Moon exploration, Mars exploration, planetary exploration... What to look out for in my country's future deep space exploration

Xinhua News Agency, Hefei, April 24 , Title: Moon exploration, Mars exploration, planetary exploration... Highlights of China's future deep space exploration

Xinhua News Agency "Xinhua Viewpoint" reporter

April 24 is the eighth "China Space Day". The results of my country's first Mars exploration released at the main event in Hefei, Anhui Province have attracted widespread attention. At present, my country has successfully implemented the Chang'e-1 to Chang'e-5 missions, achieving the successful conclusion of the "orbit, land, and return" strategic plan of the lunar exploration project; implemented the first Mars exploration Tianwen-1 mission, and achieved the "orbit, land, and patrol" exploration of Mars in one step. What are the latest achievements of my country in the field of deep space exploration? What key projects will be implemented in the future?

"Xinhua Viewpoint" reporters interviewed Wu Weiren, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and chief designer of China's lunar exploration project, and Zhang Rongqiao, chief designer of my country's first Mars exploration mission, to analyze the future plans and highlights of my country's deep space exploration.

This is a collage of photos. The top photo is the "supermoon" taken on June 14, 2022 (Photo by Hu Panxue, Xinhua News Agency); the bottom photo is an orthogonal polarized microscopic photo of lunar soil particles on display taken on April 19, 2023. Xinhua News Agency

Chang'e lunar exploration: from sampling on the far side of the moon to forming the basic model of a lunar scientific research station

On September 9, 2022, Chinese scientists discovered a new mineral on the moon for the first time and named it "Chang'e Stone", making my country the third country in the world to discover a new mineral on the moon. "Chang'e Stone" was discovered from the 1,731 grams of lunar samples brought back to Earth by Chang'e 5.

Speaking of future lunar exploration plans, Wu Weiren said: "We hope that Chang'e-6 will collect more samples from the far side of the moon and strive to achieve the goal of 2,000 grams. If the sampling is successful, it will be the first time that humans have returned samples from the far side of the moon."

In the next five years, my country will continue to implement the lunar exploration project. The fourth phase of the lunar exploration project has been approved by the state and will include the Chang'e 6, Chang'e 7 and Chang'e 8 missions.

Chang'e 6 is scheduled to be launched around 2024, and Chang'e 7 is scheduled to be launched around 2026. Wu Weiren introduced that Chang'e 7 is preparing to land at the South Pole of the Moon. Its main task is to carry out flyby exploration and then try to find water.

"There are some very deep shadow craters at the south pole of the moon, and we think there may be water there," said Wu Weiren. Because there is no sunlight all year round, the water there may exist in the form of ice. It is hoped that after Chang'e-7 lands, it will be able to fly over one or two shadow craters for on-site inspection and try to find water.

Wu Weiren introduced that the Chang'e-8 mission is currently in the stage of deepening the demonstration of the plan and is ready to be launched around 2028. It will form a basic lunar scientific research station with the Chang'e-7 lunar probe, which will include a lunar orbiter, lander, lunar rover, flyby and several scientific detection instruments. The first is to find water, and the second is to detect the state of the lunar South Pole, its topography and the material composition of the environment. These are important tasks of the basic lunar scientific research station.

"We also plan to use the moon as our main base to establish a lunar Internet that integrates data relay, navigation, and remote sensing." Wu Weiren said that after these are integrated, some resources and probes on the moon can be effectively managed.

Lunar exploration is only the first step in the development of my country's deep space exploration plan. Wu Weiren introduced that the lunar exploration project will provide technical preparation and verification for my country's larger-scale deep space exploration.

"We have jointly launched the International Lunar Research Station project with relevant countries, and welcome international partners to participate in the cooperation." Wu Weiren said that in the future, the International Lunar Research Station may serve as a transit station for deep space exploration flying to the solar system or even deeper space.

