Progress and Global Trends in Space of 2018

In order to reveal the current trends of scientific research and technology development activities in space, news from international space agencies, governments and think tanks in 2018 were tracked and analyzed, along with consultation and discussion with space scientists. Nine trends were identified, including space technology diffusion, space security, “great space era”, deep space exploration, artificial intelligence in space, and so on. China’s space science programme has achieved world-renowned results, although its social problems received as much attention as achievements from space agencies and media overseas. International cooperation were boosting between China and a number of western countries, but not for the United States. At last, 8 policy recommendations were given, such as multi-polarization development, responding to the threat of anti-satellite weapons, taking the lead in advocating the formulation of international space access standards, and promoting the construction of community of common destiny with topics such as near-Earth object defense.