China is looking for a huge space station several kilometers in size

In China, the advancement of space technologies continues to move towards fairly large goals. The National Academy of Sciences commissioned studies on the feasibility of kilometer-sized space stations.

The Academy’s Department of Mathematics and Physics has announced funding of up to $2.3 million for such research projects. It’s hard to fund practical tests with this, of course. It is more about the basic research on which any concrete projects of this kind can be built in the future.
Infographic: The International Space Station in numbers

On the part of the state organization, jobs have been put up for tender for a number of different fields of work, according to reports Southern China Morning News. Among other things, materials scientists must work to make space station components lighter without reducing their resistance. There are two reasons for this: the many parts that make up such a large object must first be brought into space, of course – and lift-offs are one of the most expensive parts of building such a structure. However, in orbit, the hull must also be able to move with manageable amounts of fuel to avoid space debris, for example.

ISS needs successors

The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest building ever constructed by mankind in space. At a height of 109 51 73 meters, this is much smaller than the Chinese plan. Given the challenges and resources required to build a much larger plant, it is unlikely that a country like China will end up operating on its own. But the Asian country should at least work to play a leading role in this matter.

If the International Space Station is ever decommissioned – apparently not too far away – a successor will certainly be needed. This is because the station is currently one of the most important laboratories in science and the only one where the effect of gravity can be ruled out for a longer period of time in experiments. However, in the future it will likely be more than just research. There are also plans for a long time, for example to extract raw materials in asteroids, which will require mining operations and processing plants in space.

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space, space travel, nasa, space, satellite, earth, planet, networks, astronaut, space, geographic data, satellite internet, astronauts, space tourists, space suit, space walk, space suite