China'S Spaceflight: An Unusual Journey In 2020

In June 23rd, the last satellite network of Beidou three was successfully launched, which means that after more than 20 years, the Beidou global navigation satellite system was officially completed.

Ran Chengqi, director of China's satellite navigation system management office, said that the Beidou satellite navigation system is China's largest and most widely spaced and complex aerospace system to date.

However, with the continuous development of China's space technology, the speed of construction of the Beidou satellite navigation system is also accelerating. Since the launch of the first satellite in November 2017, the 30 navigation satellites of Beidou three have been successfully sent to the sky in 30 months. Ran Cheng has commented that Beidou three has created a new record of high density and high success rate in the history of China's space launch.

China's space industry is showing "speed of China" to the whole world. In 2020, which is considered to be China's space year, the successful conclusion of the Beidou satellite system is only one of them. Besides, the three phase of the expedition, the launch of the Mars probe and major projects such as the opening of the China space station are all worth looking forward to.

Chang'e five returns to the moon

In January 2004, China's lunar exploration project was officially approved and named "Chang'e project". According to the plan, the whole lunar exploration project is divided into three stages: "winding, falling, and returning".

Based on the previous 5 tasks of Chang'e 1, Chang'e two, Chang'e three, re-entry and return, and Chang'e four, the task of "winding" and "falling" of the lunar exploration project has been completed.

The last "Hui" will be completed by Chang'e five. It is reported that in 2009, during the implementation of the two phase of the lunar exploration project, China formally launched the three phase of the lunar exploration project, that is, the plan demonstration and pre study of the task of Chang'e five.

In January this year, China Aerospace Science and Technology Group announced that the Chang'e five probe would be launched before and after the end of October to implement the first lunar return.

The reentry flight test mentioned above is actually technical verification for Chang'e five. It is understood that the objective of the mission is to verify the key technologies such as return air and thermal protection, reentry GNC, light and small recovery, and ensure the feasibility and correctness of the return technology scheme.

In October 2014, the lunar exploration team successfully carried out the lunar high speed reentry mission. Finally, the reentry device uses the "semi ballistic jump" high speed re-entry to return to earth, and precisely landed in the Inner Mongolia pre selected landing area, validates the second cosmic speed moon Gnome return technology, which has laid an important foundation for the launching of Chang'e five.

According to Peng Jing, deputy chief designer of Chang'e five detector of the five homes of space technology group, the Chang'e five detector is expected to fly to the moon from 22 days to 23 days. After landing and collecting samples in the northwestern part of the lunar storm, the return device takes off on the spot and finally returns to earth.

An aerospace expert told reporters that Chang'e five detector will consist of lunar orbiter, lander, riser and return device, with a total weight of about 8.2 tons. In the whole process of implementation, Chang'e five will overcome four key technologies, such as lunar surface sampling, lunar takeoff, lunar rendezvous and docking, and earth's high speed reentry and return.

If Chang'e five can successfully accomplish the task of returning to the moon, it also means that China has completed the verification of the key technologies of manned lunar landing beyond the survival of astronauts.

Wu Weiren, chief designer of China's lunar exploration project and academician of the Chinese Academy of engineering, talked about the achievements of China's lunar exploration project in 2019. It was mentioned that China's lunar exploration project started late, but its starting point was high, and its investment was small, but its technology output was high, and its launch times were few, but its success rate was high.

Wu Weiren said that in the past 15 years, the overall level and capability of China's exploration of the moon have been developing rapidly, and the world's exploration of the moon is moving from "running to running and running" to "leading the way".

Recently, Wu Weiren, Yu Dengyun, Sun Zezhou and other "Chang'e four" task team outstanding representatives, won the International Astronautical Federation 2020 "world space Award", which is the award for the first time in 70 years to China's space scientists.

It is reported that the Chang'e four detector, which landed on the back of the moon in January 3, 2019, has made many breakthroughs in the history of human space development, such as the first lunar exploration and low frequency radio astronomical observation on the back of the moon. At present, Chang'e four has survived for more than 500 days on the moon, and has become the longest human detector on the lunar surface.

According to the twenty-first Century economic report, Chang'e four is also the first mission of the four phase of the lunar exploration project. Next, the four phase of lunar exploration is basically clear and there are three tasks, namely Chang'e six sampling and returning at the moon's Antarctica; Chang'e seven in the lunar Antarctic for a comprehensive survey; and Chang'e eight in addition to scientific exploration experiments, some key technologies should also be tested on the lunar surface, so as to make a preliminary exploration for the establishment of the lunar research base.

Exploring Mars

Human's yearning for space is not satisfied with the exploration of the moon, and Mars is the preferred target for deep space exploration to get out of the Earth Moon system because of its close proximity to the earth and the most similar natural environment to the earth. According to the plan, China will also carry out its first Mars exploration mission in July this year.

According to reporters, Mars exploration will be the starting point and key point of China's deep space exploration. After three rounds of iteration, the implementation plan was officially approved in January 2016.

An insider familiar with China's deep space exploration told reporters that although China's Mars exploration started relatively late, but based on the experience gained from the lunar exploration project and the carrying capacity of the rocket, it plans to achieve Mars's "winding, navigation and patrol" in its first mission. If successful, China's deep space exploration will achieve leapfrog development and become the second independent masters in the world. Mars landing inspection and exploration technology country.

It is reported that China's first Mars exploration mission consists of five major systems: detectors, launch vehicles, launch sites, measurement and control, and ground applications. Among them. The detector consists of a surround and landing inspector with a total mass of about 5 tons.

