Commercial aerospace at home and abroad is constantly moving. Is the spring of commercial aerospace coming？
At 12: 12 on January 19th, China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, affiliated to China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, successfully launched the Long March 11th solid launch vehicle with one arrow and six stars, which was the first time that China’s solid launch vehicle provided launch services to international users.
People’s vision
Not long ago, American Space Exploration Company’s Falcon heavy rocket was successfully launched for the first time, and a Tesla electric sports car was sent into space. This gimmick has attracted the attention of the public, and the technical characteristics of the Falcon heavy rocket have also caused a heated discussion in the global space industry and pushed commercial space into the public eye.
So, what changes will commercial aerospace bring to the human space field? What impact will it have on China Aerospace?
During the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan" period, the total space industry market in China will reach 800 billion yuan.
In recent years, China’s commercial space activities have continued, and good news has spread frequently. If 2015 is the first year of China’s commercial aerospace development, then it can be said that commercial aerospace has ushered in spring in 2018.
In January this year, the Long March 11 solid launch vehicle was launched for the first time, which means that China’s solid launch vehicle began to provide launch services for international users.
Yang Yiqiang, commander-in-chief of the Chang 11 rocket, believes that "the success of the launch mission means that the commercial launch service process and configuration of the Chang 11 rocket will be further improved, which will provide more and better choices for the launch of many commercial satellites."
"Commercial aerospace is a market-oriented aerospace activity with a commercial profit model." Zhang Qin, vice president of the Fourth Research Institute of China Aerospace Science and Industry Group, thinks.
According to the Aerospace Report released by the American Aerospace Foundation in 2016, the global aerospace economy in 2015 reached 335.3 billion US dollars, of which commercial aerospace accounted for 76%. According to experts’ prediction, by 2020, the global space industry market will reach US$ 485 billion, corresponding to the China market, which will reach 800 billion yuan during the 13th Five-Year Plan period.
For this reason, it is becoming a unanimous choice for all countries in the world to find a suitable business operation model and expand and share the valuable "cake" of commercial aerospace.
Some private enterprises in China have actively participated in commercial aerospace. In January this year, Beijing Blue Arrow Space Technology Co., Ltd. signed a rocket launch service agreement with Danish enterprises, which is the first commercial rocket launch service order in the international market undertaken by domestic private commercial aerospace enterprises.
"The core advantages of private commercial aerospace are rapid decision-making and rapid technical iteration." Zhang Changwu, CEO of Beijing Blue Arrow, said that he will focus on verifying the reliability of technology in the next two years, and introduce a more perfect competition mechanism to reduce costs through wider selection of materials and more open technical cooperation.
In addition to commercial launch, in the field of space tourism, private commercial space flight has also made new progress. Beijing Golden Ocean Aerospace Company has previously demonstrated China’s first commercial skydiving suit. According to the developer, the suit has the functions of vacuum protection, thermal protection, communication between heaven and earth, positioning and so on. At present, it has passed the laboratory simulation test and can be used in complex environments such as stratosphere and space.
Previously, China Aerospace Science and Technology Rocket Technology Co., Ltd. raised 1.2 billion yuan of social capital in the A round of capital increase, which injected a strong impetus into commercial aerospace and also played a good demonstration role. The investor’s representative lamented: This subverted the previous impression that scientific and technological personnel were "chasing" investors with projects, and fully reflected the charm of "hard technology" innovation.
Up to now, China has successfully launched dozens of commercial satellites. In 2018, China will also make efforts in many fields of commercial aerospace. Yin Liming, president of Great Wall Company, a subsidiary of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, said that in 2018, Great Wall Company will ensure the completion of domestic commercial launch missions such as Hongyan’s first star, No.1 01 star and global change scientific experimental satellite.
"Commercial aerospace, as a new format with strong technological innovation, high economic quality and efficiency and both military and civilian attributes, is an important carrier for implementing the national integration of defense and civilian technologies strategy and maintaining and increasing the value of state-owned assets, and is an extremely important and new growth pole for China’s economic development. Under the background of economic and technological globalization, highly developed commercial aerospace is one of the important symbols of world-class aerospace companies and aerospace powers. " Yang Baohua, deputy general manager of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, believes.
