Promoting Space Internationalization Development Based on QIAN Xuesen Think Tank

XUE Huifeng

China Aerospace Academy of Systems Science and Engineering, Beijing 100048

Abstract: Today, the “division” thought of “Reductionism” makes people feel helpless and gradually recognize the consequence of the social alienation. Based on 20 years’ experience in America, 28 years’ practice in China’s space industry, and nearly 30 years’ research in his later years, QIAN Xuesen integrated the Western Reductionism with the Eastern Holism to form the QIAN Xuesen think tank thought and the Hall for Workshop of Metasynthetic Engineering from qualitative to quantitative, promoting space internationalization to play an irreplaceable role in the development of technology, engineering and industrialization.

Key words: QIAN Xuesen think tank, HWME, space internationalization

1 INTRODUCTION

From heaven to the core of the Earth it shows the universe without an end. From the vast expanse of the land on the Earth,to the endless sea, and then to the boundless universe, people have expressed curiosity on the world since ancient times, especially full of awe and veneration and excitation regarding the sky over head leading to perpetual exploration of the sky.

The continuous progress in space technology enables mankind to explore his curious future world and travel in the universe with infinite vitality, and has become an important key for mankind to enter, explore, exploit and utilize outer space.However, there are a great number of obstacles and difficulties in the way of space exploration, and many people even have lost their lives. Whether the failure of China’s LM-5 launch vehicle, or the explosion of the US space shuttle Columbia, they all represent the hardships and setbacks of the space programs.While mourning for the victims of mankind’s space enterprise,we continue to think how to realize a comprehensive improvement for space development to a more satisfactory state with optimal effectiveness.

These problems must be solved from their origins. The logical origin of the modern civilization is the “Reductionism”ideology, i.e. continuously decomposing a complicated object to simple ones so as to solve a global problem by continuously decomposing it into local ones, thus playing an important role in the huge achievements resulting from the modern science and technology. However, the alienation caused by the “increasing subdivision” makes people disorganized, frazzled and helpless.

As early as 30 years ago, QIAN Xuesen proposed to form the systems theory by integrating the Eastern “Holism” with the Western “Reductionism”, thus promoting the great development of space internationalization based on the “Chinese wisdom” and the “Chinese concept”.

2 GENERAL TREND OF SPACE INTERNATIONALIZATION DEVELOPMENT CALLS FOR QIAN XUESEN THINK TANK

A Chinese proverb says that one strand of silk does not make a thread and one tree does not make a forest. Space engineering is a complex huge system problem involving many fields such as politics, economy, science and technology. Based on the needs of the times, QIAN Xuesen made a top design to comprehensively balance the relations among politics, economy, science and technology, thus realizing the reciprocity and mutual benefit of the space internationalization in the process of developing China’s own space industry while considering the needs of the other countries’ development.

2.1 Establishing a Community with Shared Future for Mankind by Eliminating Political Differences

Politically, with increasingly frequent space activities and more interactions of mankind, a community with shared future and mutual dependence. However, the cooperation among the space powers is often accompanied by the competition.After the Second World War, the US and the former Soviet continued to conduct research on rocket and other space technologies based on the German V-2 rocket, and the competition between the two countries increased dramatically. On January 4, 1957, the former Soviet launched the world’s first manmade satellite into space with a modified P-7 missile. On July 20, 1969, the US Apollo 11 lunar module safely landed on the lunar Mare Tranquillitatis, realizing mankind’s ambition to land on the Moon for the first time.

However, the differences are temporary and cooperation is forever. The Soviet Soyuz spaceship successfully docked with the US Apollo spacecraft in space in July 1975. Post cold war,the International Space Station, led by Russia and the US, was constructed and then operated with many countries including Japan, Canada and Brazil. It has become a good example of international cooperation in the field of space. In addition,the cooperative European space program Galileo plus China’s Manned Space program with technical support provided by Russia also reflect the general trend of the space internationalization. The QIAN Xuesen Think Tank enables the elimination of ideology differences between countries, strengthens mutual political trust, and plays an irreplaceable role in establishing a community of shared space for mankind.

2.2 Breaking down Barriers to Promote Economic Benefits by Mutual Exchanges in Space

Economically, space exploration requires huge investments which are difficult for a single country to fund. Due to the influence of international financial crisis in recent years the global economic growth is anemic. The leading nations of the world optimize their industry to match the new economic restrictions especially in the area of the space economy. However, a huge space program will require billions of dollars, requiring considerable investment in terms of human, material and the associated financial resources. For example, the US lunar return mission is estimated to cost 100 billion dollars, and funding is an urgent issue for NASA to resolve due to the financial limitation of the US government. QIAN Xuesen Think Tank seeks consensus on major issues while reserving differences on minor issues for the economic benefit of different countries. It plays an important role in promoting international mutual economic assistance and breaking down trade barriers in the field of space.

