Nearly 70 space launches were completed throughout the year, and China's aerospace industry delivered a brilliant report card

Aerospace science and technology chapter of China's science and technology inventory at the end of 2023

China's aerospace has delivered a brilliant report card

In 2023, China's aerospace industry can be described as colorful. The number of space launches completed throughout the year will approach 70, becoming a new milestone for China's aerospace industry.

In the coming year, China's aerospace science and technology workers will continue to promote aerospace science and technology innovation and make major breakthroughs in the development of launch vehicle engines, solid-fuel rockets, and repeatable spacecraft; continue to promote China's major aerospace flagship projects such as the manned space project and the Beidou project, and build large-scale space infrastructure; continue to promote the construction of constellations such as remote sensing satellites and communication satellites, so that China's aerospace can better benefit the people; continue to promote international space science and technology cooperation and exchanges, and make China's aerospace "circle of friends" Constantly expanding.

The space station operates safely and efficiently

In the field of manned space engineering, China has successively carried out three manned spacecraft missions and two cargo spacecraft missions, and a number of astronaut crews have been stationed in the "Tiangong" to carry out a wealth of space science experiments and complete many out-of-cabin activities, especially a number of extravehicular operations. The practice of the past year has shown that as an advanced space scientific research infrastructure, China's Tiangong space station is safe and efficient in normal operation.

This year, through the manned flight mission of the Shenzhou spacecraft, many people are familiar with several new flying heroes, they are Deng Qingming and Zhang Lu of the Shenzhou 15 crew, Zhu Yangzhu and Gui Haichao of the Shenzhou 16 crew, and Tang Shengjie and Jiang Xinlin of the Shenzhou 17 crew. Although it was the first time to fly and appeared in the public eye, they all successfully completed the tasks they undertook under the leadership of the crew commander and participated in creating many firsts in China's aerospace.

As the astronaut crew with the largest average age at the time of the mission, Fei Junlong, Deng Qingming, Zhang Lu and the Shenzhou-14 crew completed China's first "space rendezvous" and completed four out-of-cabin activities one after another, setting a new record for a single crew of Chinese astronauts. On June 4, the three-person return capsule successfully landed in good condition. In order to commend them for their outstanding achievements in China's manned space program, the CPC Central Committee, the State Council, and the Central Military Commission decided to award Fei Junlong the "Medal for Meritorious Service in Aerospace of the Second Class," the honorary titles of "Heroic Astronauts" to Deng Qingming and Zhang Lu, and the "Medal for Meritorious Service in Aerospace of the Third Class."

On September 21, the fourth lesson of "Tiangong Classroom" was held on the Chinese space station, and "space teachers" Jing Haipeng, Zhu Yangzhu and Gui Haichao demonstrated the spherical flame experiment, the wonderful "table tennis" experiment, the momentum conservation experiment and the gyroscope experiment in orbit, and vividly explained the scientific principles behind the experiment. On October 31, the three-person crew returned to the ground safely, and the Shenzhou-16 manned mission was a complete success, taking an important step in the transformation of China's manned space program from construction to application and from input to output. The Shenzhou-17 crew, composed of Tang Hongbo, Tang Shengjie and Jiang Xinlin, set a record for the youngest average age since the start of China's space station construction mission, and they recently carried out the first experimental extravehicular maintenance operation of the space station, which has raised the capability and level of extravehicular activities of China's manned space flight to a new height.

The Tianzhou cargo spacecraft is one of the important supports for the normalized operation of the "Tiangong". This year, Tianzhou-5 and Tianzhou-6 flew into the sky one after another, providing sufficient material support and experimental materials and equipment for the space station. It is worth mentioning that the Tianzhou-6 launched in May is the first ship of China's improved cargo spacecraft, which is the world's largest cargo transportation capacity and the most comprehensive cargo spacecraft in orbit, and its cargo carrying capacity has been increased from the original 6.9 tons to 7.4 tons, so that the cargo loading capacity of China's cargo spacecraft has been increased to more than 7 tons for the first time, which has reduced its frequency from 4 in 2 years to 3 in 2 years, improving the support capacity of China's space station and reducing operating costs. In fact, the effectiveness of the new Tianzhou has been initially reflected, and it is with the sufficient support capacity provided by Tianzhou-6 that the launch of Tianzhou-7 can be arranged in 2024, instead of the previous one, before the launch of a new manned spacecraft, a cargo spacecraft must be launched first, so as to prepare enough materials for the new flight crew during their stay in orbit.

