China has outlined a series of ambitious new plans for space exploration, including the goal of exploring potentially habitable planets beyond the Solar System by 2030.
The President of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), Mr. Wu Yansheng, revealed that by 2025, the country plans to launch exploration probes to investigate near-Earth asteroids and the main belt of comets. Additionally, in the next 10 to 15 years, China will conduct a sample collection mission on Mars.
According to Mr. Wu Yansheng, China also plans to carry out surveys of Jupiter and Uranus, as well as the Solar System and its boundaries. By 2030, the country intends to launch a mission named “Search for Voices” to explore whether there are any planets outside the Solar System suitable for human habitation.
CASC also stated that China is developing a next-generation crewed launch vehicle to meet the long-term strategic needs for lunar exploration. This vehicle is a 90-meter tall, 5-meter diameter, three-and-a-half stage launch platform, weighing approximately 2,187 tons at launch. It is expected to have its first flight in 2027.
A new heavy-lift rocket model, the Long March 9, is also in development. This super rocket has a diameter of 10 meters and a height of 110 meters, capable of carrying a payload of 150 tons into low Earth orbit and 50 tons into the lunar transfer orbit (LTO). The first flight of Long March 9 is anticipated around 2030.
An image taken at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Northwest China on November 30 shows the Shenzhou-15 spacecraft successfully docked with the Tiangong space station. (Photo: THX/TTXVN)
Mr. Wu also shared the latest advancements in China’s fourth phase lunar exploration mission. The Chang’e-6 probe is set to travel to the far side of the Moon around 2025. The far side of the Moon is the hemisphere that always “faces away” from Earth.
The Chang’e-7 mission is expected to survey the environment and study resources at the Moon’s South Pole around 2026. Alongside Chang’e-7, Chang’e-8 will be launched around 2028 to establish the fundamental structure for the International Lunar Research Station.
China is also developing a “Lunar Internet” that integrates data relay, navigation, and remote sensing functions, with the hope that future astronauts, space engineers, and scientists sent to the lunar research station can use the internet to post on social media just like on Earth.
The Global Times reports that China is also eyeing reusable spacecraft to facilitate low-cost, reliable, and flexible transportation between Earth and outer space.
Mr. Wu emphasized: “Our goal is to make China one of the world’s leading space powers by 2030 and to promote China as a strong space power by 2045.”
On Chinese Space Day (April 24) in 2019, President Xi Jinping wrote a letter to senior space scientists, encouraging them to “enhance and expand space exploration while rapidly transforming China into a space power.”
In recent decades, China has gradually built its own space station named Tiangong, modeled after the International Space Station (ISS). Tiangong is positioned 161 km higher than the ISS and is one-fifth its size.
In the future, the Tiangong space station is expected to host up to 6 modules, which is still considered modest compared to the ISS, which has 17 modules including 8 from the USA, 6 from Russia, 2 from Japan, and one from Europe.
