Geostrategy-Direct
By Richard Fisher
In 2019 China’s leading space corporation, the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), was behind a proposal to create “an Earth-Moon economic zone by 2050” that could generate $10 trillion.
But according to a report in the Chinese publication China Space News, in late August, CASC was the origin of a three-year study to go much further. The vision called for a network of bases that would span our solar system, using planets, asteroids by exploiting space water and Lagrangian Points — points of equilibrium for small-mass objects under the gravitational influence of two massive orbiting bodies.
The author of this study was Dr. Wang Wei, a chief scientist with CASC and also affiliated with the prestigious China Academy of Sciences (CAS). Wang presented his plan in Beijing at an Aug. 19 meeting of the Chinese Society of Astronautics, for a forum on “Exploring the Universe and Developing Space Resources.”
Wang’s plan would extend to the year 2,100 with stage posts at 2035, 2050, 2075.
He envisions using the exploitation of water ice on Moon, asteroids and planets to create rocket fuel and oxygen required for Chinese settlements that could extend from the Moon to Mars, and to asteroids and planets into the solar system.
The use of Lagrangian Points is necessary as they require far less fuel to maintain a position in space, compared to the fuel required to sustain an orbit around a large planet. The China Space News article states:
“[The] Plan is to gradually construct water-ice resource development facilities on the moon, NEAs [Near Earth Asteroids], Mars, main-belt asteroids & moons of Jupiter satellites, and gradually form a system using Earth-Moon L1, Sun-Earth L1/L2, Sun-Earth L1/L2, Ceres, and Sun-Jupiter L1.”China Space News quotes Dr. Wang saying, "Just like the miracles created in the Age of Great Navigation, the 'great space age' the development of space resources will create the next miracle in the history of human development and bring new prosperity to human civilization."
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