Beijing: Gearing up to land a rover on moon
and send manned spaceflights to built space station, China
on Thursday said it will push forward its exploration of planets,
asteroids and solar system in order to achieve self
sufficiency.
China will launch lunar mission to land a rover on moon
for carrying out a survey of its surface in the next five
years and conduct studies for a human lunar landing, a white
paper issued today by the Chinese government listing the
country`s space achievement in the last five years.
The lunar probe projects have achieved milestone
breakthroughs since 2006, with the successful launching of two
lunar probes, the Chang`e-1 in 2007 and Chang`e-2 on October
1, 2010 to orbit moon.
The third unmanned mission was to land with a rover to
bring samples the moon`s surface back to Earth, it said.
China though achieved major milestones in space
technology has not yet caught up with US and Russian
technologies which currently eyed far deeper space missions.
Chinese scientists say that they are reinventing the
technologies to master them in order to achieve self
sufficiency.
Besides the moon mission, the while paper said China will
also push forward its exploration of planets, asteroids and
solar system.
By using spacecraft, China will study the properties of
black holes and physical laws under extreme conditions,
explore properties of dark matter particles, and test basic
theories of quantum mechanics, it said.
China will push forward human spaceflight projects and
make new technological breakthroughs, creating a foundation
for future human spaceflight, the white paper said.
After recently accomplishing its first space docking of
two unmanned craft, it would send manned flights docking with
the in-orbit Tiangong-1 vehicle, its proposed space station to
rival Russia`s Mir.
In addition, China will launch space laboratories,
manned spaceship and space freighters, make breakthroughs in
and master space station key technologies, including
astronauts` medium-term stay, regenerative life support and
propellant refuelling, it said.
According to the white paper, China will build a
stronger space transportation system, keep improving its
launch vehicle series, and enhance their capabilities of
entering space.
It will enhance the reliability and adaptability of
launch vehicles in service, develop new-generation launch
vehicles and their upper stages, and implement the first
flight of the Long March-5, Long March-6 and Long March-7
launch vehicles.
The paper said China will build a space infrastructure
frame composed of Earth observation satellites, communications
and broadcasting satellites, plus navigation and positioning
satellites, and will develop a preliminary long-term,
sustained and stable service capability.
This week China operationalised its navigation system
to reduce dependence on US controlled GPS.
China aims at developing and launching new-generation
GEO meteorological satellites, stereo mapping satellites,
radar satellites for environment and disaster monitoring,
electromagnetic monitoring test satellites, and other new-type
Earth observation satellites, it said.
China has made innovative achievements and
breakthroughs in major space projects, and space technology
has been upgraded "remarkably", it said adding that the
country`s Long March rockets have accomplished 67 successful
launches, sending 79 spacecraft into planned orbits since
2006.
On the Satellite front, China has developed Fengyun
(wind and cloud), Haiyang (ocean), Ziyuan (resources), Yaogan
(remote-sensing) and Tianhui (space mapping) satellite series,
plus a constellation of small satellites for environmental and
disaster monitoring and forecasting, it said.
PTI