In the surround device, there are 7 scientific payloads, including medium resolution camera, high resolution camera, subsurface detection radar, Mars mineral spectrum detector, Mars magnetometer, Mars ion and neutral particle analyzer, Mars energy particle analyzer.

The landing inspector consists of an entry module and a Mars rover. According to the plan, the entry module will complete the mission of Mars entry, descent and landing. The rover will carry out patrol detection in the landing area. On Mars rover, 6 scientific payloads will be equipped with multispectral cameras, subsurface detection radar, Mars surface composition detector, Mars surface magnetic field detector, Mars meteorology survey instrument and Terrain Camera.

The director of the China Science and technology group of the China Aerospace Science and technology group said in an interview earlier that China's first Mars exploration mission has set five scientific goals, mainly involving space environment, topography and surface structure.

It says Mars is one of the most similar planets in the solar system to the earth and the natural environment. Mars exploration not only helps to explore the existence and evolution of Mars life, but also helps us to understand the history of the earth's evolution and predict the future trends of the earth. It also opens up new living space for human beings to find potential targets.

According to information previously disclosed by China Aerospace Science and technology group, the Mars exploration mission will use the long march five rocket to launch the Mars probe to the ground fire transfer orbit. Subsequently, through multiple track maneuvers and midway correction, braking was implemented near the fire point to achieve Mars capture into the elliptical orbit of the ring fire.

Then the detector will run to the selected entry window to control the orbit drop and release the landing inspector. After landing, the lander enters the Martian atmosphere, and realizes soft landing by aerodynamic deceleration, parachute, backstepping engine and other multi-stage deceleration and landing leg recoil.

After landing, the rover will be separated from the loading platform and carry out scientific inspection on the surface of Mars. The surround device will provide a relay communication link for the rover on the relay communication track.

The industry said that although China has had the successful experience of "walking around the moon", there are still huge differences between Mars and the moon, so the mission of Mars is much more difficult than the moon.

For example, because of the different motion patterns of the moon and Mars, the moon exploration theory has the opportunity to launch every month, and the launch opportunity of Mars is only once every 26 months. In addition, the longest distance of the earth fire is about 1000 times that of the Earth Moon distance.

Construction of "heavenly palace"

In May 5th of this year, the long march five B launch vehicle for the manned space station project of China was successfully launched with a new generation manned spacecraft test vessel and a flexible inflatable cargo re-entry module test chamber.

In 1992, China launched the manned spaceflight project and formulated the "three steps" development strategy. The third step is to build a manned space station to solve the problem of large-scale and long-term manned space application. The success of the first flight of the long march five B also marks the "third step" of China's manned space program, the prelude to the construction of manned space station.

It is reported that the Long March 5 series launch vehicle is a large launch vehicle of the new generation of launch vehicle spectrum, also known as "fat five". The above mentioned Mars probe and Chang'e five will be launched by the long march five launch vehicle, while the long march five B is developed on the basis of the long march five. The carrying capacity of the near earth orbit is more than 22 tons, and it is also the largest arrows for China's near earth orbit carrying capacity, and will be mainly used for the launch of large spacecraft in the near earth orbit.

In May 8th, China's new generation manned spaceship test boat re-entry module landed successfully in the Jiuquan Dongfeng recovery landing area. Zhang Bainan, chief designer of manned spaceflight system of five institutes of China Aerospace Science and technology group, said in an interview in May this year that from the successful launch of May 5th to the safe return of May 8th, the performance of the new generation manned spacecraft test ship was perfect and paved the new "road of heaven" to space.

According to the plan, the Chinese space station will be completed before and after 2022, and a total of 12 missions will be planned. After the launch of the long march five B mission, there will be 11 launches.

According to the introduction of China's manned space engineering office, China will launch the core module, laboratory module I and experimental module II to carry out the orbital assembly construction of the space station's basic configuration. Meanwhile, we planned to launch 4 Shenzhou manned spaceship and 4 Tian Zhou cargo spaceship to carry out group rotation and cargo replenishment for astronauts.

According to reporters, the Chinese space station has been named "Tiangong", which consists of 3 sections: the core cabin "Tian He", the experimental cabin I "ask the sky", the experimental module II "dream sky" and so on, and the cargo spacecraft is named "Tian Zhou".

Among them, the "Tian He" core cabin is 16.6 meters long and the largest diameter is 4.2 meters, which can support 3 astronauts to stay in orbit for a long time. It is the management and control center of the future space station.

Ji Qiming, assistant director of the China Manned Space Engineering Office, also told the media in May that at present, China's space station core cabin has completed the final product assembly. The experimental cabin and the dream test cabin are being developed. The space science application load has been transferred to the normal sample development, and the astronauts multiplying group has been selected for the four Mission of the space station construction stage. Training is being carried out.

For China's space industry, the construction of manned space station is not only a very important role in the field of space science research, but also a manifestation of China's space power. Especially in the future, when the international space station is "retired", the Chinese space station will also become the only space station for human being in orbit.

Of course, China's manned space program will not stop at the space station. The new generation of manned spacecraft mentioned above, besides transporting astronauts to and from the ground and space stations, can actually send astronauts to the moon.

In addition, Zhang Bainan also said that manned lunar landing and manned to Mars are all second cosmic speed returns. As long as they have manned lunar landing capability, they generally have the ability to go to Mars.

But for now, China's plans to land on the moon and Mars are relatively distant. But the speed of China's space development is obvious to the world. Especially in 2020, if the above major space projects can be successfully implemented on schedule, this year is bound to become a milestone in China's space industry.

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