Those watching the United States space sector will have begun to take for granted commercial companies doing some pretty unprecedented things such as ferrying astronauts to/from the ISS, planning asteroid mining missions, space farming, or manufacturing in space. With SpaceX having set the gold standard for commercial crewed and cargo spaceflight, and with companies like Asteroid Mining Corporation and Deep Space Industries having been planning asteroid mining missions for almost a decade, commercial space exploration in the west is a relatively mature–if still very nascent–sector.

那些關(guān)注美國太空部門的人開始認(rèn)為商業(yè)公司做一些前所未有的事情是理所當(dāng)然的，例如運(yùn)送宇航員往返國際空間站、規(guī)劃小行星采礦任務(wù)、太空農(nóng)業(yè)或太空制造。隨著 SpaceX 為商業(yè)載人航天和貨運(yùn)航天樹立了黃金標(biāo)準(zhǔn)，以及像 Asteroid Mining Corporation 和 Deep Space Industries 這樣已經(jīng)計(jì)劃了近十年的小行星采礦任務(wù)的公司，西方的商業(yè)太空探索是個相對成熟（盡管仍然年輕）的部門。

In the case of China, commercial space exploration is more limited. Due to a combination of factors, namely the earlier stage of the Chinese space sector, and the dominance of SOEs in sub-sectors such as space exploration, China does not, at least to now, have a “Chinese version of SpaceX” that can launch taikonauts and cargo to the space station.

就中國而言，商業(yè)太空探索更為有限。受中國航天處在早期階段、國有企業(yè)在航天等子行業(yè)的主導(dǎo)地位等綜合因素的影響，目前中國還沒有一個“中國版的SpaceX”可以做到向空間站發(fā)射航天員和貨物。

But this is beginning to change, with a handful of companies beginning to emerge, and perhaps more surprisingly, a number of government indicators that seem to show an openness to commercial space exploration missions. In 2022 and beyond, this is likely to pick up steam, and we may yet see a commercial Chinese company ferrying people (or more likely cargo) to/from the space station sooner rather than later.

但這種情況開始發(fā)生變化，一些公司開始出現(xiàn)，也許更令人驚訝的是，一系列政府指示似乎表明對商業(yè)太空探索任務(wù)持開放態(tài)度。在 2022 年及以后，這可能會加速發(fā)展，我們可能還會看到一家中國商業(yè)公司將對空間站運(yùn)送或運(yùn)回乘客（或更可能是貨物）。


Origin Space, one of China’s leading commercial space exploration companies

起源空間，中國領(lǐng)先的商業(yè)太空探索公司之一
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Space Exploration in China

中國的太空探索

If we consider space exploration at a high level, we could be talking about several things. For the purposes of this article, we will be referring to the Chinese Space Station, Lunar/Mars missions, commercial space science, and asteroid missions. In the case of China, space exploration, in general, is a pretty recent concept: the first mission beyond the Earth’s orbit was in 2007 with Chang’e 1 lunar orbiter, and the first Chinese space station prototype, the lightweight Tiangong-1 (~8500 kg), was launched in 2011.

如果我們從更高層次談?wù)撎仗剿鳎覀冇泻芏鄸|西講。不過本文我們將提及中國空間站、月球/火星任務(wù)、商業(yè)空間科學(xué)和小行星任務(wù)。總體來說，對于中國而言太空探索是一個相當(dāng)新的目標(biāo)：第一次超越地球軌道的任務(wù)時在2007年的嫦娥一號月球軌道飛行器，和中國2011年的第一個小型空間站天宮一號（約8500kg）。

That being said, despite China’s late start to space exploration, we have seen a rapid acceleration, with an increasingly narrow gap between China and some of the leading space nations. Since the launch of Tiangong-1, China has launched two more space stations (the experimental Tiangong-2 and the permanent Chinese Space Station), and since the Chang’e-1, China has launched 4 more lunar missions (Chang’e 2-5). In the meantime, China also reached Mars in 2021 with the Tianwen-1 mission, become along the way the second nation to ever successfully land a rover on the Red Planet. Worth noting, an important enabler for these large-scale space exploration missions has been the entry into service of heavy-lift rockets (the Long March 5 and 5B).

