Project draws inspiration from Ming scientific philosophy that ‘materials are born of nature; humans transform them through craftsmanship’
The US defence secretary during President Donald Trump’s first term, James Mattis, repeatedly warned that China would revert to a Ming dynasty-style model, projecting its strong military, technological and economic influence globally.
At the time, his views were widely questioned by mainstream academics as too aggressive. A decade ago, China still lagged far behind the United States.
But Mattis underestimated China’s ambitions.
On January 29, China announced the official launch of a national space resources development programme, an ambitious project spanning nearly a century.
According to the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), the plan is to build a vast interplanetary fleet to extend resource exploration and mining operations to Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury and Venus.
The project is named after the encyclopaedic work Tiangong Kaiwu (“The Exploitation of the Works of Nature”), published in 1637.
Scientists involved say the project draws inspiration from the Ming dynasty scientific philosophy: “Materials are born of nature; humans transform them through craftsmanship.”
This signifies that China is not merely aiming to restore the glory of the Ming dynasty, but to extend the voyages of the legendary admiral Zheng He’s fleet to the entire solar system.
The project also coincides with a nationwide revival of interest in the Ming dynasty, as young people embrace Ming-style hanfu clothing and flock to the Forbidden City for photos.
Discussions related to the Ming dynasty are trending on social media, and a television drama about the 14th to 17th century era, filmed nearly two decades ago and long forgotten, has now surged to the top of viewership ratings after being rediscovered.
This profound cultural shift may have far-reaching implications for the future geopolitical landscape.
The “Tiangong Kaiwu” project concept goes back to 2023, when academician Wang Wei of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, together with other scientists, proposed it in a paper titled “Research on the Technology Architecture of Space Resource Exploitation”. It was published in the Journal of Astronautics in November that year.
Centred on Earth, the plan outlines a phased development system extending from cis-lunar space – or the space between the Earth and the moon – to deep space.
The long-term vision is to gradually build capabilities to develop resources across the solar system, including lunar and Martian resource development frameworks, near-Earth and main-belt asteroid mining systems, and exploration systems for gas giants and inner planets.
“Developing near-Earth small celestial bodies not only allows access to strategic minerals for Earth’s sustainable development but also provides fundamental materials for future space facilities and interstellar travel,” Wang stated in the paper.
“These near-Earth objects almost all contain water and many also contain precious metals like nickel, platinum and gold.”
According to the CASC plan, from 2026 to 2030, China will conduct demonstration missions to extract resources from near-Earth celestial bodies to verify technical feasibility. By around 2035, it aims to establish a lunar resource development system and a near-Earth small-body mining system to supply resources between Earth and the moon.
The objectives extend beyond asteroids. In the paper, the Chinese scientists meticulously and systematically outlined a road map for the exploration of solar system resources up to the year 2100.
Under CASC’s plan, the development goals for 2035 are the moon and near-Earth asteroids, while for 2050, they are Mars and the main belt asteroids – with China methodically advancing outward from one planet to the next.
Around the year 2075, China is expected to achieve the capability for in-depth exploration and resource development of Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury and Venus.
By around 2100, China will supplement the construction of resource supply stations, thereby establishing the capability for resource development across the entire solar system.
Tiangong Kaiwu is a renowned 17th-century Chinese encyclopaedia documenting over 130 types of handicraft techniques, including advanced textile processes and metallurgical methods.
The Ming dynasty (AD1368-1644) marked a peak in premodern Chinese science and technology. This era also saw the 15th-century treasure voyages of Zheng He, whose fleet of over 240 ships and 27,000 crew reached as far as East Africa.
Beyond space mining, China plans to establish a gigawatt-class space-based digital infrastructure, creating a new architecture that integrates cloud, edge and terminal nodes to deeply converge computing, storage and transmission capabilities.
It will also conduct key research on space debris monitoring, warning and removal – to help shape international rules for space traffic management and ensure the safety of space infrastructure.
