Why did China and the United States exchange " Mars exploration data"? It can avoid billions of dollars in losses caused by space collisions
by Tamura
According to the news released on March 31 on the China National Space Administration website, in the first three months of this year, the National Space Administration and the United States The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has held many talks and exchanges on the exchange of Mars rover orbital ephemeris data to ensure the flight safety of Mars rover.
During the two sessions this year, Wu Weiren, a member of the Standing Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and the chief designer of China’s lunar exploration project, revealed that the US has recently called China several times to request the sharing of the orbit data of China’s “Tianwen-1” Mars rover. After that, the U.S. first sent the data over .
NASA Acting Director Yurchik disclosed on March 23 that in order to ensure the safety of their Mars missions, NASA is coordinating with the United Arab Emirates, European Space Agency, the Indian Space Research Organization and the China National Space Administration. , To exchange information on their respective Mars missions to ensure the safety of their respective spacecraft.
Schematic diagram of security threats to space navigation
actively manages the " space collision"
Why do China and the United States need to share part of the Mars mission data? In short, for space safety. In fact, according to NASA’s official website, the agency has decades of experience in negotiating with the Soviet Union/Russia, Europe and other space agencies to "actively manage collision risks."
On the surface, this will damage the confidentiality of space data of countries and regional organizations, but spacecraft can only play their role when they enter orbit safely and operate without interference. Now the safety of space navigation faces two major problems. One is the large amount of space debris generated by spacecraft, that is, "space junk"; the other is because there is a unified "window period" for spacecraft launches, causing spacecrafts performing similar missions in various countries to enter close orbital positions at similar times. Create a risk of collision.
only calculates the economic cost, this kind of risk is unbearable for all space agencies. NASA's current key project "Artemis" plan uses the SLS heavy-duty launch vehicle after ten years of research and development, and the combined cost of a launch is $5 billion, which is close to a quarter of the agency's annual budget. For other space agencies that are not as massive as China, the United States, Russia and Europe, "failed once and went bankrupt" is not even a joke.
At present, the main measures taken by the aerospace industry to avoid such risks are to control space junk through multilateral mechanisms, and to avoid collision risks through bilateral data sharing.
Beginning in 1999, major space agencies, under the coordination of the Inter-agency Space Debris Coordination Committee under the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Use of Outer Space, have established a series of systems to reduce the generation of space junk. But this is far from enough to ensure the safety of spacecraft. According to NASA statistics, there are now 17,000 pieces of space junk with a diameter of more than 10 cm, more than 200,000 pieces with a diameter of 2.5-7.5 cm, and millions of smaller pieces. Only one quarter this year, there has been at least one spacecraft crashing into space junk before it enters orbit, causing at least one failure.
The bilateral negotiation mechanism that can solve the sharing of space junk and voyage data came into being. In the same period of negotiations with the China Space Administration, NASA and Span9span Musk’s SpaceX signed a joint agreement on space navigation safety in March this year. This is the first time that NASA has extended this work to commercial aerospace. Cooperation between institutions. However, the cooperation between different space agencies is often based on specific projects and discussions, not as comprehensive as the agreement.
According to the requirements of this agreement, first of all, the two parties must share the exact positions of their respective spacecraft and orbital debris, as well as the timetable and scheduled positions of spacecraft launches; secondly, the newly launched spacecraft of one party must ensure that it does not affect the other. The spacecraft that one party is already operating are operating normally and uninterrupted, that is, the "new spacecraft" must avoid the "old spacecraft"; third, unless fully informed, one party may not unilaterally move the "new spacecraft" when the other party launches it. One's own "old spacecraft" interfered with each other. From the perspective of international law, this safe flight rule in outer space is similar to the concept of "international comity" .
is similar to the aviation field in that this procedure prevents not only "collision", but also "air approach", that is, to prevent two spacecraft from approaching each other at high speeds, and manage risks. If there are "not many" spacecraft in the same orbit, it is not necessary to meet the requirements of aerospace if it is advocated that there is no need for safety cooperation. Unlike the aviation industry, there is no "air control" in outer space. In order to prevent "air approach", the main organization that launches the spacecraft must share data and be "comfortable."
On the initiative to share data with China this year, NASA's current acting director Yurchik said that the purpose is to "make targeted contacts and share data from the Mars mission in order to analyze the risk of collision."
