A number of recent space stories by Chinese news outlets underscore that country’s multi-step space exploration agenda.
Early this week, Xinhua news service reported that Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao attended an unveiling ceremony for pictures of the Moon’s Sinus Iridum — or Bay of Rainbows – snapped by China’s new lunar orbiter Chang’e-2.
That site is being targeted for a robotic landing by Chang’e-3.
China’s Central Television reported that China will launch the Tiangong 1 target spacecraft and an unpiloted Shenzhou VIII spacecraft in the near future.
These two spacecraft will undertake China’s first docking mission, a necessary step to orbiting a human-occupied space laboratory.
In the robotic exploration of deep space, China’s own deep space network will take shape in the next three to five years – an effort to support its exploration of the solar system, according to China Daily.
In fact, the Chang’e-2 mission now orbiting the Moon will test X-band telemetry, tracking and a control system, a key technology in the deep space network.
As part of the deep space network, it was reported that two ground tracking stations with large antennae are currently under construction in the country – one in Kashgar in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region and the other in Jiamusi in Heilongjiang province.
According to China Daily, Ye Peijian, a consultant to the chief designer engaged in the Chang’e-2 lunar orbiter system, China is capable of independently exploring Mars and Venus. Backing up his statement, he outlined a feasible route for China to explore Mars in 2013 and Venus in 2015, followed by a manned flight to the Moon in 2025.
By Leonard David