This year, China's Tiangong space station completed two significant upgrades. First, the propellant of the power system in orbit was smoothly replenished. In mid-June, with the cooperation of heaven and earth, the on-orbit installation of the air cylinder of the "Tiangong" electric propulsion system was successfully completed, and the propellant - xenon was replenished, which is of great significance for the long-term orbit maintenance and safe and stable flight of the space station. Second, the oxygen resources of the space station are 100% regenerated. Tiangong has introduced a series of sophisticated instruments and equipment, including high-efficiency chemical absorbents, precise gas processing equipment and automatic control systems, etc., to achieve 100% renewable oxygen. This is a major breakthrough in China's aerospace science and technology, marking a significant progress in the field of space life support.

Space exploration capabilities continue to improve

As big as the rocket is capable of, the arena of astronautics is as big as it is. In the past year, Chinese astronauts have continued to work hard to develop new and higher-performance carrier rockets and further enhance their space exploration capabilities, and have made remarkable achievements.

From late April to early June, the Sixth Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) reported good news one after another. First, the test bench of the 700-ton liquid rocket engine, the largest thrust in Asia, was successfully commissioned and officially put into engineering application; after that, the main engine of China's manned lunar landing rocket, the 130-ton pump swing liquid oxygen kerosene engine, completed the sixth test run, with a cumulative test time of 3,300 seconds, creating a new record for a single test run of China's 100-ton engine.

On October 20, the Fourth Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation released six solid-propellant rocket engines. Compared with liquid rocket engines, solid rocket engines have simple structure and low cost, and the rocket launch preparation period and rapid response ability of rockets equipped with this type of engine are shorter. The institute said that it will be based on the technical needs of large and heavy-duty launch vehicles for large solid booster engines in the future, carry out research on segmented engines with a diameter of 3.5 meters, and realize the capacity requirements of rocket engines with thrust of 550 tons to 1,500 tons, so as to provide more power options for China's lunar exploration, Mars exploration and manned space missions.

"Reusable" is one of the keywords for China's aerospace industry to promote innovation in 2023. On November 2, at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, China's first full-scale one-stage vertical take-off and landing and reusable flight test of a liquid rocket was successful. On December 10, the rocket successfully completed the take-off and landing flight test again, flying up to about 350 meters, then falling and completing the traverse, and finally landed steadily at a distance of 50 meters from the take-off point. In addition to the rocket, there is also a Chinese test spacecraft that is "reusable". On May 8, after 276 days in orbit, the test spacecraft returned to the scheduled landing site, and the test was a complete success. On 14 December, a reusable test spacecraft was launched, and according to the plan, it will operate in orbit for a period of time, carry out reusable technology verification and space experiments, and then return to the intended landing site.

This year, China made new breakthroughs in space electric propulsion technology. In mid to early June, the high-power Hall thruster developed by the Fifth Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation was successfully ignited for the first time on a large-scale electric propulsion vacuum test equipment, achieving stable work with high indicators and wide range. The specific impulse of the electric propulsion system is greatly improved compared with the traditional chemical agent propulsion, and the replacement of chemical power with electric propulsion means that the amount of fuel carried by the spacecraft is greatly reduced, which is a far-reaching space power revolution. The core module of China's Tiangong space station is equipped with four Hall electric propulsion engines, which is also the first time that electric propulsion has been used on a human manned spacecraft. As an important technical route in the field of international advanced space propulsion, high-power Hall electric propulsion has good application prospects in various space missions such as manned spaceflight, cargo spacecraft, interplanetary exploration, and sample return.

After the "three-step" conclusion of the Chang'e lunar exploration project, China's manned lunar exploration project has been attracting much attention, and relevant information has been released to the outside world. In May, the China Manned Space Engineering Office said that the lunar landing phase of China's manned lunar exploration project has been launched, and the overall goal of the mission is to achieve the first landing of Chinese on the moon by 2030, carry out lunar scientific investigation and related technical experiments, make breakthroughs in mastering key technologies such as manned land-to-moon round-trip, short-term stay on the lunar surface, and man-machine joint exploration, and complete "landing, patrolling, mining, research, and return" It will promote the leapfrog development of manned space technology from near-earth to deep space, deepen mankind's understanding of the origin and evolution of the moon and the solar system, and contribute Chinese wisdom to the development of lunar science. In July, China's preliminary plan for a manned lunar landing was released to the public, revealing the general process of taking off from the ground to landing and scientific research on the lunar surface, and then to the lunar surface ascent to return to Earth.

In terms of space exploration planning, in early March, the Lunar Exploration and Space Engineering Center of the China National Space Administration issued a relevant notice pointing out that the Tianwen-2 mission has been officially approved by the state, and it is planned to return to Earth from a near-Earth asteroid sample through a launch, and then go to the main belt comet 311P in the asteroid belt to carry out companion exploration.