According to industry estimates, for every dollar invested in the commercial aerospace field, it can boost investment of 7 to 14 dollars.
The commercial aerospace model can meet the needs of customers with low cost, high efficiency and high reliability.
"The commercial aerospace model can meet the needs of customers with low cost, high efficiency and high reliability, which has an important role in promoting the rapid development of space tourism and even the entire space technology." Pang Zhihao, executive editor of International Space magazine, said.
Liu Shiquan, deputy general manager of China Aerospace Science and Industry Group Co., Ltd., introduced the Falcon — The 9 "rocket has lowered the price of commercial launch by an order of magnitude. The same falcon — 9 "rocket, developed by NASA, costs at least $1.3 billion, while commercial companies only spend less than $400 million.
While the cost is reduced, the efficiency is also obviously improved. Liu Shiquan said that the first is to shorten the development cycle, "Falcon — 9 "It took only four and a half years from design to first flight; Secondly, the acceleration of technological innovation, "Falcon — 9 "A series of reusable rocket tests were carried out, and both land and offshore platform recovery tests were successful. "Commercial aerospace management institutions have implemented flat management, which has greatly shortened the management chain."
Liang Jiqiu, chief designer of Kuaizhou rocket of China Aerospace Science and Technology Rocket Technology Co., Ltd., said that in international commercial launch, the asking price of a rocket carrying a kilogram load is 25,000 to 30,000 US dollars, while the price of Kuaizhou 11 per kilogram load is only 10,000 US dollars. Through scientific and technological innovation, the take-off quality of Kuaizhou series rockets is reduced by about 20 tons compared with similar products, and this alone can directly reduce the launch cost by more than 10 million yuan. This makes this series of rockets truly a "commodity", not just a "product".
Commercial rockets with high cost performance will become "space vehicles", making it possible for ordinary people to travel in space.
As an ordinary person, what services can you enjoy in commercial aerospace?
Dr. Zhang Baoqing from Beijing Institute of Aerospace Information and Information believes that navigation satellites are obviously the closest service to consumers. In China, Beidou satellite navigation system attaches great importance to the consumer market, and Beidou navigation service has been applied to quite a few types of mobile phones. The industry believes that Beidou will achieve the annual output value target of 400 billion yuan in 2020.
High-resolution Earth observation constellation can be used to detect the changes of oil and coal production, transportation and storage, monitor the operation of large power plants, and provide objective and accurate decision-making reference data for energy enterprises.
Zhang Yong believes that cost-effective commercial rockets will become "space vehicles", opening the door to space travel for everyone, and ordinary people may also have a chance to travel in space.
"So far, China’s aerospace data application industry chain has not yet formed, and the depth of space resource value mining is not enough." In the view of Li Jinxiang, deputy chief engineer of China Electronics Technology Group, China’s commercial aerospace can do better. "At present, the commercial distribution, sales and data classification standards of aerospace data are not clear, which makes aerospace data scattered in various departments, resources are difficult to share, and applications are in a fragmented state."
Li Jinxiang suggested that relevant national policies and regulations on the commercial application of national commercial aerospace data should be promulgated as soon as possible, military and civilian aerospace resources should be developed as a whole, and a national-level aerospace data application service system should be established, so that the aerospace industry can explore a business operation mode that is closer to the people, serves life and is profitable.
Relevant experts also agree to speed up the legislation of commercial aerospace, break the shackles of commercial aerospace development through legal system innovation and governance mechanism reform, and ensure that different market players are equally protected by law.
Yang Tianliang, a researcher at Sanya Research Center, Institute of Remote Sensing Earth, Chinese Academy of Sciences, believes that the development ideas and specific paths of commercial aerospace must be considered in the context of integration of defense and civilian technologies’s development. We should not only change our concepts and realize that space technology and industry can serve both national defense and people’s livelihood, but also formulate policies and measures to promote the development of commercial space and support the development of private space enterprises.