We are mostly familiar space race with these type of missions such as Artemis mission, which has circled the moon and there are plans to land there in future or the Mars mission as ‘Perseverance’ Which is going around the Jazeero Crater Trying to find signs of life over there. There are other missions also which are of China such as Chang-e mission different missions that went to the moon.
A new Space Race
There is some tension in space exploration many people like you and me think that our excitement about space is regarding science and in a way its vision is larger than countries. In fact is about humanity. Unfortunately much of the space development and the guess is the further development that will take place is because of competition among countries, which includes military applications, nationality etc and nationalism type of things that will take place is because of competition among countries.
Regarding this there is a stiff competition going on in space between China and America. Rather NASA (about who is discoveries we often talk) the head of NASA Bill Nelson a former astronaut has recently issued a statement is in which he said it is a fact we are in a space race. i’m not only days he added some other things also.
This statement comes as a suspicion. They are already saying if China reaches there it can say to us do not come here the moon is ours. The problem for me in this statement is they are already supposing that China wants to take the ownership of the moon and will occupy it. This thinking showing a big space race.
China Progressed last 30 years for Space Race
The reason for the talk of space race about China and America is China in the last 30 years has progressed a lot in space sector rather 30 years before. They had set a goal that China should have a space station by 2020 and that space station was completed last year in 2022.
But in the beginning there were many failures in China’s programme as you can expect in the beginning of every space programme. For example there were major rocket failures in 1991 in 1992 and in 1996 there was a big disaster when there rocket misfired and about 60 people were killed in the place where it fell.
China Space Station
We are mostly familiar with the international space station.
This is a cooperative venture in which America meaning NASA is a major partner. Beside that this is a cooperative venture in space of the Canadian space agency (CPA), European space agency (ESA), Japanese space agency, Russian space agency (ROSCOSMOS).
China in 2011 tried to join the international space station as a partner but the American Congress blocked it rather they signed and act which prevented NASA (by law) from cooperating with China, that is why China did not become a part of the international space station.
So China started making their own space station “Tiangong” and now at the end of 2022 the last module was made and now it is working in space and Chinese astronauts, also called Taikonauts are there now in this space station and powerful in space race.
This Chinese space station is less than half the size of the International Space Station. It weighs around a hundred tons, whereas the International Space Station weighs about 450 tons. As you might expect, the majority of the technology aboard the International Space Station dates from the nineteenth century. These things were larger than they are now, as many electronics have shrunk. The computer’s efficiency has grown. As a result, the Chinese space station Tiangong is newer and more complex.
Three people can stay in it comfortably, and when another crew comes and overlaps accommodation for six people is available there.
You are seeing here picture of Tiangong space station. This is looking like a very slick space station. I would like to point out a small detail. Look at the bottom. You can see some footholds. These are so that when astronauts put their feet into it they will not float in the space station but remain grounded.
Because of the American blockage of the Chinese from the International space Station. China in reaction to, it has explicitly given a statement that their is space station is open for all UN members in fact welcoming. And they have already planned about 1000 scientific experiments over there and 17 countries. Now this reaction we know it’s a big space race.
Xuntian Space Telescope
One significant addition to the Tiangong space station is expected on December 23 at the end of this year and that is Xuntian space telescope. its a key to strong space race.
This space telescope is comparable to the size of Hubble space telescope. The size of the mirror of Xuntian space telescope is 2 meters. The mirror of the Hubble space telescope was 2.4 meters. But its (Xuntian) camera because it is new and more sophisticated is 2.5 Gigapixel and it can see more area of the sky at one time compared to the Hubble space telescope.
One of its main goal is to survey 42% of the whole sky . This server is in visible light which we are mostly familiar. We also call it article light on which Hubble space telescope worked mostly, in these wavelength and in ultra violet. This is the first time that any telescope will be able to conduct this type of survey in ultraviolet with so much resolution. Now you can imagine how many big space race between America and China.
This Xuntian space telescope will very nicely complement the James Webb space telescope because James Webb space telescope will primarily work in infrared. Infrared and then visible and then the unique capability of Xuntian ultraviolet this way, it will be very beneficial for astronomers.
Chang’e Mission to the Moon
The moon program of the Chinese space program deserve special mention. The particle thing was the Chinese systematic approach, Chang’e mission is the name which went to the moon, the first orbiter Chang’e 1 was in 2007. Now we can say China completely comfortable entry in space race.
Some specific missions were Chang’e 3 which went there in December 2013. This was a rover. But in 2019 china sent a Chang’e 4 mission. Which on the far side of moon we do not call it the dark side we call it the far side. The Chang’e 4 mission landed on the far side. This is the first time a rover of any country was launched for the far side.
Recently Chang’e 5 the fifth and Mission of this series not only landed on the moon it brought samples from the moon, and these are the first samples of the Moon after 1972 that is for 50 years no sample came from there. The samples present were of the Apollo mission. Chang’e 5 discovered other things. China’s mission brought samples from that place where the Apollo missions did not go.
Chang’e 5 landed on a lava field which was relatively young compared to the Apollo landing sites (it is named Oceanus Procellarum), and found out that this is lava flawed on the moon 2 billion years before which is a little unexpected because from the samples brought by Apollo, it seemed most of the lava was 3 billion years old.
In fact a crystal vase also discovered in Chang’e 5 samples about which it was not known that this minerals is present there.
This is a phosphate mineral and now its official name is Changesite and its symbol is Y capital (Y).
Chinese New Mission on Moon’s south pole
China’s further few missions to the Moon are to watch the moon’s south pole and there is much interest about it because the Artemis program of NASA is also directed towards the south pole of the moon.
Therefore one mission of China Chang’e 7 will go there and it is a rover, it is also an orbiter. And the idea is a flying small sort of like you know orbiter will be near the surface. And then Chang’e 6 will bring this ice sample to Earth.
Eventually Chang’e 8 it will probably go there by 2030, I will check out 3-D technology to make things from the material present there. The moon program of China is very ambitious.
Tianwen-1 & Zhurong Rover on Mars
You must be knowing about the perseverance rover. China with which there was a rover also reached there. Its orbiter Tianwen-1 is still orbiting there and its rover Zhurong reached Mars.
You are seeing a picture now. The camera took its selfie (in a sense). It worked for a few months and as you can expect it made different type of discoveries. This was not in the area of Perseverance but there is another area of Mars named Utipia Planetia.
It us there where Viking landed in the 70’s. The Zhurong rover has a special thing. It has a radar mapper meaning it can map out below the surface of mars what is there and what types of things are present there.
It discovered that probably in this area the area of Utopia Planetia there was a big flood about 1.6 billion years ago and before that there was another big flooding about 3 billion years ago. This is in a way a big discovery made by Zhurong Rover.
It is the story about Space Race of Chiana how many problems face by china to Space Race and China success in Space Race.
