China's Space Programme - Hare or Tortoise?
- Paper number
IAC-16,E3,2,5,x34644
- Coauthor
Dr. William Carey, The Netherlands
- Coauthor
Ms. Jacqueline Myrrhe, Germany
- Year
2016
- Abstract
The 21st century is believed to become the Asian century. In the last few years China has introduced several economic and political initiatives which promote its rise as a global power. Embedded in its development and rise is the national space programme. This allows the country to follow a very smart concept for the space programme. The basic principle is to develop “key systems” such as launch sites, launchers or TT&C systems which can be used across the different field of space exploration: from Earth observation to the manned space programme, lunar exploration or other programmes. It is maybe a little bit like a Lego system or the menu of a Chinese restaurant. Western observers tend to look at China's space programme as being small, slow, technologically less advanced and not significant enough. Is this a correct reflection? Is China's space programme a hare or a tortoise? Is it possible to predict China’s near term future in space? The authors provide an in-depth analysis to find qualified answers to these questions through the consultation of open sources.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-16,E3,2,5,x34644.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
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