The joint Moon exploration program with Moscow is still in the fog
In recent years, China has been rapidly increasing its activity in space. The country produces more than fifty space launches a year from four spaceports, and its satellite grouping already exceeds the number of the satellite grouping of the United States Government. However, the most important from a propaganda point of view for Beijing are the programs of the near-Earth orbital station and lunar exploration.
At the International Astronautics Congress held in Baku in early October, China for the first time announced plans to double the size of its Tiangong space station in order to accommodate scientific equipment from international partners.
THE "HEAVENLY PALACE" IS PREPARING FOR EXPANSION
Tiangong (meaning "Heavenly Palace") became the first Chinese multi-module manned orbital station. It currently includes the Tianhe base module, launched in April 2021, and two laboratory modules, Wentian and Mentian, launched in July and October 2022. The laboratory modules are docked to each other on the base module in the shape of the letter "T".
The station operates at an altitude of about 400 km with an inclination of 41.5 ° with respect to the equator. Its service life is designed for 15 years. It can accommodate three astronauts, who in China are called taikonauts (from "taikun" – cosmos), during long six-month missions and up to six people during crew changes. Now the fifth long-term crew is working at the station.
The Chinese National Space Administration plans to expand the Tiangong station from three to six modules, which will increase its mass to 180 tons, a representative of the Chinese Academy of Space Technology (China Academy of Space Technology, CAST) said at the congress Qiao Zhang. As a result, it will become heavier than the Soviet Mir station and will make up approximately 40% of the mass of the International Space Station (ISS).
The new modules will be docked to the front hatch of the Tianhe module, which is currently used for docking manned Shenzhou spacecraft and Tianzhou cargo ships. They will repeat the current T-shaped configuration of the base station.
According to CAST, Tiangong can currently carry 21 tons of scientific equipment – both inside the modules and on the outer skin. Chinese developers note that their "Heavenly Palace" surpasses the ISS in its technical capabilities. Which, however, is not surprising, since the International Space Station began to be built 20 years earlier.
In particular, Tiangong has a better mass–to-power ratio - 63% versus 45% for the ISS. The data transfer rate between the station and the Earth is 1.2 Gbps, which is twice as fast as compared to the ISS. And the accuracy of the movement of two robotic manipulators on the Chinese station – 5 and 10 m long and with a load capacity of 3 and 25 tons, respectively – is 3 mm versus 10 mm for manipulators on the ISS.
It is obvious that Tiangong was created primarily to ensure the national interests of China, which is not involved in the ISS project. Taikonauts have already completed 65 scientific research projects at the station, and 48 more are in the process of implementation, Zongming Liu, Deputy chief Designer of space systems for manned programs of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said in Baku.
THE RUSSIAN ALTERNATIVE TO THE "HEAVENLY PALACE"
It is worth noting that a similar project of the national Russian orbital station (ROS) is now being proposed by Roscosmos. It is assumed that Russia could work at the new station after the end of the ISS service life. The absence of the need to coordinate its activities with international partners will make it possible to use the future ROS – among other things, and perhaps first of all – for the interests of national security.
At the International Astronautics Congress, the head of Roscosmos, Yuri Borisov, said that the first element of the new station – the scientific and energy module - is planned to be launched in 2028. Recall that it was originally planned to put it into orbit in 2024, when Russia was going to withdraw from the ISS program. Later, the start of the ROS deployment was postponed to 2027, and Russia agreed to stay on the ISS until 2028. Another shift on the chronological scale to the right means that the creation of a national orbital station has not yet fallen into the priorities of the country's space activities.
Also in Baku, Yuri Borisov announced his readiness to open the ROS for foreign partners, including the creation of separate modules for foreign customers. According to him, Brazil, Turkey and the South African Republic are invited to participate in the project. However, such a step contradicts the original concept of creating a purely national station with an appropriate set of tasks. And the proposed polar orbit of the future station with an inclination of 91 °, chosen primarily to ensure full visibility of the territory of Russia, narrows the search for potential foreign partners.
INTERNATIONAL PROJECTS OF THE CHINESE
Beijing is also actively working to attract international scientific experiments to the Tiangong, gradually turning it into an alternative to the ISS. According to Liu, the Chinese Academy of Sciences has concluded more than 60 memorandums of cooperation on the space station with 136 organizations in 28 countries and regions.
At the first stage, the China Manned Space Agency and the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs selected seven international scientific projects to be hosted on Tiangong. Among them there is a project of the Institute of Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Together with colleagues from India, it is planned to study space nebulae from the Chinese space station using an ultraviolet spectrograph.
