The Mainland Foreign Ministry recently made a statement: The Chinese space station welcomes foreign astronauts to visit and jointly explore the mysteries of the universe. As soon as these words came out, they aroused the attention and heated discussion of foreign media, and they praised China's achievements in aerospace and the demeanor of having the responsibility of a big country.
So the question is, when will foreign astronauts come to the continental space station?
First of all, the continental space station has not yet completed the construction of the space station, and it is still in the process of construction. The successful completion of the Shenzhou 13 mission means that the construction of the continental space station has made a comprehensive breakthrough in key technologies, laying a solid foundation for the construction of the next space station.
Status of the continental space station construction
In the next 8 months, the mainland will complete 6 major launches, including 2 Tianzhou cargo spacecraft, 2 Shenzhou spacecraft manned flight missions, and 2 experimental module launches. These six launches alone will have a total payload of more than 80 tons, which is likely to exceed the total orbital mass of all countries except the United States and Russia in 2022.
The next phase of space station construction is led by Shenzhou XIV, which is scheduled to launch in June. During the entire Shenzhou XIV mission, the mainland will complete the construction of the entire space station, with a duration of about half a year. That is to say, the mainland will complete the construction of the space station by the end of 2022, and the progress is exactly in line with the previous plan.
During the construction of the space station, there will certainly be no foreign astronauts coming. The mainland is a traditional country of hospitality, and the guests must be cleaned up at home and picked up cleanly.
Clean and tidy interior of the Continental Space Station
After Shenzhou XIV, the continental space station will enter the official operation state, and it is expected to adopt a rotation system of two shifts per year, and Shenzhou 15 will be the first spacecraft on the mainland to be stationed after the space station is complete.
Of course, if foreign astronauts want to come to the continental space station, they must be familiar with the use process and basic operation of the continental space station, and must come to the mainland for training. In 2017, a German astronaut Maurer and an Italian astronaut, Samantha CristoFretti, came to China for a 2-week training.
Foreign astronauts come to China for training
However, these trainings are stipulated in the 2015 China-EU Space Cooperation Agreement, and the two sides send 2 astronauts to participate in each other's space activities, but this is also the beginning of China-EU manned space cooperation.
If foreign astronauts want to go to the continental space station, they will definitely need to participate in additional training. Among them, it will look at the Chinese instructions, speak Mandarin, or will be a general requirement.
According to the mainland's previous regulations, the Chinese space station will be open to all UN member states, which is also the first time in human history that a similar project will be carried out, which shows the mainland's determination to peacefully develop space and jointly explore the universe.
Astronauts from various countries on the International Space Station
At present, there are 9 projects in 17 countries and 23 entities, becoming the first batch of cooperative projects for scientific experiments on the continental space station. In the future, more countries will participate in the continental space station cooperation project, including sending people to the continental space station.
One might say that opening up to all UN member states would not be the same as opening up to the United States?
Yes in principle, but in practice, it is not possible, because the United States introduced a "Wolf Clause" in 2011, which restricted cooperation with China's aerospace and imposed "shackles" on itself. Therefore, it seems impossible for Americans to come to the Chinese space station.
Space station docking diagram
Our space station must first meet the needs of the mainland's space research, so foreign astronauts have to wait to come to the continental space station, and it is optimistic that it will be a few years later.