China’s possible plans for expanding Tiangong-3
Though the plans have apparently not been approved, the designers of China’s Tiangong-3 space station are now considering expanding the station with additional large modules.
“Following our current design, we can continue to launch an extension module to dock with the forward section of the space station, and the extension module can carry a new hub for docking with the subsequent space vehicles,” [Wang Xiang, commander of the space station system at the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST)] told CCTV following the return to Earth of the Shenzhou-14 crew Dec. 4.
With a new docking hub, the Chinese would actually have the potential of doubling the station’s size by duplicating its present configuration with one central module (with the hub) and two side modules.
The station’s design, an upgrade of the Soviet Union’s Mir station, also allows for relatively easy replacement of modules as they age. Though the station only has a planned ten-year life, do not be surprised if it remains operational for many decades beyond that.
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Though the plans have apparently not been approved, the designers of China’s Tiangong-3 space station are now considering expanding the station with additional large modules.
“Following our current design, we can continue to launch an extension module to dock with the forward section of the space station, and the extension module can carry a new hub for docking with the subsequent space vehicles,” [Wang Xiang, commander of the space station system at the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST)] told CCTV following the return to Earth of the Shenzhou-14 crew Dec. 4.
With a new docking hub, the Chinese would actually have the potential of doubling the station’s size by duplicating its present configuration with one central module (with the hub) and two side modules.
The station’s design, an upgrade of the Soviet Union’s Mir station, also allows for relatively easy replacement of modules as they age. Though the station only has a planned ten-year life, do not be surprised if it remains operational for many decades beyond that.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Just a question to the readership here…
I am fully aware that the Chinese are using a soup of stolen tech, russian tech, and home brewed tech…
But I, personally, believe that the more humans, we as a species, loft into LEO, the better chance we have of some future collaborations for genuinely huge missions… Man on mars… And beyond.
These aims are beyond the resources of any one nation state, ( at least in any sustainable form ) , and the chances of collaboration between the West, China, and Russia when it eventually chills out are chances for diplomacy.. Space is big, the moon.. mars.. are big, there is room for us all to cooperate without conflict. More so than here on earth.
My question is… Your opinions on my statement?
( I am not trying to bait anyone here… I am genuinely interested in the views of the right wing population here… We all love space, but do you hate real communism in another land, far away, over China’s genuine achievements in space? )
The Chinese gave up on ‘real communism’ decades ago, so that’s not an issue for me anymore. But as an authoritarian nation with no interest whatsoever in personal liberty or free markets, I do not wish them great success in space.
I’m happy to work with other nations in space, as long as their goals are not incompatible with ours. I’d boot the Russians off of the ISS and replace them with, say, India in a heartbeat.
@Matthew…. I hear you…. Personally ( of course!) I wish the ESA were a bit more in the mix… But the reality is that it is only the US, Russia and China that can launch people into space.
I’m still ( and only personally curious… I have no agenda!)
China in space… Good. Or bad ? Possible alliance or no chance?
I suppose China in space is good, only because if we drop the ball and are consumed as a nation by our own foolishness, there will still be *someone* (I don’t consider the Russians a serious space power, and the Indians aren’t quite ready to step up yet) trying to move forward.
Aside from that, I don’t think there’s any benefit to working with them. As long as we come to an arrangement on how to stay out of the way of each other’s legitimate interests in space, we’ll be good.
@ Lee S,
I challenge your assumption that we must have alliances to move outward. And that no nation state can handle it alone. It does however depend on the meaning of alone. As an individual, I have access to resources from all over the world to the extent that I can pay. Amazon, EBay, Ali Baba, and such are only too willing to take my money for products with no partnership agreements. Given proper management and the availability of an existing world wide supply chain, Denmark or Sri Lanka could move forward opening the space frontier.
It is proper management that is the sticking point. Citizens from many countries will move forward as long as they are not prevented from doing so by Central Planning. Each entity that finds a profitable niche will expand the frontier if permitted. I have no problem with the idea of Chinese space activity as it is likely to be permanently restricted by central control. Chinese entrepreneurs are more likely to dominate than the Chinese government.
If all the space nations unit into one unit the competition will evaporate inside a year.
They will all slow down to the pace of NASA, taking 20 to 30 years to do a decades worth of labor.
They will just become the same huge slow bureaucracy everyone in the world hates.
We would not have sports if everyone was on the same team.
And its the same with anything. Without competition we would stagnate and die.
Universal cooperation sounds great to the unwashed hippies of the 60’s and 70’s but how many communes still exist from then? Zero. The members all left the communes and entered the great rat race.
@ Matthew & John…. I could be wrong… Indeed in some ways I hope I am, but from where I’m sitting, I can’t see any country having the resources to set up a base anywhere alone. If I am correct then international collaboration will be essential, and could end up helping to thaw relations with Russia and China…
Perhaps I’m just an optimist… But the whole “pale blue dot” concept, the “overview effect” could maybe, just maybe, help to unite humanity into the first worldwide project.
Unfortunately I think it is all going to end up as another shlong waving race for the first flag on mars.. footprints and a flag.
@pzatchok,
Just because an idea doesn’t catch the first time around doesn’t mean it’s not got value… It could be argued that the masses were too brainwashed by the momentary point in human history when capitalism worked, that they didn’t disagree.
Those days vanished long ago… Almost to a man, ( almost no women post here..) long for the 50’s and 60’s when a man could earn enough to pay for the house, the car and a housewife … Those days are long gone.
There are no “Superpowers” now… Perhaps the unwashed hippies had the right idea after all?