Space science data are being released one after another

2023 is a bumper year for China's space exploration, and the scientific research projects such as the Chang'e lunar exploration project, the Mars exploration project, and the manned space exploration project, which have been implemented diligently over the years, have achieved rich scientific exploration data and fruitful scientific research results, and have been released to the outside world one after another.

In the field of Chang'e lunar exploration project, the relevant parties have released nearly 10 Chang'e-4 scientific exploration data this year. For example, on December 4, the ground application system of the lunar exploration project publicly released the 39th batch of scientific data of Chang'e-4. These data were acquired by the Chang'e-4 lander and the four scientific payloads carried by the rover during the 57th to 59th lunar day, with a total amount of 1043.6 MB, specifically the data obtained by two lunar surface neutron and radiation dose detectors on the lander, and the data obtained by one panoramic camera, one infrared imaging spectrometer, and two neutral atom detectors on the rover. Scientists have made new achievements in the study of the lunar soil retrieved by Chang'e-5. In October, the research team and collaborators from the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences carried out a fine structure study of sulfides in basalt and breccia particles of lunar soil samples, revealing that the nickel pyrite in the lunar basalt and breccia was formed by dissolution from meteorite iron, and speculated that the formation of nickel pyrite in the breccia may be related to the impact of foreign meteorites.

For its outstanding contribution to mankind's understanding of the moon, China's Chang'e-5 team was awarded the Laureus Team Award during the 74th International Astronautical Congress in October.

In the field of Mars exploration engineering, the relevant parties carried out 10 Tianwen-1 scientific exploration data releases this year. For example, on July 3, the ground application system of the first Mars exploration mission announced the scientific data obtained by 12 scientific payloads, including the high-resolution camera carried on the Tianwen-1 probe, in 2022, with a total of 1563.4GB.

At the launching ceremony of the main event of "China Space Day" held on April 24, China's first Mars exploration global image map of Mars was officially released. According to the relevant rules, the International Astronomical Union named 22 of these geographical entities after famous historical and cultural villages and towns with a Chinese population of less than 100,000. The global image map of Mars is in color, including the orthographic projection map of the eastern and western hemispheres of Mars, the Robinson projection map and the Mercator projection plus azimuth projection map made according to the cartographic standard, with a spatial resolution of 76 meters, which will provide a better quality basic base map for the Mars exploration project and Mars scientific research. It is worth mentioning that in April and May, Chinese scientists found that there was liquid water on Mars by analyzing the data of the "Zhurong" rover.

In the field of manned space engineering, on 18 August, relevant departments held a press conference to introduce the progress and achievements made in the fields of space science, space applications, and space technology since the establishment and implementation of the manned space project, especially during the construction of the space station. It is reported that the space station has arranged for the implementation of 110 space science research and application projects in orbit, involving space life science and human research, microgravity physics and new space technology, obtained nearly 100 terabytes of raw data, and downlink nearly 300 experimental samples, some of which have achieved phased application results. The research results of space life science are directly applied to biomaterials, drugs, medical treatment and agricultural technology, and the research results of microgravity fluids, combustion and materials science have contributed to solving the problem of national material shortcomings and improving the production and processing technology of related products.

It is commendable that an amorphous alloy preparation method obtained in the space laboratory has been widely used in the mass production parts of new energy vehicles and intelligent terminal equipment.

Commercial space is gaining momentum

A distinctive feature of China's aerospace development in 2023 is that commercial aerospace has maintained a rapid development momentum, and private aerospace has sprung up. According to incomplete statistics, as of December 15, China's aerospace industry has carried out 17 space launch activities related to commercial space this year, and the leading roles are both commercial launch vehicles and various types of commercial satellites.

The Ceres-1 launch vehicle has shone this year, with the number of flights increased significantly from four in three years to at least seven in one year, including one sea launch, sending a total of about 20 satellites into space. As a small solid commercial launch vehicle developed by Beijing Galaxy Power Equipment Technology Co., Ltd., a private aerospace company, Ceres-1 was successfully launched for the first time in November 2020, and after several years of honing, it has become a rookie of China's commercial rockets.

In July, the Suzaku 2 rocket developed by Beijing Blue Arrow Space Technology Co., Ltd., a private aerospace company, was successfully launched, becoming the world's first liquid oxygen methane rocket to successfully put a payload into a predetermined orbit, marking a major breakthrough in the application of new low-cost liquid propellants for China's launch vehicles. In December, the rocket made persistent efforts and successfully carried out the launch mission of 1 arrow and 3 satellites. At a press conference held after the launch, the company said that the new model of the reusable rocket, Suzaku III, will make its first flight in 2025.

