China this Tuesday sent a mission to the Tiangong space station with three “taikonauts” – the country’s astronauts – including a civilian for the first time, a new phase in the conquest of space that began more than 60 years ago by President Mao Zed-Tung.
The trio of astronauts took off aboard a rocket shortly after 9:30 a.m. local time (1:30 a.m. Lisbon) from the Jiuquan launch center in the Gobi Desert, in the northwest of the country, according to China’s space agency responsible for spaceflight. manned (CMSA).
The trip is part of the strategy to send a Chinese astronaut to the moon by 2030, one of the main goals of a space program in which the country has already invested billions of euros.
The mission commander, veteran Jing Haipeng (56), is making his fourth spaceflight and is accompanied by engineer Zhu Yangzhu and by Gui Haichao, professor and first Chinese citizen in space, both 36 years old.
Haichao, a specialist in space sciences and engineering, will be in charge of the experiments at the station and will not be from the armed forces, as has always been the case until now.
Representatives of China’s space program assured Monday that the change in requirements is due to “the new phase the Tiangong space station has entered, in which it will house a large number of scientific experiments.”
The station will accommodate research into plant breeding, fish farming, testing the behavior of liquids in zero gravity, studying animal and plant cells, and installing the most accurate atomic clock ever.
The three astronauts will be the first to arrive in Tiangong, where they will spend the next five months after construction of China’s space station is completed in late 2022.
Here are the main stages of the Chinese conquest of space:
Mao’s call
In 1957, the Soviet Union launched the first man-made satellite, Sputnik, into orbit. The founder of the People’s Republic of China, Mao Zedong, then appeals to his citizens: “We’re going to make satellites too!”
The first step was completed in 1970. China launches its first satellite, Dongfanghong-1 (“The East is Red-1”), the name of a song in honor of Mao, whose melody would be broadcast into space for several days.
The rocket responsible for putting the satellite into orbit is called “Long March,” a name that recalls the Red Army march that allowed Mao to assert himself as leader of the Chinese Communist Party.
first man
In 2003, the Asian country sent the first Chinese into space, the ‘taikonaut’ Yang Liwei, who orbited the earth 14 times in a period of 21 hours.
With that flight, China becomes the third country, after the Soviet Union and the United States, to send a human into space on its own.
modules
At the request of the US government, China was deliberately excluded from the International Space Station program, a collaboration between Americans, Russians, Europeans, Japanese and Canadians. With the measure, the country decides to build its own station.
To this end, the Asian country is first launching a small space module, Tiangong-1 (“Celestial Palace 1”), which was launched into orbit in September 2011 to conduct taikonaut training and also medical experiments.
Tiangong-1 will cease operation in March 2016. The laboratory was considered a preliminary step towards building a space station.
In 2016, China will launch its second space module, Tiangong-2, where taikonauts performed engineering dockings.
moon rabbit
In 2013, the little robot “Jade Rabbit” lands on the moon. The device suffered technical problems, but was reactivated and explored the lunar surface for 31 months.
The Asian giant plans to send astronauts to the moon and build a base in 2030, according to the China Space Agency for Manned Flights.
Moon and Chinese ‘GPS’
China’s space program suffered a setback in 2017 with the failure to launch Long March 5, a critical piece of equipment that would allow it to carry the heavy loads required for some missions.
This setback leads to a three-year delay for the Chang’e 5 mission. The mission, which will not be launched until 2020, will allow the Chinese to send samples from the lunar surface to Earth, something that had not happened in 40 years .
In January 2019, China achieved another success with an unprecedented achievement on a global scale: the landing of a robot, the “Jade Rabbit 2”, on the far side of the moon.
In June 2020, the Asian country will launch the last satellite to complete its Beidou navigation system, which competes with the North American GPS.
objective march
In July 2020, China will send the “Tianwen-1” probe to Mars, which carried a wheeled and remote-controlled robot named Zhurong, which landed on the surface of Mars in May 2021.
Scientists also mention the dream of sending people to Mars on a distant horizon.
Space station
In 2022, China will successfully launch the last module of its Tiangong space station.
The base is to orbit between 400 and 450 kilometers from the Earth’s surface over a period of 10 years, with the ambition of maintaining human presence in space for a long period of time.
Tiangong will be staffed around the clock, with rotating missions for three people.
The station contains a range of advanced scientific equipment, including “the first cold atomic space clock system,” according to the state news agency Xinhua.
In principle, China does not intend to use its space station for international cooperation, but officials have said it is open to cooperation with other countries.
Tiangong’s next mission, Shenzhou-17, is scheduled for October.
Source: DN
