China’s going to start sending parts of its future space station into space as soon as 2020, with the aim of having it up and running by 2022. The country’s space agency this week invited countries to come and carry out out research on the facility. While it’s a welcome gesture of international cooperation, particularly as the International Space Station starts winding down, it’s also a political jab at the US, which lent impetus to China’s dream of having its own space station by barring it from being able to use the ISS. “In a way, the lockout by foreign nations has helped China achieve innovation,” the station’s chief designer Yang Hong told state broadcaster CCTV (video). In recent months, the country’s space agency’s been surfacing tidbits about what the space station will look like and its capabilities. Here are its key features. What does it look like? China’s first space station will be made of three modules joined in a T shape, according to a handbook released Monday (May 28) (pdf, p.3) by China’s Manned Space Agency and the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs. The station will weigh some 66 metric tons (72 tons), which is around one-sixth of the International Space Station. When docked with manned spaceships and cargo vehicles, the station may reach around 100 metric tons (110 tons). The first module Tianhe-1, or “harmony of the heavens,“ was completed last year and will be launched first. Weighing some 20 metric tons (22 tons), it’ll be the core module of the space station, where astronauts will stay. The space station is by far the largest and most complex spacecraft China has built yet, Yang, the chief designer, told the state broadcaster (video, 25:03) Screengrab/CCTV The core module of China’s space station unveiled by state broadcaster CCTV. China built the space station from scratch, according to Yang, mostly because the country couldn’t use the ISS due to concerns over technology transfer and national security raised by the US, which led the development of the ISS with 14 other nations. It’s unclear how much China has spent on developing the space station, but it’s probably a safe guess that it’s been done quite economically. Much of the construction is being carried out by the country’s main space contractor, the China Aerospace Science and Technology Group (CASC), and its subsidiaries. NASA has spent over $100 billion on the International Space Station, with about $3 billion a year going on maintenance—about the same amount China spends every year on its entire space budget. (China’s scientists have proposed tripling the budget spent on space science, such as satellite development, to $2.6 billion for 2026 to 2030.) When will it be launched? The construction and launch of China’s space station is composed of several stages, similar to the International Space Station, which was put together over multiple trips starting in 1988. When completed, it will orbit at a height between 340 kilometers to 450 km (pdf, p.10). Tianhe-1 is expected to launch from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in southern China in 2020, according to Zhou Jianping (video, link in Chinese), chief designer of China’s manned spacecraft program, which includes building the space station. The other two experiment modules, Wentian, or “quest for the heavens,” and Mengtian, or “dreaming of the heavens,” will join it later. The space station could start operating in 2022. The station builds on the knowledge China gathered from its first space station prototype, the space lab Tiangong-1, which came crashing back to earth in April after spending six years in space. What will China do with it? It’s possible that at some point, for a brief span, China may be the only country with an operational space station. The ISS was originally planned for use to 2020, which was then extended to 2024. But by 2028, it will be defunct, NASA’s administrator has said. China expects to have its station in operation for at least 10 years. Up to six astronauts will be able to stay at a time for at least 180 days, and will explore topics such as how space living affects humans, microgravity physics, and material science. Beijing’s already portraying its station as a beacon of global cooperation—this week it said it will welcome other countries who want to conduct experiments aboard its space station. “The China Space Station belongs not only to China, but also to the world,” said Shi Zhongjun, China’s ambassador to the UN in Vienna. “Outer space should become a new domain for promoting the common interests of everyone, rather than a new battlefield for competition and confrontation. Guided by the idea of a shared future, the China space station will become a common home in space for all humankind.” Shi’s mention of “shared future” is a term the country’s president Xi Jinping has often used since taking power in 2012. China has been voicing the idea across basically every field of endeavor—from global trade to climate change. The concerns expressed by the US may hold back some nations from working with the Chinese station—but other countries with nascent space programs may well feel differently.<doc-sep>At a time when NASA and its partners are trying to decide how long to maintain the International Space Station, China has taken the significant step of inviting the world to its planned orbital station. The China Space Station, or CSS, could become operational as soon as 2022. "CSS belongs not only to China, but also to the world," said Shi Zhongjun, China's ambassador to the UN and other international organizations in Vienna. "All countries, regardless of their size and level of development, can participate in the cooperation on an equal footing." Such an announcement represents potentially the greatest soft power threat of the last six decades to US and Russian dominance of spaceflight. In the public announcement of this policy on China's state news service Xinhua, Chinese officials said the country stands ready to help other developing countries interested in space technology—and in having their own space programs. This inclusive