Zealous Musk and Jealous Beijing -- Sharing Space In Space?
The image of Musk and his Chinese doppelganger was posted beneath a tweet from Musk claiming that he will pay 11 billion USD in taxes this year. |
Elon Musk enjoys great popularity among young Chinese, in China. He has also invested a great deal in China. Unfortunately, the great admiration he enjoys as a role model for innovative, bold gestures and a startling imagination with an enduring belief that there is nothing, absolutely nothing that he cannot achieve on the strength of the force of his character, his vision and enterprise, is not universally beloved in China. Oh, the Chinese Communist Party respects his enterprise and ability to make money for himself and his enterprises, but they have certain reservations about anyone -- just ask Jack Ma -- who thinks too big for their britches.
And no one individual can possibly challenge the supremacy of the Chinese State and its enterprises. Including Beijing's claim to shooting for the stars. Starting modestly with a space station of its own. So when a world-class entrepreneur like Elon Musk displays a gusto for outmaneuvering and out-satelliting the most technically advanced, ardent of nations in space exploration he was guaranteed to raise the hackles of the CCP. All the more so that he is a certified American strategist-capitalist-innovator.
Not that this far-reaching technical-whizz-kid hasn't raised the hackles of other non-state groups, such as scientists in the field of astronomy and astro-physics who depend on their ability to read the stars, as it were, though the grace of dark skies enabling powerful telescopes to reach far into the deepest recesses of the universe, back in time and space to analyze the beginning of all that exists, but will be hampered by Musk's plans to string satellites in a wide net impeding the course of astronomical investigation by lighting up the skies.
Now, however, Beijing accuses Elon Musk of "space warfare" in close encounters of a different kind, where some satellites launched as part of his groundbreaking global internet initiative experienced a near-miss with China's recently-launched space station. Starlink Internet Services, a division of the Musk Space-X aerospace company, saw some of its satellites involved in two "close encounters" with China's space station in July and October.
China subsequently submitted a document to the United Nations apace agency: "For safety reasons, the China Space Station implemented preventive collision avoidance control", China reported on the website of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs. Now that's awfully serious; it's obvious that a collision of any dimension has the potential to end badly. Remember not so long ago when China insisted it had the right to send up rockets directed to destroy some of its old space junk still in circulation?
And the United States and European Space Agency were concerned over the detritus not only having the potential to intersect with their communication satellites but their space missions as well, including the international space station, where astronauts were actually forced to take evasive action when a piece of a destroyed Chinese weather satellite was headed toward it?
The Chinese division of Tesla last month, also owned by Musk, announced that Starlink would not launch services in China. All Tesla cars and charging stations would use network services provided by Chinese operators with all data maintained within the country. This, the result of China forcing foreign companies to retain all records collected from Chinese consumers within the country. Tesla in China employs quite a lot of Chinese workers.
"What will happen to Tesla in China, if some day Starlink's low-orbit satellites collide with our country's low-orbit satellites or other spacecraft", worried one Chinese, writing on Weibo. What, indeed?! After all, China appears to feel entitled to viewing space as its personal jurisdiction and it is very jealous of its reputation and sovereignty. And Musk feels that nothing is beyond his enterprising spirit to accomplish as a private, non-state investor in space.
Labels: Challenges, China, Communication, Elon Musk, Enterprise, Potential Collisions, Satellites, Space Station
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