Image (Credit): China’s Chang’e 6 lunar probe at the Wenchang Space Launch Site in Hainan province prior to the launch on Friday. (CNSA)
Last Friday, China launched the Chang’e-6 lunar probe towards the moon with the goal of returning the first lunar soil sample from the far side of the Moon. An earlier mission in 2020, Chang’e-5, successfully returned lunar soil samples from the near side of the Moon for the first time in 44 years. Before that, in 2019, China place a rover on the far side of the Moon via the Chang’e-4 mission.
China is making some bold strides in space with, it might be added, some help from the Europeans. While the US bans any cooperation with the Chinese, France, Italy and Sweden have contributed to the Chang’e-6 mission. For example, Sweden added the Negative Ions at the Lunar Surface (NILS) instrument to the lunar probe.
Maybe one day we can join the Chinese on some of these missions, but that day seems to be far away. That said, we were able to find a way with the Russians, which allowed for the ongoing success of the International Space Station.
Image (Credit): April 25, 2024 launch of the Shenzhou 18 mission to the Tiangong space station. (CMSA)
This week’s image shows today’s launch of three astronauts to China’s Tiangong space station on the Shenzhou 18 mission aboard a Long March 2F rocket. The crew successfully reached the space station 6.5 hours after launch.
One of the new crew members has already spent 182 days in orbit aboard the Tiangong space station. The Tiangong space station has been continuously crewed since June 2022.
Image (Credit): Shenzhou 18 crew members Li Cong, commander Ye Guangfu and Li Guangsu. Guangfu has logged 182 days in orbit during a stay aboard the Tiangong space station in 2021-22. (CMSA)
Image (Credit): China’s Tiangong space station captured by a returning Shenzhou spacecraft. (CMSA)
China is getting ready to send a new crew to its Tiangong space station tomorrow. The Shenzhou-18 spacecraft will carry three new crew members to the station, replacing the crew that has been on the station since last October.
The current crew had to deal with space debris that damaged its solar panels and led to a power loss. Two spacewalks were recently conducted to make the necessary repairs. The arriving crew is coming with additional repair material, including “space debris protection reinforcements for extravehicular piping, cables and critical equipment,” according to China Daily.
Unfortunately, space debris is a constant hazard in orbit. The International Space Station (ISS) has dodged debris as well as repairing damaged areas. Of course, the ISS is also dropping space debris on Florida, but that’s a different story.
Image (Credit): China’s Yutu 2 rover, as seen by the Chang’e 4 lander, both of which landed on the lunar surface in January 2019. (CNSA)
“If the space agency holds to its notion of flying the Artemis II crew on a looping journey around the far side of the moon late next year, and landing the Artemis III crew in the south polar region in 2026 or 2027, the next boot prints on the moon will indeed be American. But don’t count on it.”
-Statement in a Time magazine article titled, “Why China Might Beat the U.S. Back to the Moon.” The article cites NASA’s delays and budget shortfall related to the Artemis mission. Interestingly, the article notes that the U.S. might have lacked the discipline to return to the Moon if China did not have similar plans. Finally, one key point to remember is that the U.S. beat the Chinese to the Moon by more than 50 years, so this is not really the same as the earlier space race with Russia. As a result, China is taking its time to do it right. We may need to keep that in mind as we face our own struggles.
Collins Aerospace, a private company hired to create spacesuits for use outside the International Space Station (ISS), has tested its suit aboard a commercial microgravity flight, passing a milestone that lets engineers move forward toward critical design review…During the test, the plane executed “roller-coaster-like maneuvers” to induce weightlessness and allow someone wearing a prototype to see if it actually lets someone move around in it under those conditions.
Water has been found on the surface of two asteroids for the first time, scientists said in a new paper. Two silicate-rich asteroids were detected by the retired Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) that were giving off a specific wavelength of light that indicated the presence of molecules of water, according to research published in The Planetary Science Journal.The discovery may have major implications for theories about how water initially made its way to our own planet. It could have been delivered via asteroid impact.
When China’s first lunar lander, Chang’e 3, touched down in Mare Imbrium on the Moon in 2013, it was the pinnacle of the country’s space endeavors. The robotic lander and its small Yutu rover companion were the first spacecraft to operate on the Moon since the 1970s, and provided new insights into our planet’s natural satellite…Since then, China’s space activities have exploded in range, frequency, and ambition. The country now rivals the U.S. for the most launches per year, with around 80 missions having been planned for 2023. The nation has its own modular space station, named Tiangong, which is expected to be continuously occupied by a rotating crew of three astronauts for at least a decade.
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