How China is COPYING SpaceX and Elon Musk

 the united states has long been the  crowned king of space travel  followed closely by russia now private  enterprise is driving the future of  space exploration  but a dark horse has emerged is catching  up  in the space race and is keen to assert  its dominance  all over competitors welcome to fact  nominal  today we're investigating a bit of  monkey sea monkey do  and getting to the bottom of how china  is copying  spacex and elon musk last year 2020 saw  china undertake more space launches than  any other year before  34 in total they aimed to become the us  and the private sector's biggest space  competitor in the future  and eclipse them by sheer force of  numbers china has a desperate need to  prove themselves from trade wars to  building the biggest  and best in infrastructure to  controlling manufacturer and industry  all in an attempt to prove their might  as the world's premier  superpower the future  space travel is no different with  resources dwindling on earth and an  absolute abundance of untapped potential  out there amongst the stars  the new industrial revolution won't be  centered around clean energy  it will all be about mining asteroids in  space  for example there's 140 mile wide  asteroid the size of massachusetts  between mars and jupiter called 16  psyche  which is estimated to be worth 10  quintillion dollars  that's 70 000 times the value of the  global economy  a mere 142 trillion  it's safe to say that the country or  private company who gets the chance to  mine  16 psyche would become the richest and  most powerful organization in the world  and all thanks to the iron and nickel  hiding away in a secret treasure within  16 psyche a solid gold core  china is stepping it up a notch china  has really accelerated their space  program in recent years  while they have been coy about divulging  their plans for the future  all those rockets launched up into the  atmosphere tell us that  they mean business they become quite  adept at hanging with the big boys of  space  exploration evidenced by becoming the  first nation to land a functioning rover  on the far side of the moon there are  rumors that the dark side lunar mission  is a cover for scouting out possible  sites for china to establish a moon base  chinese scientists may be prepping for  researchers to begin living on the  surface  as they carry out scientific experiments  it's not all that irrational to ponder  the possibility of a turf war on the  moon in the not so distant future  in fact the comical spoof series space  force  explores a battle for lunar territory as  a story arc  the potus wants boots on the moon by  2024  and after all the potus gets what the  potus  wants china have also positioned their  last baidu  satellite in a geostationary orbit in  what many are heralding as their own gps  or global positioning system  from what we know about their goals  independence from the us  profitability and military research are  key drivers  for the rapid expansion of their space  program  historically does competition breed  innovation  this is an interesting phenomenon  competition from china may actually  benefit  technological research across the board  simply due to the fact that more data is  being collected from the addition  of another runner in the space race now  hear us out the united states has always  looked at any technological advancements  from the east  and in particular russia with a certain  level of anxiety  fear and trepidation just look at the  launch of sputnik 1  the first artificial satellite the  sputnik crisis was the crucible from  which the cold war  sprang forth and in less than a year the  space race between the two superpowers  was in full swing  culminating in the creation of nasa the  cold war is often portrayed as a dark  chapter in american history  as the country was perched on the brink  of open and very  nearly nuclear warfare with russia  however there were a few positives to  come out of such a dark time  the u.s space program flourished in the  cold war environment  leading to breakthroughs in medicine and  science that would have otherwise taken  decades longer to discover  we're not saying that there will be a  simmering conflict akin to the cold war  in the future between the us and china  but there is no doubt that competition  breeds innovation we have the cold war  to thank for the birth of the internet  and the quantum leap in computer science  courtesy of the infamous  silicon valley and the big four amazon  apple facebook  and google sixty years ago the sputnik  crisis  kicked off the space race between russia  and the u.s  today it's completely different with  private companies pushing their claim  for a slice of the space exploration and  travel pie  these private companies like spacex blue  origin and virgin galactic  are not only competing against each  other but against national space  agencies themselves  the drive behind this shift is simple  competition for a budding customer base  the ultra lucrative market that is  selling tickets to go up for a joy ride  into space  that being said there is a huge  difference between building the vehicle  to launch satellites into a low earth  orbit  and sending cargo and supplies up to the  international space station  and actually making privatized space  travel a reality  the rise of spacex and elon musk  elon musk's aerospace company spacex  has had a meteoric rise to the top and  is the leader in private space  flight ahead of jeff bezos's blue origin  and richard branson's virgin galactic  in fact no other private company has  ever come close to spacex's success  and recently the u.s government has  shown faith in them by awarding a  partial contract to help launch u.s  owned craft into space  musk himself is quite public about his  insane work ethic and lofty ambitions  however spacex only flew 26 of the 40  space missions on u.s soil in 2020  while an impressive number it's expected  that in 2021  china will be the ones leading the world  in the total number of rocket launches  most aims to establish the starlink  satellite  internet network making additional  profits by launching satellites for  other companies  and most importantly taking paying  customers up into a low earth orbit  and eventually further and further into  the void of space beyond  the usfcc has said they would give  spacex  895 million dollars in government  subsidies  should the starlink internet program  improve coverage in rural areas all  around the world  the new crew dragon spacecraft has  already made two trips to carry  astronauts up to the international space  station  and proved itself more than capable of  ferrying human cargo into space  and bringing them back home again nasa  has indicated they're more interested in  purchasing services rather than  upgrading their retired space shuttle  fleet  and spacex aims to make it 48 launches  in 2021  imitation really is the sincerest form  of flattery  present-day china already has more  economic strength and military might  than the former soviet union ever had  even back in their heyday there is a  growing belief amongst  analysts that china has grown to a size  where they refuse to live in a world  where the usa is the dominant superpower  and are prepared to fight  to prove that their authoritarian  capitalism has more to offer the world  than liberal democracy  china has used its space program as a  way to flex their political and  industrial muscle  injecting 345 billion dollars into  initiatives like  the dark side of the moon rover and the  baidu satellites  in an effort to cement themselves as the  top dog in space  the beidou system itself is said to be a  foot more accurate than gps  and able to be used for everything from  pizza delivery to missile guidance  systems  like the us china has allowed room in  their space program structure to allow  for private enterprise  the china-based ispace company  successfully launched a rocket into  orbit in 2019  encouraging other companies to try their  hand at securing profitable government  contracts in the space industry  galaxy space another newcomer company  plans to send  650 low-earth orbit satellites up  in an attempt to mimic spacex's starlink  satellite internet project the company  aims to do it better  and give china a distinct advantage as a  nation with  faster more globally reaching internet  access  for president xi ji ping the space  program  is driven by imbuing a sense of pride in  the chinese people  something akin to how americans feel  about nasa landing the first man on the  moon back in 1969  plans are already underway to launch a  chinese-owned space station  to act as a hub for future research and  as an alternative for  other nations to use besides the iss  china's policy of not sharing  information with the rest of the world  has the u.s upping their game attempting  more and more complex  launches in hopes to speed up the  artemis missions that will take mankind  back to the moon by 2024.  there is a new as yet unnamed spacecraft  that featured in linked  images coming out of china it took off  remained in orbit for three days and  returned to the earth under a trio  of parachutes in something that would  almost be described as a cheap chinese  knockoff of spacex's crew dragon shuttle  the resemblance between the two is  uncanny and the striking resemblance to  a spacex  shuttle already in commission is a  blatant copycat  born from its success like the crew  dragon  the chinese equivalent will be able to  ferry up to six astronauts to  and from their space station when it's  deployed and operational  with china gaining momentum and breaking  new ground in space  a bespoke space station and manned lunar  base  may be possible by as early as 20 30.