Such things as smoke alarms, thermal underwear, solar water heaters and satellite navigation are inseparable from aerospace science and technology.
"In fact, everyone is unknowingly enjoying the convenience brought by space technology," Liang Xiaohong, secretary of the Party committee of the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology under the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, said in an interview on June 25. Aerospace science and technology, which was very mysterious in the past, has penetrated into all aspects of our daily lives.
Smoke alarms installed in the offices, hotels and kitchens were invented to detect the smoke and toxic gases in the space station. The intensive care units in the hospitals benefited from the manned moon landing of "Apollo spacecraft" and originated from the laboratory of monitoring the vital signs of astronauts in training. The dried vegetable in the flavoring bags of instant noodles was originally the space food. The sports shoes with stretchy soles originated from the cushion on which the astronauts sat comfortably when the rocket was launched. In addition, baby incubators, cardiac pacemakers, thermal underwear and solar water heaters all benefited from the space activities.
The food quality and quantity safety are also related to the space technology. So far, China has used the recoverable satellites and the Shenzhou spacecraft for over 20 times to carry thousands of crop seeds and microbial strains to the space to get new varieties, which had been promoted and used in large-scale agricultural production.
The weather forecast and navigation system also benefited from the application of aerospace products: the Fengyun-2D meteorological satellite and oceanic satellites provide reliable meteorological data; the Beidou Navigation System will cover the Asian region in 2012 and is expected to do a global coverage in about 2020. Then, China will have its independent global satellite navigation system, which can provide navigation services for ships, airplanes and field workers.
In the South China Sea, many fishermen have installed Beidou marine fisheries information terminal system on boats. Using it, the fishermen can locate and navigate on the vast sea, maintain contact with their families and adjacent fishing boats by SMS and obtain weather, fishing market transaction and other information so as to access to the deep sea ocean safer.
Space technology created a "space rescue team" in disaster relief
Major natural disasters often cause serious damage to communication equipment and cut off touch with disaster areas. Only the satellites and spacecraft running in the space can offer help. The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation and the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation had built a "space rescue team" and made great contribution in disaster relief.
After the Wenchuan earthquake, the worst-hit areas lost all contacts with the outside world. At about 10 pm of May 12, 2008, the first batch of relief troops arrived and used the terminating machines of the Beidou Satellite Navigation System to send back real-time data, providing the first rescue in the disaster areas.
In the disasters of the Yushu earthquake and Zhouqu mud-rock slide, the Beidou Satellite Navigation System was the most helpful communication assistant and effectively used the most precious 72 hours of rescue.
Over 2,000 achievements in space technology have been applied to the national economy and became the "multipliers" of economic development.
"According to statistics, an investment of one U.S. dollar in the aerospace technology will get a return of between seven and 12 U.S. dollars. Therefore, the aerospace technology is called the gold mine of technologies. Its function in promoting the technological development and economic growth is larger than our imagination." The general manager of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASTC) Ma Xingrui said, "For example, if we launch a satellite, the values brought by it will come from not only the satellite development and launching service but also the satellite operation service and ground maintenance service. The total value brought by the full chain will be amazingly large."
In 1961, the United States started to implement the Apollo Program. By 1972, the program had cost 2.4 billion U.S. dollars. However, nobody at that time expected that the 2.4 billion U.S. dollars would bring back a civil use value of hundreds of billions U.S. dollars.
"The aerospace economy means not only ‘space rice' and ‘space vegetable' in the super market. It will be a new economic growth point of the future and will greatly change our life in many areas." According to the director of the Systems Science and Engineering under the CASTC Wang Kunsheng, all economic activities brought by the aerospace technology belong to the aerospace economy, which covers the communication, finance, medicine, national defense, space tourism and development and use of space resources and energies.
A researcher and the associate director of the Aerospace System Demonstration and Research Department under the China Aerospace Engineering Consultation Center Zhao Xiaoji believes that the aerospace technology is an engine for the social and economic development and technological progress and will keep promoting the development of productivity. It has an extremely important significance for changing the economic development mode, looking for new economic growth points and the national technological innovation.
Some experts also believe that the aerospace economy will be another powerful propeller promoting the economy of China in next 10 or 20 years.
The aerospace technology plays an obvious role in promoting relevant industries. Wang said that, of the more than 1,100 new materials developed and used by China in recent years, 80 percent were brought along by the aerospace technology. Currently, more than 2,000 aerospace technological achievements have been transplanted into various departments of China's national economy, the output value of the civil aerospace industry occupied a half of the total output value of the aerospace industry, and the input to output ratio is 1 to 10.
This "multiplier" for the economic development is releasing a huge power. According to a rough estimation, the industrial chain generated by the aerospace industry of China has reached a scale of 120 billion yuan. In only the satellite area, the satellite TV broadcast education has enable tens of millions of Chinese people to receive trainings in this "aerial school" and the resources saved are worth tens of billions yuan. By using satellites to carry out geological explorations, the mine, geological, railway and bridge departments have also saved huge amounts of resources and obtained huge amounts of profits.
Revenue of China's aerospace industry accounts for only 3 pct of world's total
The global aerospace industry has developed rapidly in recent years, especially after the global financial crisis, becoming a new economic growth point and forming a marked contrast to stagnant or declining traditional industries.
Statistics showed that more than 60 percent of the revenue of the global aerospace industry comes from commercial operations. China is moving too slowly in this field. "The revenue of China's aerospace industry only accounts for around 3 percent of the world's total," said Zhou Xiaoji, a senior official at the China Aerospace Engineering Consultation Center, adding that domestic aerospace industry is still at the stage of industrialization, far from commercialization.
Industry insiders attributed the stalled industrialization of China's aerospace industry to the lack of social capital and a long-term stable satellite application system as well as various restrictions imposed by Western countries for security reasons.
Zhou believes that existing institutional problems can be a bigger obstacle to the Chinese aerospace industry's rapidly completing industrialization and entering the stage of commercialization. This obstacle should be removed as soon as possible.
A serious problem is the fragmented utilization of satellite resources. Many different governmental departments have applied to launch their own satellites, but failed to share information and communicate with one another after the satellites were launched into space, resulting in inefficient use of satellite resources. Furthermore, the maintenance of ground receiving stations and information processing all rely on state funds.
There has been a lack of overall planning, or "space-earth integration," from the satellite sector to end-user applications in China.
Experts said that as now is not an appropriate time to open the production and launch of satellites to private funds, China should encourage the commercialization of end-user applications and services on the ground, in order to promote institutional reform and the industrialization and commercialization of domestic aerospace industry
