Photo: Deng Xiaoci/GT
Despite the United States’ suppression of China’s development in the space sector, which has been no less than that of the chip industry, China’s capabilities in lunar and planetary exploration have reached a world-leading level, according to Wu Weiren, chief designer of The Chinese Project. Lunar exploration program and academics at the Chinese Academy of Engineering on Sunday.
Wu, who is also chief scientist and director of the China Deep Space Exploration Laboratory (DSEL), made the remarks during his keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the 25th annual meeting of the China Association for Science and Technology, the most important gathering of Chinese scientific circles, held on Sunday in this year Heifei, the capital of East China’s Anhui Province.
In his speech, Wu congratulated Chandrayaan 3, India’s first-ever successful robotic moon landing in August, and expressed regret over the failure of Russia’s Luna-25 lunar landing attempt also in August.
He then discussed another important event in international space exploration efforts: the high-profile U.S. Artemis project, which aims to return Americans to the moon and which has already brought together nearly 30 countries under a cooperative agreement.
“The United States plans to return to the moon, build a lunar base, and then use it as a springboard for its future landings on Mars,” Wu said.
However, China is excluded from the American project.
» China’s space exploration faces serious challenges marked by a US-led blockade and isolation from the West, comparable to the repression the country is suffering in the chip industry. Space exploration has become a new highlight of international scientific research. and technology and a new frontier for great power competition,” Wu said.
But given the many successes China has achieved independently in space exploration in recent decades, including groundbreaking achievements such as the soft landing of Chang’e-4 on its lunar-obscured surface in January 2019, which was a human first. “, the epic Chang’e-5 lunar sample return mission in October 2020, as well as the success of Tianwen-1, the country’s first-ever Mars exploration mission, have pushed China’s lunar and planetary-level exploration capabilities to world-leading levels,” remarked the head of DSEL.
According to the chief scientist, in this process, China’s spacecraft tracking and control capabilities have also been strengthened, achieving a huge jump in the spacecraft tracking and control distance from hundreds of thousands of kilometers to tens of billions of kilometers compared to its American and European counterparts.
Next, China will launch the Phase 4 lunar probe missions – Chang’e-6, -7 and -8 -, conduct new planetary exploration missions and further improve the country’s space launch capabilities over the next 15 years, Wu said.
The Chang’e-6, which will be launched in 2024, will attempt to conduct the world’s first lunar sample return from the far side of the Moon. The Chang’e-7 mission, scheduled for 2026, is expected to land on the south pole of the moon and conduct studies on lunar resources and the environment in the region. In addition, Chang’e-8 will test new technologies using lunar resources.
The construction of the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) planned by China, in which several countries are involved, is also on the agenda. Currently, DSEL is working with the China National Space Administration (CNSA) to organize Chinese academics and experts to conduct a feasibility study of the project plans, Wu revealed.
Azerbaijan became the newest member of ILRS cooperation, signing a joint declaration on cooperation with China in early October. Previously, Venezuela officially joined the lunar station initiative in July.
The CNSA signed joint statements on ILRS this year with the Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization (APSCO), Swiss company nanoSPACE AG and the Hawaii-based International Lunar Observatory Association (ILOA). Pakistan has also expressed its intention to join the ILRS.
“China plans to conduct a manned moon landing around 2030,” Wu said.
China also plans to conduct planetary exploration missions, including the Tianwen-2 asteroid sample return mission, the Tianwen-3 asteroid sample return mission to Mars and the first implementation of “a defense mission against near-Earth asteroids,” he said.
“Given the extremely low probability and extremely damaging event of a near-Earth asteroid hitting Earth, we will apply a kinetic energy impact to an asteroid tens of millions of kilometers away to change its orbit and impact in orbit. rating,” Wu announced on Sunday.
China will also develop a new super-heavy rocket with a diameter of 10 meters that can carry a payload of 150 tons to low Earth orbit, increasing the limit of the current most powerful Long March-5 to 25 tons.
At the opening ceremony of the 25th annual meeting of the China Association for Science and Technology in Hefei, Chinese scientists and researchers also introduced the top 10 scientific topics to be worked on in 2023, including how to achieve energy-efficient artificial intelligence . Challenging technical questions, including how to conduct a manned round-trip mission to Mars using space nuclear power, as well as top nine industrial questions, such as how to begin using carbon fiber composites in future Chinese high-speed trains.