It is expected that it will move 15 billion km from the Earth, the Xinhua news agency reports"
BEIJING, May 5. /TASS/. Chinese scientists are considering sending a spacecraft to the edge of the Solar System - a distance of 100 astronomical units (15 billion km) from Earth. This was reported on Wednesday by the Xinhua news agency.
According to him, the launch is planned to be carried out by 2049 - the centenary of the formation of the People's Republic of China. "If the project can be implemented, it will be China's contribution to the [development] of the world and humanity," the agency quotes the chief designer of the country's lunar program, Academician Wu Weiren. According to him, "the Chinese space industry has the strength to achieve this goal."
One astronomical unit is approximately 149.6 million km and is considered the average distance from the Earth to the Sun.
The People's Republic of China is actively developing its national space program, developing meteorological, telecommunications and navigation satellites, as well as launching spacecraft for the study of celestial bodies, in particular, the Moon and Mars.
To date, there are only two spacecraft, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, that have left the Solar System and are now traveling through interstellar space. Their measurements for the first time helped scientists to study in detail some of the properties of this part of the cosmos and to discover a number of anomalies on the border of the Solar system.
At the end of April, the press service of the European Union of Earth Sciences reported on the plans of American and European astronomers to create the Interstellar probe, which will move a record 149 billion km from Earth and study in detail the properties of the interstellar medium.