2.3 Comprehensive Integrated Emergence to Accelerate Technical and Industrial Improvements

Technically, space engineering features large scale and complicated technologies. From the view of its development content, it includes research, design, prototype manufacture and test leading to design freeze, production and delivery. From the view of science and technology, it involves multiple disciplines and specialties, such as satellite communications, remote sensing and navigation, industrial control and integrated circuits. The development of a project often adopts new technologies and also derives some new technologies from the past, such as new material technologies including carbon fiber, thin-film materials,and new energy technologies including wind energy and solar energy. QIAN Xuesen Think Tank builds a highly reliable system with components with lower reliabilities by integrating technologies from different fields, and plays an important catalyst role for technical progress and industrial innovation.

3 QIAN XUESEN THINK TANK IS THE RESULT FROM THE INTEGRATION OF EASTERN AND WESTERN CIVILIZATIONS

3.1 Theoretically, Integration of Eastern and Western Thoughts Forms Macro-System Ideology

Today, the world political and economic situation is complicated and diversified. Conservatism and isolationism are returning, and ideological trends of “anti-globalization” and renationalisation are emerging. The underlying reason for today’s confused situation is that reductionism continuously decomposing a complicated object to simple ones so as to solve global problems by continuously decomposing the min to local ones.The logic origin of modern civilization has something wrong.

From the view of the methodology, the reductionism method has played an important role. For example, the research on structure of matter in physics has reached the level of the quark,and the research on life in biology has also reached the level of gene. However, their deficiencies and shortcomings are increasingly emerging.

In science and technology, it has been seen that the thorough understanding of each local part does not lead to the clear awareness of the whole. In socio-economic development, the thought of a free market and labor division leads to the organizational form of structuralization and impersonalization, making a person a tool and even a part of a huge production machine.In a national or within the world governance system, there lacks the whole and integral idea of “world” and its philosophy basis. When thinking about major issues such as “world order”and “internationalism”, the “internationalism” issue is the biggest analysis theory for understanding the world. It is obviously reflects egoism, benefiting oneself at others’ expense and a zerosum game. Today, the “division” thought of the “reductionism”has come to its end.

The Holism thought originating from China more than 3000 years ago, provides another way of thinking to overcome the disadvantages of “reductionism” from the philosophical view.The Chinese ancient Holism thought takes all things and materials as a whole to consider the overall optimal effectiveness. No matter the myths and legends or the theory of Yin-yang and Five Elements, the theory and practice of traditional Chinese medicine or the Dujiangyan Irrigation Project, all reflect the thought of Holism.

As early as in the 1980s, QIAN Xuesen integrated the Western Reductionism with the Eastern Holism to form a systematic ideology, providing the “key” for strategic ideology to promote “space development” with “Chinese wisdom”.

3.2 Methodologically, Hall for Workshop of Metasynthetic Engineering Realizes the Emergence of Wisdom

Based on 28 years’ practice in China’s space industry, QIAN Xuesen summarized the management mode including “one overall design department, two command lines, a scientific and technical committee” and proposed the Hall for Workshop of Metasynthetic Engineering (HWME) from qualitative to quantitative perspective. As an important inheritor of QIAN Xuesen systems engineering thought and the first practitioner of “QIAN Xuesen think tank”, China Academy of Aerospace Systems Science and Engineering (CAASSE) is dedicated to the promotion of research methods, policy analysis tools and technical means of innovation, and constantly improves the HWME from the qualitative to quantitative perspective, establishing the “six systems and two platforms” of QIAN Xuesen think tank, i.e. think tank system, information system, expert system, network and information system, model system and decision-making support system, machine platform and command control platform. This system integrates the collective wisdom of the experts, data and various kinds of information with computers and artificial intelligence organically, and also combines the scientific theories and knowledge of various disciplines with indescribable experiences, intuition and inspiration altogether, thus creating a meta synthesis of information, knowledge and wisdom which is both human-machine combined, human-network combined and human-based, providing effective methodology and tool support for realizing a systematic leap forward in the area of “data- information - knowledge - intelligence - smart” thus solving open complex giant system problems.

3.3 Practically, the Integrator of the Think Tank Promotes the Development of a Powerful Country

During the 28 years in China’s space industry, QIAN Xuesen has led the implementation of “four missiles in 8 years” (from short-range ballistic missile to intercontinental missile) and “two bombs and one satellite” (atomic bomb, hydrogen bomb, and manned satellite) from a nation which could only had a bicycle manufacturing industry, could only produce transistor radios for its information industry and could only produce abacus in its computer industry, but through promoting the key leap in Chi-nese missiles from scratch to a position of strength, and opening a great journey for Chinese space exploration and utilization.

As a leading thinker, QIAN Xuesen is not only the founder of China’s space industry, but also an important pioneer of the modern think tank. He participated in writing 7 of the 13 volumes of the reportToward New Horizonsas the only non-American member of the scientific advisory team comprising 34 persons selected by the US Department of Defense, elaborating and predicting the research achievements, problems and development prospects of pulse jet engines, solid and liquid propellant rockets and supersonic wing missiles. The report provided America with a theoretical foundation for the rapid development and leadership in the military area in the second half of the 20th century, after the Second World War. Henry Arnold,US Army Air Force Commander, once wrote to QIAN Xuesen in recognition and praise of his outstanding contributions. “The world’s top think tank RAND, which accurately predicted the Korea War and the collapse of the Soviet Union, began with the advisory team. It can be said that QIAN Xuesen is one of the important founders of the modern think tank”.

