A man with a face mask visits an exhibition of a spacecraft and rovers on Mars in a shopping center in Beijing on Wednesday. China’s first Mars exploration probe, Tianwen-1, entered orbit on Wednesday to park Mars after flying 215 days in space. Photo: AP
China plans to conduct more than 40 space launches by 2021, with the construction of the country’s first space station a top priority, leading domestic rocket contractor China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp (CASC) said Wednesday.
In the 2020 Blue Book of China Aerospace Science and Technology Activities Released at a press conference on Wednesday, CASC said parts of the space station, including the Tianhe core cabinet, the Tianzhou-2 and -3 cargo spacecraft, and the Shenzhou-12 and -13 manned spacecraft, will be sent into space in 2021.
Seven more commercial launches are planned, which are open to market users looking to send micro-size and small satellites into space, the Blue Book said.
China carried out 39 launches in 2020, sent 89 spacecraft into space and broke the total weight record of 103.06 tons, an increase of 29.3 percent from the previous year.
China’s number of launches into space and the weight of payloads in 2020 were both ranked second in the world, after the US, signaling great strides in China’s space exploration, according to the Blue Book.
To round out the year’s aerospace developments, China has made remarkable achievements in a number of advanced technologies and major breakthroughs in space missions, it said.
China’s latest state-of-the-art launch vehicle, the Long March-5B, made a successful maiden flight in May, sending the assembly of a trial version of the next-generation manned spacecraft with a test payload that brought the spacecraft into its planned orbit. .
The trial opened the official chapter of the construction of the Chinese space station, which “lays a solid foundation for a future manned landing on the moon,” according to the Blue Book.
During the experimental flight, China conducted a series of space experiments, such as the first attempt at 3D printing in orbit, with the aim of studying the feasibility of ‘homemade’ fabrication in space to solve the problem of long supply lines during to tackle reconnaissance missions. .
Even more exciting for space fans around the world, China began travel to the Moon and Mars in 2020, indicating China’s growing confidence in the field after years of unremitting efforts.
The country’s first Mars exploration project, Tianwen-1, which has a triple mission of orbit, landing and roaming in one flight, embarked on a journey to the Red Planet on July 23, 2020.
After flying for 215 days in space, which took it about 212 million kilometers from Earth, it successfully entered Mars orbit on Wednesday and will remain there for another three months, with all payloads turned on for scientific research, before finally lands, China’s National Space Administration said in a statement to the Global Times.
China’s first lunar sample retrieval mission, Chang’e-5, ended its journey on December 17, 2020 after a 23-day adventure to the neighboring celestial body, taking 1,731 grams of the lunar floor and making China the third country. to have successfully brought lunar samples back to Earth after the US and the former Soviet Union.
As one of the most complex and challenging tasks in the country’s aerospace history, Chang’e-5 achieved multiple firsts, including the very first takeoff from the lunar surface and the first encounter and docking in the lunar orbit.
Impressive as the performance is, Chinese space analysts note that there are still some technological gaps in the field compared to the US. Song Zhongping, a space travel expert and TV commentator, told the Global Times on Wednesday that the US is still the leading force in the global race for space travel.
“From the 1960s, the US got a head start. Thanks to a relatively strong science base that laid the foundation for the development of aerospace, the US has formed a more mature, balanced mode with NASA leading the national space programs and Elon. Musk as a leader in driving commercial areas of the aerospace industry. ”
However, he noted that China has developed its own path different from the US. “We have drawn the blueprint for future space missions as a whole and then divided it into parts, which will be realized step by step in a steady manner.”
Song illustrated this idea using the examples of the Chinese BeiDou navigation satellite system, space exploration and manned missions.
Despite the devastating pandemic that hit the world last year, China not only held its head high and made steady progress in its own space missions, but also participated in several space projects that included Argentina, Ethiopia, Egypt and other countries along the Belt. and road routes.
Several types of collaboration were involved, such as satellite exports, cooperative research and development, satellite launches and application services.