite missiles at the end of January 2007. China worries that missile defense cooperation between Japan and the US is likely to threaten China's interests. Japan was startled by the possibility of Korean ballistic missiles.

Asia's space programs are generally motivated by a "technonationalism", which creates domestic pride and demonstrates its ability to the world. Ouyang Ziyuan - Chinese Moon Program's chief scientist, interviewed People's Daily newspaper: "Exploring space reflects the nation's comprehensive strength and importance in improving. international reputation and strengthening national unity ". But space programs also promote many high-tech industries - from rocket design, global positioning, telecommunications .

These challenges are also important for India, where the scientific community is seeking new frontiers when the New Delhi nuclear program is now complete. Swapna Kona - analyst at New Delhi Institute for Peace and Conflict said: "The only new way to develop science and technology is space science."

In Japan, space science is the promise of autonomy. Akinori Hashimoto, a spokesperson for the Japanese Space Exploration Agency (JAEA), said: "Japan needs to know its own means of launching satellites. Currently, we cannot launch satellites at any time. We want and are always concerned about information leakage ".

India plans to launch Chandrayaan moon station in 2008

Japan triggered a moon race (Photo: SGTT)

Property of the future

China, Japan, India and South Korea all focus on the moon because of its proximity and high feasibility. And the moon is the first logical step towards the exploration of planets. Many officials see real rewards outside of scientific knowledge that will be achieved during the mapping and analysis of the lunar surface. For example, the moon is thought to be rich in Helium-3 that can be used for fusion reactions (nuclear fusion) to generate energy. India's Chandrayaan moon station will launch in April 2008, as well as China's Hang Nga 1 satellite detecting Helium-3.

SELENE moon station of Japan

Certainly, similar goals are also within the sights of Korea. However, Korea's ambitious space program has yet to have a legal basis to proceed as it is only a roadmap for a vision after 2016. As long as the plans of the Korean Ministry of Science and Technology The country is officially approved and allocated by the government, then it can be promoted. The somewhat hasty statements about Korea's spatial plan seem to be dominated by the increasing competition of three major Japanese-Chinese-Indians.

On electronic newspaper NewScientist. com, Paul Spudis, a scientist at the Johns Hopkins University's Department of Applied Physics, who makes radar systems for India's Chandrayaan moon station, has another look at the moon race. . He said: "I see the race on this moon - or if you want to, both the solar system races - the race of competing philosophies rather than the race of nations."

SELENE Moon Station of Japan (Photo: SGTT)

Tran Ngoc Dang