approach (though just how inclusive an authoritarian government can be remains to be seen) offers a rebuke of sorts to the US government and the International Space Station. By law, the US forbids direct involvement between China's space program and NASA. Some at NASA want to change this, but Congress has established such rules to prevent technology transfer. Advertisement Europe already going Now that the ISS may go away as soon as 2025, when the White House wants to end most of NASA's $3 to $4 billion a year support for station activities, China sees an opportunity to position itself as an alternative to nations with programs that cannot get their own people and experiments into space. This includes both developing nations as well as NASA's longtime European partners. Already, European astronauts such as Samantha Cristoforetti, who spent 200 days in space in 2014 and 2015 aboard the International Space Station, have begun traveling to China to learn the language and train with their Chinese counterparts. "Just back from China, great week, many new friends," Cristoforetti tweeted last year. The European Space Agency has an agreement with China's Space Agency that should allow European astronauts to visit the Chinese space station in the 2020s. One of the biggest challenges for the Trump administration's space program will be how to meld its "America first" identity together with a long history of using NASA to foster meaningful partnerships around the world, including those with longtime rival Russia. The agency has sought to position its proposed "gateway" (a smaller version of the International Space Station) in orbit near the Moon as an environment for cooperation between both international and commercial partners. However, there is no guarantee the gateway facility will be built, and most of NASA's international partners would probably prefer to go directly to the Moon's surface instead. Ultimately, leading a human return to the Moon in the 2020s—before China reaches it with taikonauts in the 2030s—may be America's best answer to China's efforts to exert its influence in space.<doc-sep>China got the world's attention today by announcing the China Space Station (CSS), a new orbital station for the 2020s, will be open for international cooperation and experiments from researchers across the globe. Alongside this announcement, China also released an oft-overlooked handbook that details the CSS’s architecture and operation. Some of the contents has trickled out, but the nearly 30-page document contains among the best available info about what CSS will look like and how it'll work. In it, the Chinese space agency says the station “will become the main scientific and technological laboratory in low-Earth orbit.” Here’s a glimpse inside the construction and operation of the CSS, which may be constructed by 2022. China First For starters, the CSS will be smaller than the International Space Station. The document puts the total mass of CSS at about 66 tons, “and may reach approximately 100 tons when docked with several manned spaceships and cargo vehicles.” It will have room for three astronauts, with the ability to surge to six residents. By comparison, the ISS has a mass of 460 tons and is considered fully staffed at six people. The Chinese space station will sit at a nearly identical altitude to ISS, about 250 miles up. That's not surprising given the advantages of low-Earth orbit, which include easier resupply deliveries from the planet and the protection of the Earth’s magnetic field against cosmic radiation. However, China's station will be at a different inclination. Inclination means the angle where a space object resides as measured against the equator, and is one of the factors that determine the shape of any satellite’s orbit. The inclination also says something about the way a space station will be run. As one National Research Council document puts it: “In practice, the orbital inclination of a space station cannot be smaller than the latitude of the most-northern launch facility used to support assembly of or logistics for the space station. For a given launch site, the amount of useful payload that can be delivered to a space station decreases as the orbital inclination increases. Maximum launch vehicle capacity is achieved when the orbital inclination of the space station is the same as the latitude of the launch site.” The rocket carrying Shenzhou-11 spaceship blasts off in Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on October 17, 2016 in Jiuquan, China. Getty Images ISS sits at a 51.6-degree inclination, the lowest inclination that the Russians can reach with their Soyuz and Progress spacecraft. The easier the insertion, the more cargo the spacecraft can carry into orbit. The CSS will have an orbital inclination of about 41 degrees. This matches the latitude of the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, the Chinese spaceport that will deliver crew and cargo aboard the Long March CZ-2F launch system. Another Chinese spaceport at Wenchang will also launch rockets to the CSS. Even though it’s not at an ideal latitude, the Wenchang spaceport is on the coast and can process payloads delivered by seagoing ships. In other words, the CSS will be optimized for launches from Chinese spaceports, while its inclination would make life difficult for American and European launch providers. A Big T in Space Here's another difference from the ISS. The American method for building the International Space Station involved spacewalks to connect cables and piping. That won't happen with the CSS. Using a method used by the Russian space program, the CSS modules will be fully assembled when they get to orbit. The CSS’s three main module components are horizontally symmetrical, but the station will be T-shaped. The core module of CSS will be named Tianhe, or “Harmony of the Heavens.” This is where visiting Shenzhou and Tianzhou spacecraft will berth. (Sorry Boeing and SpaceX—your crew delivery vehicles likely won’t find a home here.) From inside the Command Module, CSS residents will operate two robotic