China would first module for its own space station this month, while the country is also preparing to send a large space telescope in a few years to send it into orbit.
The Chinese Space Station Telescope (CSST), expected to launch in 2024, will act as an optical space observatory for Chinese scientists to conduct aerial surveys, according to Xinhua. The telescope, also referred to as ‘Xuntian’, which literally translates to ‘survey the sky’, will feature an impressive 6.6-foot (2-meter) diameter lens, making it comparable to the Hubble telescope. However, it has a field of view 300 times that of the 31-year-old Hubble, while maintaining a similar resolution.
The wide field of view allows the telescope to observe up to 40 percent of the sky for ten years using a huge one 2.5 billion pixel cameraNotably, the telescope will orbit the Earth along with the Chinese space station and be able to periodically dock with the future manned outpost.
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“The telescope will be set up in an optical module capable of independently orbiting the Earth for greater space probe efficiency,” said Zhou Jianping, chief designer of China’s manned space flight program. China told Central Television in March
“In the meantime, we will make sure that it is roughly in common orbit with the future space station. This will help us refuel the telescope and perform an orbit upgrade.[s] for it, to always keep it at the level of an international border, ‘Jianping added.
This could be a big advantage for the CSST as Hubble has a number of missions to repair, upgrade and replace a variety of components and systems.
Meanwhile, four astronomical research centers in China are being built on the ground to work with data from the space telescope, Xinhua reported last year.
The CSST will detect near ultraviolet and visible light. Notable cosmological and astronomical objectives include investigating the properties of dark matter and dark energy, the large-scale structure of the cosmos and the formation and evolution of galaxies, according to a 2019 paper from members of the National Astronomical Observatories (NAOC) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
The CSST is also expected to contribute to the detection and investigation of trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) and nearby asteroids.
In addition, Chinese astronauts are currently undergoing in preparation for the country’s new space station intensive training for the first manned missions to build the future station.
China is preparing for 11 launches in 2021 and 2022, including four manned missions, for the construction phase of the project. The core module, called “Tianhe, “meaning” Harmony of Heaven “is expected to launch from Wenchang in April, based on previous preparations from Long March 5.
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