China Aerospace, hardcore forward!

◎ Science and Technology Daily intern reporter Du Peng

On the morning of January 28, the State Council New Office held a press conference on the white paper "2021 China's Aerospace" in Beijing. This is the fifth space white paper released by the mainland, with a full text of about 13,000 words and a body that includes six parts. Chang'e Moon, Beidou Guiding, Zhu Rong Exploring Fire, Xihe Day by Day... The white paper details the leapfrog development achievements of China's aerospace since 2016, as well as the practical achievements of promoting the modernization of space governance and actively carrying out international space exchanges and cooperation. At the same time, the white paper also looks forward to the next 5 development goals, including promoting the construction of the International Lunar Research Station.

Photo by Liu Jian

The results of innovative development are remarkable

Wu Yanhua, deputy director of the China National Space Administration, said that the past five years have been five years of China's aerospace innovation and development. A set of figures can intuitively reflect the great achievements of China's aerospace industry in the past five years.

In the past five years, the Long March series of carrier rockets has carried out a total of 207 launches, with a launch success rate of 96.7%. At the same time, the speed of rocket upgrading has been accelerating, a new generation of non-toxic and non-polluting carrier rockets represented by the Long March 5 has been put into use, and commercial carrier rockets have emerged, forming a diversified launch capability on land and at sea.

The third phase of the lunar exploration project was successfully concluded, and the "circling, falling and returning" was successfully realized. Among them, "Chang'e-4" for the first time to achieve lunar landing patrol detection, "Chang'e 5" brought back 1731 grams of lunar soil. The analysis and research on the lunar soil brought back by Chang'e 5 has deduced the timeline of lunar geological activity from the original internationally recognized 3 billion years to 2 billion years, making the moon "younger" by about 1 billion years.

In addition, according to Wu Yanhua, there are currently more than 500 satellites of various types working on the mainland, which have widely served the development of various fields of economy and society. For example, the communication satellite has provided distance education, telemedicine, rural e-commerce and other services for more than 140 million families in rural and remote areas, effectively helping poverty alleviation and rural revitalization. Satellite data such as Gaofen No. 1 and No. 6 are also distributed to the world free of charge through the cloud platform, visiting 158 countries and regions and about 550,000 users. At the same time, China has 5 satellites and 3 constellations that have newly joined the International Charter for Disaster Reduction Mechanism, and meteorological satellite data has been applied to 121 countries and regions.

Spaceflight empowers social development

"Some time ago, there was a volcanic eruption in Tonga, and the China National Space Administration launched the Earth observation satellite system in an emergency, mobilized more than ten satellites for high-frequency observation, and provided relevant image data to international organizations in a timely manner to contribute to China's strength." Zhao Jian, director of the Earth Observation and Data Center of the China National Space Administration, said that at present, aerospace technology has been widely used in various economic and social fields such as land resources survey, environmental protection, disaster prevention and mitigation, and meteorological forecasting, and the beautiful life created by aerospace science and technology has entered thousands of households. For example, he said, satellite navigation and positioning has become an indispensable helper in people's daily lives, which greatly facilitates people's transportation and travel, changes people's production and lifestyle; the accurate weather forecast provided by meteorological satellites in the world and specific regions provides a warm and thoughtful meteorological guarantee for people's food, clothing, housing and transportation.

On the other hand, Zhao Jian also frankly said that the development of aerospace does require higher investment, the mainland attaches great importance to the development of aerospace, and the people of the whole country have also given strong support to the development of aerospace. However, compared with the input, the various benefits generated by aerospace and its applications are even greater, and according to preliminary statistics, the input-output ratio of the aerospace industry can reach more than 1:10. In particular, the application of new aerospace technologies has brought about great changes in industrial development, and the transformation of aerospace technology achievements on the development of the national economy is very obvious, promoting the development of intelligent transportation, new energy and new materials, and playing an important role in supporting the comprehensive construction of a well-off society. Therefore, Zhao Jian believes that the high input of aerospace can bring high output, and the overall benefit is very significant.

The construction of the International Lunar Research Station has been carried out in an orderly manner

Wu Yanhua revealed that in March 2021, the Chinese and Russian governments have signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in the International Lunar Research Station, and many countries in the world are responding to the plan. She said that in general, like the earth's south pole station and the north pole station, the future tends to build ground scientific research facilities at the south pole of the moon, build scientific research experimental facilities on the lunar orbit and lunar surface, and carry out multidisciplinary and multi-objective scientific research work. The goal of the fourth phase of China's lunar exploration project is to initially build the basic type of international lunar research station. Among them, it takes about five years to complete the survey work before the construction of the station. It will take another ten years or so to complete the construction of the facilities. Wu Yanhua said that the International Lunar Research Station is like a small town, "it must have an energy system, a communication and navigation system, a long-distance transportation system, a heaven-earth round-trip system, a ground support system, and if there are people in the long term, there must be a life support system." ”

Next, the space agencies of China and Russia will also officially issue a declaration on the construction of an international lunar scientific research station to the world, and release the construction principles and participation purposes to the international community. "In general, at all stages of the task or project, including the various task levels of construction, whether it is system level, sub-system level or equipment level, or scientific data sharing research level, including the heaven and earth support level, we do not set limits, build together." Wu Yanhua said that the International Lunar Research Station is future-oriented and will focus on preliminary construction tasks before 2035. After 2035, scientific expeditions can be carried out on the moon in batches according to the scientific expeditions of various countries and organizations.