Asiana21

CHINA'S ROLE IN COMMERCIAL SPACE ON HOLD

Peter J Brown

Asia Times, December 23, 2008

Just a few days ago, the organizers of the Google Lunar X Prize announced that one of the new international participants was a Shanghai-based German-Chinese team known as Team Selene. This team has proposed a Lunar Rocket Car (LuRoCA 1) equipped with HDTV cameras.

This might not necessarily turn out to be one of the first commercial success stories in Chinese space history. Still, it is noteworthy. Markus Bindhammer, the German-born inventor who heads the team - Shi Xiaojun serves as executive designer - believes that Team Selene has caught everyone by surprise. He is not aware of any other Chinese aerospace or space technology companies active in this competition which now includes well over a dozen active teams.

To win the US$20 million grand prize, a team must build and deploy by December, 2012, a privately-funded spacecraft that can make a successful soft landing on the moon. It must then travel at least 500 meters on the lunar surface while simultaneously transmitting video, images and data back to Earth. If a team does all of this by December, 2014, they can still claim a prize of $15 million. The second-placed team is awarded $5 million and there are bonus prizes as well.

"Our project is the first one [from China]. China will follow it, but with reservations at first. China is very open to new things and the people are enthusiastic. It is a first step in terms of cooperation between China and other nations regarding astronautics, and also a great chance for the Chinese aerospace industry," said Bindhammer.

(...) [artículo aquí]