China’s Chang’e-5 successfully landed at its designated landing area at Siwangzi Banner, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in northern China, at around 2 a.m., carrying about 2 kg of lunar samples. Photos show workers checking the status of the vessel. Photo: Our Space / Wang Jiangbo
Following the full success of the Chang’e-5 lunar monster return mission on Thursday, the Chinese National Space Administration (CNSA) announced plans for a slew of ambitious space projects, including a new three-step plan for the country’s future moon and deeper space. reconnaissance missions, which Wu Yanhua, the deputy chief of the CNSA, called “surveying, construction and operation” as opposed to the already captured targets “orbiting, landing and returning.”
Wu made the comments at a special press conference at the State Council Information Office in Beijing on Thursday afternoon, and early in the morning, the Chang’e-5 probe’s return capsule made a safe landing at the predetermined location in Siziwang. Flag of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of Northern China, which draws a perfect conclusion for not only the 23-day single mission, but also for China’s increasingly complex lunar exploration plan for “Earth orbit, to land and return “, which was given a blueprint in 2004.
“Surveying” means exploring space and the geological environment of the moon and other cosmic bodies, and the variety of radiations in space, Wu said.
“Constructing” is mastering the ability to build infrastructure, the CNSA official noted, citing Queqiao, the Chang’e-4 probe’s relay satellite capable of steady lunar earth, for example. monitoring and communication service also mentioned the prospects for building the capacity for long-term water and electricity supply.
“Exploiting” refers to the human development of extraterrestrial resources, which Wu considers to be the common goal of interstellar probe missions from around the world.
Technical personnel will work at the Beijing Aerospace Control Center in Beijing on December 1. The Chinese Chang’e-5 spacecraft successfully landed on the near side of the moon on Tuesday evening and sent back images. Photo: CNSA
Walk the walk in space
China’s aerospace industry is not just talking the talk, but running.
The past few decades have witnessed the steady and robust development of China’s space exploration programs, which have served as evidence of the CNSA’s self-reliance, resilience and the ability of the CNSA to organize large programs in a coordinated, systematic manner, space insiders told the Global Friday. Times.
And they now have every reason in the world to believe that China will carry out its space plans in the years to come, at a good pace and always on the way to the infinity of the universe.
The Global Times has learned from the CNSA that Phase 4 of the country’s lunar exploration is already underway, including four missions named after the moon goddess in Chinese mythology, Chang’e.
Photo provided by the China National Space Administration on Jan. 3, 2019, shows the first image of the far side of the moon taken by China’s Chang’e-4 probe. File photo: Xinhua
The Chang’e-4 probe that reached the man’s first robot landing on the dark side of the moon in January 2019 was the first step in the new phase.
And the agency and scientists are brooding over the details of the Chang’e-6 mission, which could be maintained during the 14th five-year plan (2021-25).
The Chang’e-6 mission, much like Chang’e-5 a lunar material retrieval task, would inherit and further expand the technological breakthroughs and complexities of the previous mission. The location for collecting samples can be the south pole of the moon or even the dark side of the moon, which has never been done by a nation before.
“But if the Queqiao satellite is still functioning well by the time we launch Chang’e-6, we may also consider sending it to the other side to take some samples there,” Wu Yanhua told reporters.
“This is because there has never been a mission to return samples from the other side, and if we do … it will be of great significance to scientists around the world,” Wu noted.
Infographic: Deng Zijun / GT
The country’s space agency is also planning Chang’e-7 and -8 missions, using those missions as opportunities; China will contact relevant countries and international agencies to jointly study the ability to build a lunar research base and verify nuclear technologies.
CNSA spokesman Xu Hongliang revealed on Thursday that Chang’e-7 is likely to explore the moon’s south pole, similar to Russia’s LUNA-26 probe mission. “Under the cooperation mechanism of two governments, China and Russia are preparing to promote relevant cooperation.”
Xu added, “We also welcome other countries around the world that are conducting international lunar base construction programs to join us and contribute to improving human well-being with space solutions.”
China launched the first-ever Mars probe, code-named Tianwen-1, on July 23 from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in southern China’s Hainan province, kickstarting its interplanetary exploration.
Currently, Tianwen-1 has traveled 370 million kilometers, reaching more than 100 million kilometers from Earth, according to the CNSA’s latest update on the mission earlier this week.
The spacecraft is expected to arrive in Red Planet’s gravity in mid-February next year and then begin orbiting Mars. And he plans to land on the planet in mid-May 2021, where he will release a rover to conduct a fact-finding mission.
There would be three more planetary probe missions – an asteroid probe and sampling mission, a Mars sampling mission and a mission to orbit Jupiter – according to the CNSA.
China is launching the Chang’e-5 mission via the Long March-5 rocket to retrieve the moon rocks from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in southern China’s Hainan province, early Tuesday morning. Photo: Li Dike
Busy schedule for manned missions
China will carry out 11 launches over the next two years, including four manned spaceships and four spacecraft cargo flights, as it plans to complete construction of the country’s first space station by 2022.
The space station, called Tiangong, meaning heavenly palace, will have a T-shape with a core module in the center and a laboratory capsule on each side. It will accommodate three astronauts under normal circumstances and up to six during a crew replacement.
The Chinese space station will operate in low Earth orbit for more than 10 years at altitudes of between 340 kilometers and 450 kilometers, supporting large-scale scientific, technological and application experiments.
Commenting on the prospect of sending Chinese astronauts to the moon, Wu Yanhua, the deputy chief of CNSA, said on Thursday that the construction of the space station would be a priority for the next two years, and that manned lunar missions are still on the agenda. awaits further discussion.
He also emphasized that if there is a Chinese manned lunar mission, they will be different from those of the US and the Soviet Union during the space race period, which only focused on who got there first and who made more landings.
We will focus on the scientific research value [in future crewed moon missions], and breakthroughs made during the Chang’e-5 mission – taking off from the moon, rendezvous and docking in the lunar orbit and return to Earth – have all laid solid foundations for future manned missions, he said.
China is also pursuing research and development of a manned heavy-lift carrier missile, whose launch capabilities would reach 70 tons to low Earth orbit (LEO) and 27 tons to lunar transfer orbit (LTO), according to a preliminary roadmap for the country’s future lunar landing strategy unveiled by Zhou Yanfei, deputy chief designer of China’s crewed space program in September, Global Times previously reported.
None of the existing members of China’s family of Long March launchers could allow the country to achieve such an ambitious manned moon landing, Zhou said during his keynote speech at the China Space Conference, adding that the development of a new manned rocket with heavy loads is one of the challenges to reach the goal.
CNSA officials also called such a new generation of heavy launch vehicles on Thursday, calling them a must in the development of the country’s space industry.
“We are working on key technology solutions and optimization plans, and we will report to the country for approval when conditions are right,” Wu revealed.
Newspaper headline: China roadmaps ambitious space projects