An exciting and busy week for Chinese space exploration confirms its dynamism and space ambitions. As one crew replaces another aboard the Chinese space station and a mission is launched to the far side of the Moon to retrieve samples, let’s briefly explore the newly selected space missions.
The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) is supporting a series of diverse and innovative missions to advance its ambitious space science program. As reported by Space News, these missions cover various areas such as lunar studies, astrophysics, exoplanets, and heliophysics, with the goal of positioning China at the forefront of astronomical research and space exploration. This is the vision of Wang Chi, director of the National Space Science Center (NSSC) under CAS, who recently presented these missions at the Zhongguancun Forum on April 27.
A Wide Variety of Promising Missions
Among the selected missions are “Discovering the Sky at the Longest Wavelength” (DSL), the mission “Enhanced X-ray Timing and Polarimetry” (eXTP), and “ExoEarth Survey,” a satellite dedicated to exoplanet research. Another mission will send a probe to observe the Sun’s poles, while the “Taiji” mission will use three satellites to detect gravitational waves.
It is important to note that these missions are separate from the Chinese National Space Administration’s planetary and lunar exploration programs, known as Tianwen and Chang’e for lunar exploration. For example, the eXTP mission will be an X-ray observatory to track gravitational waves and sources of neutrinos, as well as to observe under extreme conditions of matter density, gravity, and magnetism.
A Mission to Find Earth-Like Planets
As for the DSL mission, it will consist of a network of 10 small satellites sent into orbit.The lunar orbit to capture weak and ultra-long wave signals from the primitive Universe. The ExoEarth Survey, also known as Earth 2.0, will use various methods to search for terrestrial exoplanets and wandering planets. The solar mission aims to study the poles of the Sun on an orbit with a high inclination relative to the plane of the ecliptic.
China wants a space telescope to search for Earth-like planets
Some proposals for missions related to planetary and Earth sciences were not selected as part of this program, but they may be considered later. A mission to Venus, for example, remains of great interest to the Chinese scientific community specializing in planetology.