中国将其第二颗探月卫星——嫦娥二号成功传回高分辨率图像视为该国航天领域最新成就。这些图像将用于规划中国拟在2013年进行的首次不载人登月。
但中国航天官员已将目光投向更远的目标。他们上周宣布，到2020年，中国应该拥有自己的载人航天站。
如果获得成功，中国将成为继美国和俄罗斯之后，第三个能够建造空间站的国家。
华盛顿国防情报中心(Center for Defense Information)中国项目主管孔哲文(Eric Hagt)表示，中国的目标是“成为拥有勘探和开发外太空所有权利的国家”。他接着说道：“中国的远大航天抱负有许多原因——威望、国内政治合法性和科技实力。”
然而，这正在加剧西方的担忧。孔哲文表示：“美国觉得中国可能正在挑战其在太空领域的主导地位。”尽管分析师表示，中国航天项目并非旨在全盘接手美国国家航空航天局(Nasa)的努力，但中国在小卫星开发等特定领域已经领先于美国。
中国正在建造能够“悄悄接近”敌国卫星进行侦察、或为其它中国卫星“保驾护航”的微型卫星——这些卫星具有重要的军事意义。
中国人的另一项优势在于，能够让一颗卫星装载三个不同负载——这种技术大幅降低了发射卫星的成本。
这些优势让中国的航天项目成本低于美国，而且在商业上更加可行——而目前美国某些航天项目正因缺乏资金而受到质疑。
哈尔滨工业大学航天学院(School of Astronautics HIT)教授金永德表示：“我们的航天产品越来越受到第三世界国家的欢迎。我们已经向委内瑞拉和巴基斯坦出口了通信卫星。”
但西方观察家更加关心的是，中国将利用其日益增长的航天能力做什么。中国分析人士表示，中国的长期抱负是在月球上建造一个空间站，以推进探索外太空的任务。
中国还希望开发氦等月球资源——这些资源可能帮助解决地球未来的能源需求。
但是正如其它国家的航天项目一样，中国的航天项目中至少有部分是用于军事用途。
美国国防部在其关于中国军力的最新年度报告中表示：“中国正在发展袭击敌国太空资产的能力，加速太空军事化。”
金永德显然深信以传说中的月神命名的嫦娥卫星的浪漫一面。
然而，当谈到嫦娥卫星的使命时，金永德就变得严肃起来。他表示：“（嫦娥卫星必须）精确绘制地月之间所有卫星和航天器的轨道，因此如果有人试图对中国不利时，我们就能够摧毁它们，或者干扰它们的通讯。”
包括日本和印度在内的许多国家正在寻求登上月球。半个世纪之前，前苏联在冷战期间首次实现了登月目标。
译者/何黎
http://www.ftchinese.com/story/001035282
China has hailed its latest success in space as Chang’e 2, the country’s second lunar probe, successfully sent back high-resolution pictures that are going to be used to plan the country’s first unmanned moon landing in 2013.
But the officials in charge of Beijing’s space programme have set their sights much further than that. They announced last week that by 2020, China should have its own manned space station.
If it succeeds, it will prove itself to be only the third country, following the US and Russia, capable of building a space station.
Eric Hagt, head of the China programme at the Center for Defense Information in Washington, said China’s aim was to claim “a stake as a nation with full rights to explore and exploit deep space”. He added: “The Chinese have big space ambitions for many reasons – prestige, domestic political legitimacy, and scientific and technological prowess.”
However, this is fuelling concerns in the west. “The US feels like China maybe is taking over its leading role in space,” said Mr Hagt. While analysts say China’s programme is not designed to take over what Nasa, the US space agency, does comprehensively, China has pulled ahead in certain areas, such as the development of small satellites.
China is building micro-satellites that can “sneak up” to enemy satellites to spy on them or act as “bodyguards” of other Chinese ones – capabilities which have great military significance.
Another Chinese strength is the ability to get up to three different payloads on one satellite – a technology that makes launching satellites much cheaper.
These strengths make China’s space programme cheaper and more commercially viable than that of the US – just as some American space programmes have been called into question because of a lack of funding.
“Our space products are becoming ever more popular in third-world countries,” said Jin Yongde, professor-emeritus at the School of Astronautics at Harbin Institute of Technology. “We export communications satellites to Venezuela and Pakistan already.”
But what western observers care more about is what China will use its growing space capabilities for. Chinese analysts say the country’s long-term ambition is to build a space port on the moon to facilitate missions farther out into space.
Beijing also aims to exploit lunar resources such as helium, which could help solve the planet’s energy needs for generations ahead.
But as with other countries’ space programmes, at least part of China’s efforts is aimed at military use.
“China is developing the ability to attack an adversary’s space assets, accelerating the militarisation of space,” the Pentagon said in its latest annual report on China’s military power.
Mr Jin is clearly captured by the poetic side of the Chang’e missions – named after a legendary goddess of the moon.
However, when it comes to defining the tasks, he gets very down to earth. “[Chang’e must] accurately map the orbits of all satellites and spacecraft between here and the moon, so when there is someone hostile towards China, we can destroy or damage them or interfere with their communication,” he said.
A number of countries, including Japan and India, are just seeking to reach the moon, half a century after the Soviet Union first did so during the cold war.