話雖如此，盡管中國的太空探索起步較晚，但我們已經(jīng)看到了極速的進(jìn)展，中國與一些領(lǐng)先的太空國家之間的差距越來越小。自天宮一號發(fā)射以來，中國又發(fā)射了兩個空間站（實(shí)驗(yàn)天宮二號和中國永久空間站），自嫦娥一號以來，中國又發(fā)射了四次探月任務(wù)（嫦娥二到五號)。與此同時，中國也于2021年伴隨天問一號任務(wù)到達(dá)火星，成為賽道上第二個成功登陸火星的國家。值得注意的是，這些大型太空探索任務(wù)的一個重要推動因素是重型火箭（長征五號和五號乙）的投入使用。
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A render of the ILRS, the future Sino-Russian lunar base. Source: CNSA

ILRS的渲染圖，未來的中俄月球基地。資料來源：中國國家安全局

This pile of projects has led the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC, the main state-owned space contractor) to having a pretty full plate. The company conducted 48 launches in 2021, putting into orbit dozens of remote sensing satellites, a handful of large GEO commsats, various space science satellites, and of course the Tianhe-1 core module of the Chinese Space Station. This has opened the door for more commercial involvement in China’s space exploration sector.

這堆項(xiàng)目讓中國航天科技集團(tuán)公司（CASC，主要的國有航天承包商）擁有了相當(dāng)完整的板塊。該公司在 2021 年進(jìn)行了 48 次發(fā)射，將數(shù)十顆遙感衛(wèi)星、幾顆大型 GEO 通信衛(wèi)星、各種空間科學(xué)衛(wèi)星，當(dāng)然還有中國空間站的天河一號核心艙送入軌道。這為更多商業(yè)參與中國太空探索領(lǐng)域打開了大門。

The Beginnings of Commercialization

商業(yè)化的開端

Over the past year or so, we have seen a small but increasing number of examples of commercialization in China’s space exploration missions. The first rumblings came about in early 2021, when we saw the China Manned Spaceflight Agency (CMSA) make an announcement calling for diversification of cargo supply mechanisms for the Chinese Space Station, and in particular calling for the establishment of a “l(fā)ow-cost cargo transport method”.

在過去一年左右的時間里，我們看到中國太空探索任務(wù)商業(yè)化的例子不多，但正在增長。2021 年初，中國載人航天局（CMSA）發(fā)布公告，要求中國空間站的貨物供應(yīng)機(jī)制多樣化，特別是要求建立“低成本貨運(yùn)”的運(yùn)輸方式”。

The announcement came just a few months before the launch of Tianhe-1, and included specifications from CMSA for the low-cost cargo spacecraft, including:
1.Payload capacity of 1-4 tons
2.Cargo should be delivered within 45 days of validation of payload
3.The cargo spacecraft must be able to de-orbit a payload of 100-300kg of waste in a controlled manner
4.Costs for the spacecraft need to be aligned with international standards.

該公告是在天河一號發(fā)射前幾個月發(fā)布的，其中包括 中國載人航天局對低成本貨運(yùn)飛船的規(guī)格，包括：
1.有效載荷1-4噸
2.貨物應(yīng)在有效載荷驗(yàn)證后 45 天內(nèi)交付
3.貨運(yùn)飛船必須能夠以可控的方式使 100-300 公斤的有效載荷脫離軌道
4.貨運(yùn)飛船必須能夠以可控的方式使 100-300 公斤的有效載荷脫離軌道
The low-cost commercial cargo spacecraft dreams of the CMSA may have started to be answered in August of last year, when Chinese commercial startup Interspace Explore (北京星際開發(fā)) raised tens of millions of RMB in an angel round of funding. The company was actually founded back in 2018, but apparently began developing a prototype of its Zengzhang-1 spacecraft at the beginning of 2021, around the same time as the aforementioned CMSA announcement. The timing may have been coincidental, but it seems possible that Interspace Explore was encouraged by the announcement for low-cost cargo spacecraft (besides, how many other buyers of the Zengzhang-1 might there even be in China in the short-medium term?).
CMSA的低成本商業(yè)貨運(yùn)飛船夢想可能在去年8月開始實(shí)現(xiàn)，當(dāng)時中國商業(yè)創(chuàng)業(yè)公司Interspace Explore（北京星際開發(fā)）獲得了數(shù)千萬元的天使輪融資。該公司實(shí)際上成立于 2018 年，但他們顯然是在 2021 年初開始開發(fā)其增長一號航天器的原型，大約與上述 CMSA 公告同時進(jìn)行。時機(jī)可能是巧合，但低成本貨運(yùn)飛船的公告似乎鼓舞了該公司（此外，在中短期內(nèi)中國可能還有其他“增長一號”買家？ ）。
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Interspace Explore’s Zengzhang-1
Interspace Explore has some pretty big ambitions for the Zengzhang-1, and some pretty high expectations for commercial cargo transport demand more generally. The company’s Zengzhang-1 is designed to carry 350kg of cargo to the CSS, and return 100kg, and they expect demand to be 5-10 missions per year of carrying cargo down from the CSS, starting in 2022. The company plans for a test of their Zengzhang-1 this year, having signed an agreement with Galactic Energy in August 2021 for launch services. Their faith in Galactic Energy seems to have been rewarded with Galactic Energy’s successful 2nd launch of the Ceres-1 in late 2021, several months after the agreement with Interspace Explore.