This year, a number of rockets of private aerospace companies, such as Tianlong-2, Hyperbola-1, and Lijian-1, have successfully carried out launch missions. In addition, China's national aerospace team continues to expand into the field of commercial rockets, and the Aerospace Science and Technology Group and the Aerospace Science and Industry Group have carried out a number of commercial satellite launches with the Long March-2D and Kuaizhou-1A as the main models, respectively. With multi-party participation and friendly competition, China's commercial rocket field has shown increasing vigor and vitality.

In 2023, China's most notable commercial satellite company is undoubtedly Jilin Changguang Satellite. In June, the company cooperated with relevant parties to successfully realize the launch, tracking and control and networking of 1 arrow and 41 satellites, which further completed the Jilin No. 1 constellation that it was striving to build, and provided higher quality remote sensing information and product services for various fields such as homeland security, geographic surveying and mapping, land planning, agriculture and forestry production, ecological and environmental protection, and smart cities. Not only that, Changguang Satellite cooperated with the Aerospace Information Innovation Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences to carry out a successful satellite-to-ground laser high-speed communication test in July, laying the foundation for China's satellite-to-ground communication system to expand from microwave to laser.

In the field of building low-orbit communication satellite constellations, judging from the information disclosed so far, there are not only the Hongyun Project, the Hongyan Project, and the Star Network Project of China's aerospace "national team", but also the satellite constellations launched by commercial companies, such as the Apocalypse Constellation. On September 5, a new batch of Apocalypse constellation satellites was successfully launched into orbit. According to the plan, a low-orbit satellite IoT constellation composed of 38 satellites and several ground stations will eventually be built to build a low-orbit satellite IoT ecosystem integrating heaven and earth.

International space cooperation has yielded fruitful results

Exploring the mysteries of the universe is the common pursuit of mankind, and developing the space industry is the common aspiration of mankind. In the past year, China has continued to promote international space cooperation and exchanges, and through bilateral and multilateral channels, major space projects have been used as a platform for cooperation, mobilized the enthusiasm of various official and non-governmental forces, and joined hands with international partners to explore space and develop space resources. According to the recent announcement by the relevant person in charge of the China National Space Administration at the 2023 International Symposium on the Peaceful Uses of Space Technology, China has signed more than 150 space cooperation documents with more than 50 countries and international organizations.

The sharing of space samples and data is an important aspect of China's international space cooperation. At the launching ceremony of the main event of the 2023 "China Space Day", the China National Space Administration announced that China has each donated 1.5 grams of lunar samples for scientific use to Russia and France. These lunar samples were collected from the moon by the Chinese side during the Chang'e-5 mission. In addition, scientists from some countries such as Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Sweden and other countries have participated in the scientific research of Chinese lunar samples. On April 12, China announced that some of the data from the quasi-real-time observation of China's first comprehensive solar exploration satellite, Kuafu-1, will be open to domestic and foreign countries without discrimination, enabling data sharing. At the same time, China has also launched the Kuafu-1 International Visiting Scholar Program to encourage international cooperation and research based on the observation data of Kuafu-1.

The Tiangong space station is an important platform for China to promote international space cooperation. Long before the Tiangong was built in orbit, China repeatedly expressed its openness and cooperation to the international community, and opened up the application and selection of international cooperation projects. At a press conference held in August, a spokesperson for China's manned space program said that the first batch of international cooperation project payloads will be carried out on the space station, and 10 space application projects jointly implemented with ESA are progressing in an orderly manner. He also extended an invitation to foreign astronauts to enter China's space station for experiments. It is believed that in the near future, foreign astronauts will appear in the "Tiangong" and travel in space together with their Chinese counterparts.

Aerospace science and technology assistance is an important form for China to promote international space cooperation. China Aerospace actively participates in the construction of the "Belt and Road" and is committed to building the "Space Silk Road", cultivating local aerospace talents for partners, promoting space technology transfer, building local spacecraft development infrastructure, and launching satellites. Space cooperation between China and Egypt is a good example of this form.

In late June, the Egyptian Satellite Assembly and Integration Test Center, which was built by China, completed the final acceptance audit, making Egypt the first country in Africa to have this capability. On December 4, the Egypt-2 satellite, jointly developed by China and Egypt, was successfully launched. The satellite will be mainly used for Egypt's land and resources census to meet the needs of the country's users in the fields of agriculture, forestry, urban construction, environment and disaster monitoring, and will greatly promote Egypt's economic development and social progress.

This year, the International Lunar Research Station plans to welcome a number of new partners from South Africa, Belarus, Pakistan, Egypt and so on. China has proposed this plan and will work with many countries to jointly implement it, and work together to build a comprehensive scientific experiment facility on the lunar surface and lunar orbit that can operate autonomously and participate in the short term, and can be expanded and maintained, so as to reveal more secrets of the moon. (People's Daily Overseas Edition)

Source: People's Daily Overseas Edition