In addition, my country will also carry out in-depth international exchanges and cooperation in the field of lunar exploration. The Chang'e-6 mission and asteroid exploration mission will provide opportunities to carry platforms and payload resources, and we are committed to working with more countries to make space exploration and space science and technology achievements contribute to creating a better future for mankind.

This is the orthographic projection of the eastern and western hemispheres of Mars released on April 24. On the same day, at the launch ceremony of the main event of "China Space Day" in 2023, the National Space Administration and the Chinese Academy of Sciences jointly released China's first global image of Mars exploration. Xinhua News Agency (Photo provided by the National Space Administration)

"Tianwen" Mars exploration: Continuously accumulate first-hand scientific exploration data

At the launch ceremony of the main event of "China Space Day" in 2023, the National Space Administration and the Chinese Academy of Sciences jointly released China's first global image map of Mars. The scientific achievements of the "Tianwen" Mars exploration have attracted widespread attention.

Zhang Rongqiao introduced that the medium-resolution camera of the Tianwen-1 mission orbiter carried out 284 orbits of remote sensing imaging over a period of 8 months from November 2021 to July 2022, achieving global coverage of the surface of Mars. The ground application system processed the 14,757 image data obtained to obtain a global image map of Mars.

"The 13 payloads of the Tianwen-1 mission have acquired a total of 1,800GB of raw scientific data, forming a standard data product." Zhang Rongqiao said that scientists have obtained a number of original scientific results through the study of first-hand scientific data.

A comprehensive study was conducted on the typical landforms such as concave cones, barrier craters, and grooves distributed in the landing area, revealing the important connection between the formation of the above landforms and water activity; through the study of Mars rover rut image data, mechanical parameters such as soil cohesion and bearing strength in the landing area were obtained, revealing the surface physical properties of the landing area... A number of scientific achievements made in my country's first Mars exploration have enriched mankind's understanding of the evolutionary history of Mars, the laws of environmental change, the causes of typical landforms on the Martian surface, and the physical processes of Martian atmospheric escape.

Zhang Rongqiao revealed that at present, the Tianwen-1 orbiter continues to carry out scientific exploration in the remote sensing mission orbit, continuously accumulating first-hand scientific exploration data, and three-dimensional stereo images of Mars are being produced and will be released to the public at an appropriate time.

Planetary exploration: Steady progress in various plans will reveal more mysteries of the starry sky

"Tianwen-1 is embarking on a new journey, and asteroid exploration is also progressing in an orderly manner." Zhang Rongqiao said that with the joint efforts of all parties, Tianwen-2 has basically completed the work of the prototype development stage. It is expected to be launched around 2025. It will carry out companion exploration of the near-Earth asteroid 2016HO3 and return samples.

"Because asteroids have almost no gravity, probes cannot fly around an asteroid and then land." Zhang Rongqiao said that when conducting exploration and sampling, they have to slowly chase the asteroid and get close to it, then collect samples from it and bring the asteroid samples back to Earth, so that they can know what the asteroid is made of.

In addition, my country is formulating a development plan to carry out asteroid defense missions and conduct detection and early warning of asteroids. Wu Weiren introduced that if it is predicted that there is a problem with the asteroid's orbit, it will be disposed of on orbit and finally rescued, which can be summarized as the eight-character policy of "detection, early warning, disposal and rescue".

"In the future, my country is also preparing to carry out interplanetary exploration of the Jupiter system and Uranus, as well as exploration of the sun and the edge of the solar system." Wu Weiren expressed the hope that we can launch our own probe to the edge of the solar system to see what the place where the solar wind and cosmic wind meet at the edge of the solar system looks like.

To achieve Mars sampling and send people to the moon and Mars, launch vehicles are indispensable. Wu Weiren said that launch vehicles play a very important role in the entire deep space exploration mission. The Long March 5 is currently my country's largest launch vehicle. The heavy-duty launch vehicle currently under research can reach a thrust of 4,000 tons, which is about 4 times the thrust of the Long March 5. It has been included in my country's deep space exploration schedule. (Reporters Song Chen, Hu Zhe, Xu Haitao, Wu Huijun)