北京星際開發(fā)對增長一號有相當(dāng)大的野心，對商業(yè)貨物運(yùn)輸需求也有相當(dāng)高的期望。該公司的增長一號設(shè)計(jì)用于向 CSS 運(yùn)送 350 公斤貨物，并返回 100 公斤東西，他們預(yù)計(jì)從 2022 年開始，每年從 CSS 運(yùn)送貨物的需求為 5-10 次。在2021 年 8 月與銀河能源簽署了發(fā)射服務(wù)協(xié)議后，該公司計(jì)劃今年進(jìn)行測試他們的增長一號。他們對銀河能源的信心似乎得到了回報(bào)，因?yàn)殂y河能源在與北京星際開發(fā)達(dá)成協(xié)議幾個月后，于 2021 年底成功發(fā)射了谷神星1號 。

Interspace Explore’s customers include companies planning space pharmaceutical and space agriculture applications, and their funding round included financing from Innoangel Fund, a significant VC that has put money into a variety of space companies including Space Pioneer (aka Tianbing Aerospace) and Spacety.

北京星際開發(fā)的客戶包括計(jì)劃實(shí)施太空制藥和太空農(nóng)業(yè)應(yīng)用的公司，他們的融資輪包括來自 Innoangel Fund 的融資，Innoangel Fund 是一家重要的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)投資公司，已將資金投入到包括 Space Pioneer（又名天兵航天）和 Spacety 在內(nèi)的各種太空公司。

Other initial areas of commercialization involving LEO exploration include space medicine and agriculture. Rocket Pi, a latecomer to the launch sector having been founded in 2021, is developing its Darwin-1 rocket with biology experiments in micro-gravity in mind as a major end market.

涉及近地軌道探索的其他初步商業(yè)化領(lǐng)域包括太空醫(yī)學(xué)和農(nóng)業(yè)。Rocket Pi是發(fā)射領(lǐng)域的后來者，成立于 2021 年，它正在開發(fā)其 Darwin-1 火箭，并將微重力生物學(xué)實(shí)驗(yàn)作為主要終端市場。

Mining Commercial Companies for Innovation

創(chuàng)新的礦采商業(yè)公司

Space mining is one of the more far-off, but potentially strategically important areas of commercial space exploration. A variety of companies in the west have been developing hardware to mine valuable resources from asteroids, with this having been a small but growing trend for some time.

太空采礦是商業(yè)太空探索中較為遙遠(yuǎn)但具有潛在戰(zhàn)略重要性的領(lǐng)域之一。西方的各種公司一直在開發(fā)硬件以從小行星上開采寶貴的資源。近年來，這一直是一個較小但在增長的趨勢。
In China, it has been more recent, with the first commercial space mining company, Origin Space (起源太空), having raised its first round of funding in 2019. The Shenzhen-based company hopes to lead China’s space mining efforts in a market that they see as important for China to win its share of. The CEO of Origin Space Yu Tianhong, noted that the goal of Origin Space is for China to not be left behind in the battle for space resources.
在中國，這方面要更晚，第一家商業(yè)太空采礦公司Origin Space（起源太空）在 2019 年籌集了第一輪資金。這家總部位于深圳的公司希望在一個市場上引領(lǐng)太空采礦工作，他們認(rèn)為中國贏得這份市場很重要。起源太空CEO喻天弘表示，起源太空的目標(biāo)是讓中國在太空資源爭奪戰(zhàn)中不落伍。

The company has already launched a few satellites and spacecraft, most notably its NEO-01, in April 2021. Up to now, these spacecraft aim at surveying asteroids around the solar system, trying to identify those of interest for future mining activities. In the meantime, however, there has been some interesting commercialization going on, with the company selling its asteroid scanning data to other companies that might be interested in using it for a variety of purposes, including gathering information for asteroid mining.

