- Song Wanyuan, Jana Tauschinski
- BBC correspondent
June 6, 2022 at 8:26 am
image source,BBC; Getty Image; Nasa
Three Chinese astronauts have embarked on a six-month mission to work on China’s new space station. This is the latest step for China to become a leading space power in the coming decades.
Chinese state media reported that the “Shenzhou 14” astronaut crew, already stationed in the Tianhe core module of the space station, entered the “Tianzhou 4” cargo spacecraft at 12:19 on June 6. Next, the astronaut crew will enter the “Tianzhou-3” cargo spacecraft, and will carry out cargo transfer and other work as planned.
What is the “Tiangong” space station?
Last year, China put the first module of the Tiangong space station into orbit. China plans to add more modules, such as the “Mengtian” experimental module, by the end of this year.
Next year, it will launch a space telescope called the Sky Survey. It will fly close to the space station and dock with it for repairs and refueling.
The Tiangong space station will have its own power, propulsion, life support systems and living quarters.
China is the third country in history to send two astronauts into space and build a space station, following the Soviet Union (now Russia) and the United States.
China has big ambitions for Tiangong-1, which it hopes will replace the International Space Station (ISS), which is scheduled to cease operations in 2031.
Chinese astronauts have been excluded from the International Space Station because U.S. law prohibits NASA from sharing data with China.
China’s plans to land on the moon and Mars
China’s ambitions don’t stop there.
In a few years, it wants to collect samples from asteroids near Earth.
By 2030, China aims to send its first astronauts to the moon and send probes to collect samples on Mars and Jupiter.
What are other countries doing?
China’s influence in space is expanding, and several other countries are also working to achieve the goal of landing on the moon.
NASA plans to return to the moon with astronauts from the United States and other countries starting in 2025, and has already launched its new giant SLS rocket from the Kennedy Space Center space station.
Japan, South Korea, Russia, India and the United Arab Emirates are also conducting their own moon landing missions.
India has carried out its second major lunar mission and hopes to have its own space station by 2030.
Meanwhile, the European Space Agency, which is working with NASA on moon missions, also plans to build a network of lunar satellites to make it easier for astronauts to communicate with Earth.
Who makes the rules of space?
- The 1967 UN Outer Space Treaty stipulates that no country can claim space sovereignty
- The 1979 UN Moon Agreement (the full name is the Agreement Concerning the Activities of States on the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies) stipulated that space should not be commercially exploited, but the United States, China and Russia refused to sign the agreement
- Today, the United States is promoting its Artemis Accords, spelling out how countries can cooperate to develop lunar minerals
- Russia and China won’t sign deal, say U.S. has no right to make space rules
China’s development in space
China put its first artificial satellite into orbit in 1970, at a time when the country was going through the massive destruction caused by the “Cultural Revolution.”
At that stage, the only other countries that went into space were the United States, the Soviet Union, France, and Japan.
In the past 10 years, China has launched more than 200 rockets.
China has sent the Chang’e 5 unmanned probe to the moon to collect and retrieve rock samples. It planted a Chinese flag on the lunar surface, which was deliberately larger than the previous American flag.
With the launch of Shenzhou 14, China has so far sent 14 astronauts into space, compared with 340 astronauts sent into space by the United States and astronauts sent by the Soviet Union (now Russia) into space more than 130 members.
But there are some setbacks. In 2021, part of a Chinese rocket deorbited into the Atlantic Ocean, and in 2020 China has had two failed launches.
Who pays for China’s space program?
At least 300,000 people work on China’s space program, nearly 18 times the number currently working at NASA, China’s state-run Xinhua news agency said.
The China National Space Administration was established in 2003 with an initial annual budget of 2 billion yuan ($300 million).
But in 2016, China opened up its aerospace industry to private companies, which are now investing more than 10 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) a year, according to Chinese media reports.
Why does China want to go into space?
China is keen to develop its satellite technology for telecommunications, air traffic management, weather forecasting and navigation, to name a few.
But many of its satellites also have military uses. They can help China monitor hostile forces and guide long-range missiles.
Lucinda King, space program manager at the University of Portsmouth, said China isn’t just focused on high-profile space missions: “They are very productive in every aspect of space. They have the political motivation and the resources to invest in their plans. s project.”
Part of the motivation for China’s lunar mission is to extract rare earth metals, such as lithium, from the lunar surface.
However, Professor Sa’id Mosteshar, director of the London Institute for Space Policy and Law at the University of London, said that would not offset the cost of China’s repeated mining missions to the moon.
Instead, he said, China’s space program is more regarding impressing the rest of the world, “it’s a projection of power and a testament to technological progress”.
