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China, for one, welcomes our ROBOT SPACE ANT overlords

Senior official says six-legged bots offer a greater leap for mankind than rolling rovers

China's signalled its intention to develop robotics for deep space missions.

The signals came in the form of a speech by Liu Jizhong, director of the lunar exploration program and space engineering center at China's State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense. Liu's speech, reported by Chinese state organ Xinhua.

Liu identifies a few missions he thinks China should pursue, suggesting them because they'd make the Middle Kingdom a space innovator. Among his ideas are:

  • Placing a lander on the far side of the moon, supported by a satellite at the L2 Lagrange point beyond Luna's orbit, is one mission. Developing such a satellite would, it's hoped, make it possible to explore the Moon's poles (where they may be water ice) and therefore enable development of a Lunar base;
  • A heavy-lift vehicle with a payload of 100,000 kilograms to help establish a moon base or to fuel deep space exploration. Today's heavy lifters can't do half that, even to low earth orbit. Elon Musk's planned Falcon Heavy is planned to haul 53,000 kg. China's planned Long March V will have a maximum capacity of 25,000 kg.
  • Developing robotics, preferably a six-legged ant analogue, to retrieve samples from an asteroid to further our understanding of the solar system's development. Ant-like bots are suggested as a more flexible advance on rolling rovers;
  • Faster propulsion technologies to deliver probes to deep space in shorter times.

When senior Chinese officials make speeches like this, and they find their way into Xinhua, it's often more a very strong signal about governmental desires than a thought bubble. China's space program is already vigorous: the nation is planning more moon rovers and has a space station on the drawing board. ®

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