arms to grapple spacecraft and payloads. “With the front end of the CM pointing in the flight direction, the CM is used to control and manage the Space Station’s assembly and to provide living quarters and work areas for the astronauts,” the document says. The core module of CSS will be named Tianhe, or “Harmony of the Heavens.” Forming the rest of the T-shape are two Experiment Modules, used to support space science research. They also seem to have room for crew quarters when the station is complete. “The EM I has the ability to manage and control the Space Station and act as a backup for some of the key platform functions of the CM,” the document says. “It is the astronauts' main living quarters and emergency shelter and can support onboard and outboard space experiments.” The crew can access space via an airlock, with those robotic arms available to help with outboard experiments and any other extravehicular activities. Science Mission The handbook lists a slew of research priorities, all of which are familiar avenues of space-based research. These include studying the effects of living in space, microfluidics, material science, astronomy, and microgravity physics. One interesting test chamber is dedicated to “combustion science” that will test new space engines. As for that international cooperation China proclaimed this week, the document makes it clear that China will be approving any experiments that come on board: “International Partners can only propose experiment schemes such as experimental samples, experimental units or experimental designs independently or in cooperation with the China Manned Space Agency and conduct experiments by using the experimental facilities or exposed payloads already developed by China or by adding extra relevant facilities." The Chinese are proposing to have a companion to the CSS floating nearby. This “Optical Module System” will be launched into orbit on its own and travel along the same orbit as CSS. It will “support multi-color photometry, seamless spectrum survey and Earth observation with multi-function optical capabilities.,” the handbook says. “If necessary, it can dock with the CSS for refueling, equipment maintenance, payload equipment upgrade and other maintenance activities.” This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io<doc-sep>
By the end of 2022, China hopes to have its biggest space station yet orbiting around Earth, and the country’s space agency wants other nations to use it. China is inviting all members of the United Nations to submit applications to fly experiments on board the future habitat, dubbed the China Space Station. It’s a major step toward international cooperation for China and its space program, which has mostly relied on domestic hardware and capabilities in the past. “The China Space Station belongs not only to China, but also to the world,” Shi Zhongjun, China’s ambassador to the UN, said in a statement about the initiative. As a guide for the decision, Zhongjun cited the 50-year-old Outer Space Treaty, which maintains that the exploration of space should be peaceful and benefit all countries. “The China Space Station belongs not only to China, but also to the world.” United Nations members have three options for how to use the China Space Station: researchers can create their own experiments to be flown inside or outside the habitat or they can utilize the lab facilities that China will install inside the station. Institutions like universities, private companies, and public organizations have been asked to send in their proposals by August 31st, 2018. China and the UN are placing particular emphasis on applications from developing countries. China has flown a few payloads developed by other nations before, but its space program has mostly been insular. Recently, the country has signaled that it wants to expand its relationships with other countries in the realm of space. In the last couple of years, for example, China and the European Space Agency have been training a few of their astronauts together, with the goal of someday sending a European astronaut to stay on China’s future space station. With this latest initiative, China is hoping to increase its cooperative efforts, similar to how NASA and Russia have engaged with numerous international partners to pull off space missions. “They’re hoping to project a positive image of showing they want to work with other countries, while demonstrating their technological prowess,” Andrew Jones, a freelance journalist covering China’s spaceflight program, tells The Verge. They’re hoping to project a positive image of showing they want to work with other countries, while demonstrating their technological prowess.” The announcement also comes at a time when the future of the current International Space Station, helmed by NASA and the Russian space agency, is in doubt. The Trump administration wants to end direct NASA funding for the ISS by 2025 (though many in Congress are opposed). The administration’s plan is to transition the ISS over to the private sector by then, though that strategy doesn’t seem like it will work, according to NASA’s inspector general. Given the uncertainty with the ISS, the China Space Station could offer an attractive alternative for researchers looking to do experiments in microgravity. Of course, there’s still much to be done before the China Space Station will be open to people and experiments. Though China has been ramping up its spaceflight efforts over the last decade, the country has only launched six crewed spaceflight missions since 2003, and the longest human spaceflight mission lasted only a month. Additionally, China plans to launch the core module of the space station on the country’s Long March 5 rocket, but the vehicle has been grounded after it failed in July 2017. The rocket needs to make a critical return to flight later this year before it can send up pieces of the space station. “They’re going to have to start launching a lot more often, a lot longer missions, and that’s going to be a great challenge,” says Jones. “They need to build up experience.”