QIAN Xuesen began to explore the establishment of systematic and social systems engineering for almost 30 years in his later years, where he strongly promoted systems engineering applied in economic and social fields. Systems engineering has played an important role in China’s national economic and social development including for the proposed manned spaceship program, the formulation of the Medium and Long-term Development Plan for National Civil Space Infrastructure, the formulation of White Paper on China Space Activities and the research on national macro-economic growth and population.

4 QIAN XEUSEN THINK TANK PROMOTES SPACE INTERNATIONALIZATION TO A NEW HEIGHT

QIAN Xuesen think tank integrates people’s “visionary thinking” and “logical thinking”, experts, machine and knowledge systems, and promotes the overall design, deployment and coordination of the development of space technology, projects and industrialization with less investment and shorter time, significantly improving the overall effectiveness of internationalized space development.

4.1 Technically, the Think Tank Promotes the Gathering of Global Intelligence

The only way to innovate is to obtain talent. Thus, building a talent reserve is important. QIAN Xuesen think tank integrates the experience of experts from cross-domain, cross-industry,cross-system and cross-region and provides strong intelligence support for the international development of space science and technology innovation. Establishing an expert system, which is classified by the expert attributes and an expert network model covering the conceptional background, research plus the business domain network, by constructing a database of global expert information, to manage and guide the technology of major projects, which is cross-domain, and realizing the positive collection of intelligence from gathered experts for evaluation.

The think tank makes use of the “model system” to create the source for technological innovation. For high technology with potential space value and economic benefits, which are highly risky to study and analyze, the think tank can provide a modeling method and model base to explore possible applications in the space sector. It can simulate the new material technology, information technology and electronic equipment to test their technical maturity, providing high technology reserves for the realization of sustainable development of space internationalization through to the design and production of a new product as well as the development of new models and projects.

4.2 In Engineering, the Think Tank Promotes the Chain Reengineering

Strengthening smart global supply chain management is an important theme to achieve high-quality development for space internalization. Space engineering is complex system engineering which involves the cooperation and supporting services of tens of thousands of suppliers. Any problems with products from any supplier may affect the final completion of the space mission. With the help of smart decision-making support, expert decision-making, the “decision support system” and other tools,the QIAN Xuesen think tank carries out classification management of all suppliers according to the importance of their products in the field of space engineering and selects member enterprises with competitive advantages in different fields and stages as suppliers.

The think tank strengthens quality-centered supplier management. It has constructed model base and model management systems by using the “model system”, and construct simulation environments with high performance and simulation application systems with high adaptability, realizing the model-ing of decision-making solutions. Each batch of products will be checked and tested to ensure the quality of supporting products and achieve quality control of suppliers.

4.3 Industrially, the Think Tank Promotes Top-level Design

The “six systems and two platforms” is promoted in the space industry to form an in-depth development pattern of “all elements, multi-fields and high efficiency” with top-level design and comprehensive planning.

The think tank establishes and improves the international responsibility system, and promotes innovation and improvements in the space industry by the formulation of standards,policies and regulations. The development of the space industry requires extremely strict and professional technical standards to ensure the safety and reliability of space products and services,regardless of the cooperation with the International Space Station or the launching of commercial satellites. Using the HWME from qualitative to quantitative approach to form a unified technical standard that takes into account the interest demands and technical requirements of every country’s international business and then determine the standard by law, effectively guarantees the international collaborative development of the space industry.

The think tank establishes a global technology transfer system. Space industry involves many fields, such as finance,market, logistics, human resources, and management. It is an industry with a high concentration of talent with high entry barriers. Meanwhile, the realization of technology transfer is not only the release of certain documents, but also a series of open policies. The “six systems and two platforms” of QIAN Xuesen think tank have optimized the allocation of resources and the overall arrangement of manufacturing industry chain. For example, the think tank has developed the “Support Technology Plan for Space Industry”. Using the “Data and Intelligence Systems”,it can regularly release specific space technologies that can be transferred to civilian applications. Both businesses and institutions can apply to use these and develop civilian products and services based on these technologies, so that the achievements of space technology can blossom from the space industry.

5 CONCLUSIONS

Former US President Kennedy once said that “we believe that when people are not on our planet, they will leave their national differences behind”. The concept of “building a community with a shared future for humanity” proposed by President XI Jinping, is based on the idea that there is only one Earth for human beings, we should insist on co-construction and sharing, as well as win-win cooperation. Let’s analyze the contradictions and problems in development from a holistic perspective. Let’s join hands and work together to promote the development of space internationalization to a new height on the road of deep space exploration and the journey to the interstellar universe.