In addition, 10 projects are planned to be carried out at the Chinese station jointly with the European Space Agency, in which 158 laboratories from 95 organizations in 23 countries are expected to participate, Liu said.
Speaking about the expansion of the station, Qiao Zhang said that an inflatable module could be added to it, which would serve as a prototype of habitable space for future near-Earth and lunar missions.
The large-scale lunar exploration program has become another project important for Beijing's international prestige.
CHINESE ALTERNATIVE TO THE ARTEMIS PROGRAM
The Chinese National Space Administration used the congress in Baku to clarify its lunar exploration program and invite foreign partners and participants to it.
This program, which aims to create a permanent lunar base – the International Scientific Lunar Station (ISS) – was announced in 2021 as a joint project with Russia. The project was initially open to other participants and was presented as an alternative to the Artemis lunar exploration program, where NASA plays the main role.
Now China has outlined the launch dates for the last three robotic missions to the moon, during which technologies will be tested to create a permanent lunar base.
In May 2024, the Chang'e 6 spacecraft (on behalf of Chang'e, the goddess of Chinese mythology) will be launched, which for the first time will deliver samples of lunar soil from the far side of the Moon to Earth.
It will be followed by the Chang'e 7 mission in 2026. It is designed to explore the environment and resources at the moon's south pole, an area of international interest due to the presence of water and other volatile substances found in the eternal shadow of craters. Chang'e 7 will include a Quaeqiao-2 relay satellite, a lunar rover lander and a return vehicle.
The last mission in the series, called Chang'e 8, starts two years later. Its main goal will be the construction of a prototype research station at the south pole of the Moon to test technologies for the use of resources on site.
The Chinese National Space Administration has identified four potential landing sites, all south of 80° latitude: the Leibniz Beta Plateau, the Amundsen and Kabeo craters, as well as the ridge connecting the Shackleton and De Gerlach craters.
The Chang'e 8 mission includes a lander, a lunar rover and a robot. It will be launched by the Changzheng-5 heavy rocket from the Wenchang Cosmodrome in the south of the country.
The lander will be equipped with a crane for unloading the lunar rover and robot to the surface of the Moon. It will also be equipped with 10 of the mission's 14 scientific instruments and sensors. The remaining instruments – panoramic cameras, subsurface sounding radar, an infrared mineral analyzer and a device for analyzing and storing lunar samples – will be installed on the rover. The robot will remain near the lander to accommodate payload detectors and to conduct experiments with lunar soil.
With Chang'e 8, China intends to explore the physical properties of the Moon, local geological profiles, study the Earth's magnetosphere and the balance of energy from the lunar surface, analyze lunar samples and conduct experiments in miniature closed terrestrial ecosystems under lunar conditions.
At the International Astronautics Congress, China officially invited other countries to join the Chang'e 8 mission with additional payloads. However, they will be installed in an external container without access to the power supply and heating system of the lander, necessary for survival during the lunar night. The total weight of such additional equipment is limited to 200 kg. The selection of related payloads for Chang'e 8 is expected to be completed by April next year.
The next stage of the Chinese lunar exploration program will be the construction of a permanent International Scientific Lunar Station. Six missions are assigned to this from 2030 to the beginning of the 2040s. They will deliver a power supply module to the Earth's natural satellite, build communication stations and continue analyzing samples of lunar soil and delivering them to Earth.
To ensure communication and navigation during the planned missions, China will deploy a cluster of Queqiao relay satellites around the Earth and the Moon. They will also be used for future flights to Venus, Mars and deep space after 2040.
Apart from Russia, only Azerbaijan, Venezuela and South Africa have joined the MNLS program at the country level so far. The European Space Agency, Italy, Pakistan, France and Sweden are providing scientific equipment for the Chang'e 6 mission. For comparison, 29 countries are participating in the Artemis program, led by the Americans.
PARTNERSHIP IN QUESTION
It is worth noting that in the Chinese presentations on the MNLS in Baku, Russia appeared as an unnamed "international partner". Which probably reflects the need for Russia to clarify its lunar mission plans after the failure of Luna-25 in August this year.
Earlier, Roscosmos planned to launch the Luna-26 orbital station to the Moon in 2027. It was to be followed in 2028 and 2030 by the Luna-27 and Luna-28 descent vehicles to continue studying the lunar soil and delivering its samples to Earth. According to Yuri Borisov, the possibility of carrying out the Luna-26 and Luna-27 missions is now being considered even at an earlier date in order to get the necessary results as soon as possible.
Maxim Pyadushkin
Maxim Alexandrovich Pyadushkin is a journalist.