China wants to conquer outer space. They shout it from the rooftops revealing their intentions to begin the colonization of the Moon and Mars. The Asian giant’s space program is already developing a project to practice mining in different worlds, which are clearly not Earth.
To try to achieve this, they have an ambitious plan that identifies, first of all, the planets or rocky bodies on which they can land. China’s schedule with this mission is to start in 2035 and end in 2100.
The space agency of the giant China has the objective of installing a space mining network in Mars, the Moon, natural satellites of Jupiter and some asteroids that have already been identified.
Wang Wei, scientist at the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporationexplains that the plan of their organizations is to exploit the mining and energy resources of various bodies in the Solar System.
They will have to develop new technologies to achieve this, but they already have the plan made in mind and on paper. In fact, they compare this situation with the era of navigation, in which humans went out to explore the seas of the Earth.
“Like the miracles created in the great age of navigation, a great space age, with the use of space resources (…), will create the next miracles in the history of humanity and bring new prosperity to our world. civilization,” reads a publication by China Space News, the Asian giant’s state-run scientific news site.
One of the new technologies to execute this plan is the development (on track) of a space station better than the ISS, to serve as a port of entry to the nearby and deep areas of the Solar System.
There is already a mining mission in previous works. This is the Tianwen-2 robotic space probe, which will be launched in 2025. This ship will collect rocks from an asteroid called 2016 HO3.
The composition of this asteroid indicates that it is composed mainly of metal oxides, such as iron and magnesium. It also contains small amounts of silicates and other minerals. China says there are about 700 rocks near Earth, of which 122 are economically suitable for mining.