The Chinese Chang’e-5 successfully landed at the designated landing area in Siwangzi Banner, China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, on Thursday around 2 a.m., carrying about 2 kg of monthly samples. The photos show the workers checking the condition of the boat. Photo: Our space / Wang Jiangbo
Following the full success of the Chang’e-5 lunar probe return mission on Thursday, China’s National Space Administration (CNSA) unveiled plans for a series of ambitious space projects that include a new three-step plan for next month. The country and the deeper space exploration missions, which Wu Yanhua, deputy head of the CNSA, called “surveillance, construction and operation”, as opposed to the objectives already achieved by “orbiting, landing and return”.
Wu made remarks during a special press conference at the Beijing State Council Intelligence Bureau on Thursday afternoon, and early in the morning, the Chang’e-5 probe re-entry capsule made a safe landing at its default location. from Siziwang Banner of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of North China, drawing a perfect conclusion not only for the unique 23-day mission, but also for China’s monthly exploration scheme, which orbits, lands and returns more and more complex , which was planned in 2004.
“Surveillance” means exploring space and the geological environment of the Moon and other cosmic bodies, as well as the variety of radiation in space, Wu said.
“Construction” is to master the ability to build infrastructure, noted the CNSA official, citing Queqiao relay satellite of the Chang’e-4 probe, which is able to provide constant function of moon-Earth tracking and communication service, for example , and he also mentioned the long-term prospects of strengthening water and electricity supply capacity.
“Exploitation” refers to the human development of extraterrestrial resources, which Wu sees as the common goal of interstellar spacecraft missions around the world.
Technical staff work at the Beijing Aerospace Control Center in Beijing on December 1. China’s Chang’e-5 spacecraft successfully landed on the near side of late Tuesday and sent back images. Photo: CNSA
Walk in space
China’s space industry is not only talking about discussion, but walking.
Recent decades have seen the steady and robust development of China’s space exploration programs, which have acted as evidence of CNSA’s self-confidence, resilience and ability to organize major programs in a concerted and systematic manner, they said Friday for Global Times information from space.
And now they have every reason in the world to believe that China will practice its space plans for years to come, well paced and always headed for the infinity of the universe.
The Global Times has learned from CNSA that Phase 4 of the country’s monthly exploration is already underway, which will include four missions named after the goddess of the month in Chinese mythology, Chang’e.
The photo provided by the National Space Administration of China on January 3, 2019 shows the first image of the distant part of the month, made by the Chang’e-4 probe in China. Photo file: Xinhua
The Chang’e-4 spacecraft, which made man’s first robotic landing on the dark side of the month in January 2019, was the first step in the new phase.
Both the agency and scientists are analyzing the details of the Chang’e-6 mission, which could be implemented during the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25).
The Chang’e-6 mission, also a task of recovering monthly materials just like the Chang’e-5, will inherit and further expand the technological advances and complexity of the previous mission. The location of the sample collection could be the south pole of the moon or even the dark side of the moon, which has never been done before by any nation.
“But if the Queqiao satellite works well until we launch Chang’e-6, we can also think of sending it to the far side to take some samples there,” Wu Yanhua told reporters.
“This is because there has never been a mission to return samples from afar, and if we do that … it will be very significant for scientists around the world,” Wu said.
Infographics: Deng Zijun / GT
The country’s space agency is also planning Chang’e-7 and -8 missions and takes these missions as opportunities; China will contact relevant countries and international agencies to jointly study the ability to build a monthly research base and verify core technologies.
CNSA spokesman Xu Hongliang revealed on Thursday that Chang’e-7 will likely explore the moon’s south pole, which is similar to Russia’s LUNA-26 sounding mission. “Under the two-government cooperation mechanism, China and Russia are preparing to promote relevant cooperation.”
Xu added that “We welcome other countries around the world that are carrying out international monthly base construction programs to join us and contribute to the cause of improving human well-being with space solutions.”
China launched the country’s first Mars spacecraft, codenamed Tianwen-1, on July 23 at the Wenchang Space Launch Center in South China’s Hainan Province, beginning interplanetary exploration.
Currently, Tianwen-1 has traveled 370 million kilometers and reached more than 100 million kilometers from Earth, according to the latest CNSA update on the mission earlier this week.
The spacecraft is expected to reach the gravity of the Red Planet by mid-February next year and then begin orbiting Mars. And it aims to land on the planet by mid-May 2021, where it will release a rover to conduct a reconnaissance mission.
There would be three more planetary probe missions – an asteroid probe and a sampling mission, a test mission to Mars and a mission to orbit Jupiter – according to CNSA.
China launches the Chang’e-5 mission through the Long March-5 rocket to retrieve the moon’s rocks at the Wenchang space launch center in South China’s Hainan Province on Tuesday morning. Photo: Li Dike
Busy schedule for manned missions
China will make 11 launches that include four manned spacecraft and four cargo spacecraft flights over the next two years as it aims to complete construction of the country’s first spacecraft by 2022.
The space station, called Tiangong, meaning the celestial palace, will have a T-shape with a central module in the center and a laboratory capsule on each side. It will be able to accommodate three astronauts under normal circumstances and up to six during the replacement of the crew.
The Chinese space station will operate in low Earth orbit at an altitude of 340 kilometers to 450 kilometers for more than 10 years, supporting large-scale scientific, technological and application experiments.
Commenting on the prospect of sending Chinese astronauts to the moon, Wu Yanhua, CNSA’s deputy chief, said on Thursday that the construction of the space station will be a priority for the next two years, and the subject of monthly manned missions is still awaiting further discussion.
He also pointed out that if there is a monthly mission with a Chinese crew, they will be different from those of the US and the Soviet Union during the space race, which focused only on who got there first and who did more. many landings.
We will focus on the value of scientific research [in future crewed moon missions], and the discoveries made during the Chang’e-5 mission – taking off from the moon, meeting and docking into lunar orbit and re-entering Earth – are all solid foundations laid for future manned missions, he said.
China is also continuing research and development of a manned heavy transport missile with a launch capacity of 70 tonnes to low Earth orbit (LEO) and 27 tonnes to monthly transfer orbit (LTO), According to an attempt, the roadmap for the country’s next monthly landing strategy was revealed by Zhou Yanfei, deputy chief designer of China’s manned space program in September, the Global Times reported earlier.
None of the existing members of China’s Long March missile family could allow the country to make such an ambitious manned monthly landing, Zhou said during his keynote address at the China Space Conference, adding that the development of a new transport missile with a heavy crew is one of the challenges in achieving the goal.
CNSA officials also mentioned on Thursday such launch vehicles with new generation weights, calling them mandatory in the development of the country’s space industry.
“We are working on key technology solutions and optimization plans and will report to the country for approval when conditions are ripe,” Wu said.
Newspaper headline: China’s roadmaps ambitious space projects