China’s National Natural Science Foundation announced in an official notice on August 5 the first batch of 78 major projects in nine scientific departments of the 14th Five-Year Plan, and a project named “Dynamics and Control of Space Assembly of Super Large Aerospace Structure” in the Department of Mathematical and Physical Sciences attracted attention.
The project guide mentions that the ultra-large spacecraft with a size of one kilometer is a piece of major strategic aerospace equipment for future space resource utilization, exploration of the mystery of the universe, and long-term living in orbit. And it needs to be built by means of modular design, multiple launches, space assembly, and extremely complex coupling dynamics problems need to be solved.
The current Chinese Tiangong space station in orbit is only 16.6 meters in length, weighing 22.5 tons, and currently houses three astronauts, with a maximum carrying capacity of six people. The International Space Station is 73 meters in length, 109 meters in width, 41.97 tons in weight, and has a maximum crew of 7 people.
This kilometer-class mega-spacecraft is suspected to be similar to the Star Destroyer from the U.S. movie “Star Wars,” but a Chinese space expert reportedly said that existing space propulsion technology simply cannot sustainably drive an interstellar spacecraft of such a large size. And he said one of its major uses could be as a space power station.
Since the structure can perfectly avoid atmospheric attenuation in space and is not affected by day and night or seasons, it can steadily receive solar radiation 99% of the time and can generate large-scale electricity 24/7, with a power generation efficiency dozens of times higher than that of terrestrial solar power plants.
Previously, China had also unveiled a model of an “airborne aircraft carrier” called “Nantianmen Project”.