China unveils 'space+' ambitions for tourism, mining and more

China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) on Thursday announced its intention to plan and promote new frontiers in space development, including space tourism, space digital infrastructure, space resource exploitation, and space traffic management during the country's 15th Five-Year Plan period.

In a statement outlining its vision for "space+" scenarios, CASC detailed several key initiatives:

Space tourism:
China aims to accelerate the development of suborbital and orbital space tourism vehicles, complete related unmanned and manned flight verifications, and establish a comprehensive space tourism operation system. The goal is to achieve regular suborbital space tourism flights and gradually advance toward orbital space tourism.

Space digital infrastructure:
Plans include building gigawatt-level space digital infrastructure and creating a new integrated space system architecture combining cloud, edge, and terminal technologies. This will enable deep integration of computing power, storage, and transmission capabilities, supporting space-based data processing and Earth-space collaborative computing.

Space resource development:
CASC will conduct feasibility studies for a major "Tiangong Kaiwu" project, focusing on the construction of comprehensive space resource development experiments and ground support systems. Key technologies to be developed include asteroid resource exploration, intelligent autonomous extraction, low-cost transportation, and in-orbit processing.

Space traffic management:
Efforts will be made to advance key technologies in space debris monitoring, early warning, and removal. This aims to strengthen China's role in shaping international regulations for space traffic management and ensure the safe operation of space infrastructure.

The announcement highlights China's growing ambitions in the global space economy, signaling its intent to expand beyond traditional aerospace activities into commercial and industrial applications in space.

(Cover via VCG)