NASA's "Perseverance" probe landed on Mars in February this year and began operations. China's "Tianyu-1" probe entered an orbit around Mars on February 9. It is currently orbiting Mars and is preparing to land in May or June. In addition, on March 29, the Nozomi probe from the United Arab Emirates entered orbit around Mars and began a two-year Martian atmosphere research project.
All three spacecraft set off during the "launch window" last summer and arrived at their scheduled positions almost simultaneously. They were all groundbreaking missions in the history of human spaceflight, making the surrounding area of Mars more crowded than ever before. In this context, sharing relevant data is beneficial to both China and the United States in completing their respective exploration missions and avoiding "space approach" incidents.
Schematic diagram of NASA probes operating on the surface of Mars
both compete,Cooperating again
Sharing Mars mission data and avoiding the risk of “space approaching” is a normal cooperation in the aerospace industry, but under the current background of Sino-US relations, it seems unusual . All stems from the " Wolfe Clause " passed by the US Congress in 2011, that is, the bill proposed by Congressman Wolfe to restrict NASA's joint scientific research activities with China and restrict NASA's reception of Chinese scholars.
Although NASA can contact the Chinese Space Administration under the condition of requesting approval from Congress, except for a few special cases such as the data sharing of this Mars mission, the " wolf clause" actually prohibits NASA from communicating with China. Normal communication.
The "Wolf Clause" has never been supported by NASA. At the time, NASA director Bolden, an astronaut who had participated in the US-Soviet joint space mission, opposed the "Wolf Clause" and was questioned by Congress for suspected violation of the clause. Even the director of NASA, Bridenstein appointed by Trump, congratulated China on joining the “International Mars Scientific Exploration Club” after the successful launch of China’s “Tianwen-1” probe, and wished “Tianwen-1” "have a safe trip. Biden After being elected president, many former NASA executives, including Bolden, publicly called on the new government to restart cooperation with China in the field of aerospace.
University of Central Florida Professor Roger Handberg, a well-known expert on space policy, pointed out that the reason NASA is eager to resume normal cooperation with China is the same as when NASA maintained exchanges with the former Soviet space agency under the background of the Cold War. Because the current human technology is far from cracking the mysteries of space, the United States has to seek the cooperation of other aerospace powers.
"In fact, our space research is becoming more and more difficult, and it is entering deep water.Need to break through the long-term bottleneck . ”Handberg said for example, NASA has been studying the radiation and microgravity problems that make human spaceflight extremely dangerous, but so far has not found a solution.
Similarly, because the moon landing program was stopped in 1972, NASA has The study of the moon urgently needs the first-hand data such as the lunar soil obtained by the Chinese astronauts. Because the space shuttle project has stopped, NASA has repeatedly borrowed Russian spacecraft to send astronauts to the space station.
Handberg believes that it benefits from reality. The reason, as well as the relative independence and neutral attitude of the NASA system, is that there is currently no space race between China and the United States. "Some people in Congress and the former Trump administration believe that China and the United States want to compete in space affairs, but most of the space industry People are not in this way.
NASA Acting Director Yurchik appointed after the Biden administration took office has repeatedly revealed his intention to strengthen cooperation with China. Among the key tasks on climate change that Biden requires NASA to complete, NASA will "in both domestic and international aspects" Initiating new projects", including striving to reach an agreement with "competitors" on sharing key climate data.
In addition to cooperating with China, in February of this year, Yurchik also had a phone call with Russian Space Director Rogozin to discuss "in space technology Focusing on climate change research with the help of the United States, Rogozin said that Russia supports strengthening cooperation with the United States in this field.
Harrison, director of the CSIS Space Security Research Center, a top US think tank, believes that the sharing of data on Mars missions between China and the United States can also extend to more Multiple directions of cooperation, including joint reduction of space junk, cooperation to limit global anti-satellite tests, and even a consensus on broader outer space rules.
However, experts also pointed out that China and the United States should not be blindly optimistic about cooperation in the field of space. The Biden administration has stated that its space core program "Artemis" manned mission to the moon will not seek cooperation with China and Russia for the time being. And the new NASA leader and former senator Nelson Biden just nominated by the United States has also The media regards as a relatively conservative figure, and once supported restricting NASA’s cooperation with external agencies, commercial companies, and China and Russia.
" The reality of human space history has resulted in NASA’s long-standing operational characteristics: the ability to compete with rivals,Cooperate with opponents again. This is the case in the face of the Soviet Union, and there will not be much change in the face of China . Handberg said.
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