On the evening of October 13th Beijing time, SpaceX's new generation heavy carrier rocket, Starship, conducted its fifth orbital test flight. After the first stage booster of the rocket was put into use, it achieved a 'historic landing'. A super heavy booster with a height of 71 meters and a diameter of 9 meters descended from the sky, slowly flew and landed in front of the launch tower, adjusting its posture to vertical. The robotic arm also slowly recovered, and finally successfully "clamped" this behemoth. This seemingly impossible move has been described by many netizens as' chopsticks holding a rocket '. Mastering the reusability of rockets and reducing launch costs is a common research direction pursued by the global aerospace industry. SpaceX's Falcon 9 has achieved over 350 first stage recoveries, using the form of deploying support legs to land at designated landing sites. China's aerospace companies have also achieved similar technological experiments, completing a ten kilometer level vertical takeoff and landing (VTVL) recovery method. But the "chopstick pick rocket" recycling of the "Starship" once again shattered people's imagination of rocket recycling and utilization, giving people more new expectations and imaginations about the boundaries of space technology development and the infinite possibilities of space exploration. Chopsticks holding a rocket "is not actually using a robotic arm to hold the rocket, but rather the rocket hovering and landing on the robotic arm before stabilizing and fixing it. This poses high precision requirements for rocket flight control design, and requires the use of lightweight and sturdy rocket bodies. Compared to the recovery method of VTVL, the first stage is directly recovered on the launch tower, omitting the steps of transportation, maintenance, and reuse installation after VTVL land/sea platform recovery. It directly realizes maintenance and re launch on the launch tower, greatly improving the efficiency of reuse and further reducing launch costs. It should be said that this is a highly imaginative idea and has ultimately been realized. So, as space powers, should we feel the urgency and catch up accordingly? A sense of urgency is necessary. The exploration of space and the utilization of space resources have indeed entered a state of tension today. Space resources are limited, and according to current international rules, it is first come, first served. We can only obtain more resources for the future development of our country by launching more rockets into space and sending more payloads into orbit. This is not in conflict with the long-term development of space science such as deep space exploration and manned spaceflight. Nowadays, we do not account for the majority of global rocket launches and total payload mass. This data is an important indicator for measuring the comprehensive strength of a country's aerospace industry. At this moment, facing such an unimaginable aerospace capability, all aerospace professionals in China should indeed feel the pressure. After all, such recyclable technology has achieved savings in time, manpower, and funds, which is of great benefit to the development of the aerospace industry. Of course, pressure must be converted into motivation, but that doesn't mean we have to catch up with it. The development of the aerospace industry requires step by step, and the achievements of China's aerospace industry over the past few decades have shown that China has the ability to achieve more and greater accomplishments in the field of space science. However, based on the actual development process, there is indeed a gap between China and other countries in terms of technology and resource accumulation. For example, a large rocket with a carrying capacity of over 20 tons made its maiden flight in 2016, while other countries had mature application products in the 1960s. Therefore, in the face of the test flight results of the "Starship", what we need to learn is actually imagination, as well as the perfect integration of dreams and commercial aerospace. The development of the aerospace industry relies not only on imagination, but also on market support. For mature technologies such as VTVL recycling that have been put into practice, we need to intensify our efforts to fully master them. In the long run, helping China achieve the goal of building a strong aerospace country requires more imagination and creativity, which cannot be achieved without the cultivation of a large number of scientific and technological talents and a more relaxed institutional environment. (New Society)
Edit：Luo yu Responsible editor：Jia jia
Source：GMW.cn
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