該公司已于 2021 年 4 月發(fā)射了幾顆衛(wèi)星和航天器，其中最著名的是 NEO-01。到目前為止，這些航天器的目標(biāo)是測量太陽系周圍的小行星，試圖確定對未來采礦活動有益的小行星。然而，一些有趣的商業(yè)活動正在進(jìn)行中，該公司將其小行星掃描數(shù)據(jù)出售給可能有興趣將其用于各種目的的其他公司，包括為小行星礦采收集信息。

Origin Space’s founding team is one of China’s most impressive, with the two co-founders having done a PhD in Astrophysics at Harvard, and an Earth Science Fellowship at NASA, respectively. The two co-founders are relatively young, and have access to some of China’s top VCs.

起源太空的創(chuàng)始團(tuán)隊(duì)是中國最令人印象深刻的團(tuán)隊(duì)之一，兩位聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人分別獲得了哈佛天體物理學(xué)博士學(xué)位和美國宇航局地球科學(xué)獎學(xué)金。兩位聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人都比較年輕，接觸過一些中國頂級的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)投資人。
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Yangwang-1 Launched by Origin Space

起源太空發(fā)射的仰望1號

Moving forward, Origin Space also has plans for cleaning up space junk, developing asteroid defense technology, and harnessing asteroids, bringing them back to the Earth’s vicinity, and harvesting their resources. In short, quite a list of things that, as recently as just a few years ago, would have been unquestionably state-run in the Chinese context.

展望未來，起源太空還計(jì)劃清理太空垃圾、開發(fā)小行星防御技術(shù)、捕獲小行星，將它們帶回地球附近，并回收它們的資源。簡而言之，有很多目標(biāo)。而在幾年前，在中國的背景下無疑是國有企業(yè)才會在做。

The Future of China’s Commercial Space Exploration

中國商業(yè)航天探索的未來

In just a couple of decades, China has gone from effectively no presence in space exploration to being one of the world leaders, led by a large and comprehensive state sector. But just as the west began to see commercial space exploration companies begin to flourish a decade or more ago, China has begun to see the emergence of a nascent commercial space exploration sector.

在短短幾十年的時間里，由一個龐大而綜合的國有部門領(lǐng)導(dǎo)下，中國已經(jīng)從實(shí)際上沒有參與太空探索發(fā)展成為世界領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者之一。但正如西方在十年或更長時間前開始看到商業(yè)太空探索公司開始蓬勃發(fā)展的前景一樣，中國也開始看到新興的商業(yè)太空探索部門的出現(xiàn)。

The next few years are certain to see growth in China’s space exploration ambitions, with the country’s recent 2021 Space White Paper outlining some major projects, and with ambitious plans in CASC’s pipelines for bigger rockets that could enable larger-scale space exploration. At the same time, literally, dozens of launch companies have emerged, with some of them close to the point of offering launch services. A variety of cities and companies have developed satellite manufacturing industrial bases, with the goal of industrializing and commercializing space technologies.

未來幾年，中國的太空探索雄心肯定會增長，該國最近發(fā)布的 2021 年太空白皮書概述了一些重大項(xiàng)目，并且 CASC 雄心勃勃的計(jì)劃是建造更大的火箭，以實(shí)現(xiàn)更大規(guī)模的太空探索。與此同時，從字面上看，已經(jīng)出現(xiàn)了數(shù)十家發(fā)射公司，其中一些已經(jīng)接近提供發(fā)射服務(wù)的地步。各種城市和公司都發(fā)展了衛(wèi)星制造產(chǎn)業(yè)基地，目標(biāo)是實(shí)現(xiàn)空間技術(shù)的產(chǎn)業(yè)化和商業(yè)化。

All of these things will continue to drive down the price of access to space, and an increase in the possibilities for commercial space exploration. Companies like Origin Space and Interspace Explore are leading the charge for China’s commercial space exploration sector, but they are certain to not be the last ones entering the fight.

所有的這些都將繼續(xù)降低進(jìn)入太空的成本，并增加商業(yè)太空探索的可能性。像Origin Space和Interspace Explore這樣的公司在中國商業(yè)太空探索領(lǐng)域處于領(lǐng)先地位，但它們肯定不會是最后一個加入戰(zhàn)斗的公司。