China begins construction of its space station. The first “brick” of the Heavenly Palace, the Tianhe main module (also called “Heavenly Harmony”) was successfully launched on Thursday. It is 16 meters tall, like a five-story building, and four meters wide, more spacious than a train or subway carriage. It marks the beginning of a series of missions to complete the construction of the station by the end of 2022. The event was celebrated by the government of Xi Jinping with an echo, the state TV has relaunched images in which the future home of the astronauts took off on the Long March-5B Y2 rocket, from the Wenchang Spacecraft cosmodrome, on the coast of the Hainan province in the south of the country. It took Tianhe 90 minutes to complete one orbit around the Earth, and this allowed scientists to see up to 16 sunrises and sunsets in 24 hours. It is the first of eleven launches needed to build and equip the new space station.
Xi dreams big. Once completed, in a few months, the structure will have the shape of a T, with a central part and a laboratory-capsule on each of the two sides, ready to welcome six astronauts at a time, who will find all the best conditions and comforts, from noise in orbit, in the gym and relaxation rooms, to be able to work and explore space. It will provide scientists with six zones for work, rest, restrooms, a meal zone, a health care and exercise zone with treadmills, spin bikes, and resistance expanders. And it will be equipped with a “smart home”, a technology with which astronauts will be able to remotely control, via a tablet, the cabin appliances such as the refrigerator, the water dispenser and the microwave. A lighting system in the cabin will change the light, from twilight to daytime, so as not to make the “tenants” of the Palace of Celestial Explorations lose their biological rhythm, while the station moves. The Wi-Fi signal will cover the spaces accessible to humans in its entirety. A satellite system will allow the connection with the Earth, at a data transmission speed tens of times higher than the speed of 5G.
The rocket launched and the detail of Tianhe, the first brick of the Chinese international space station
THE STATE LABORATORY IN THE SKIES
China aims to install a state laboratory on the space station, which supports extended stays for astronauts in charge of large-scale science and technology experiments. “The station should also contribute to the peaceful development and use of space resources through international cooperation, as well as enriching technologies and experience for China’s future space exploration,” writes the Chinese government agency Xinhua. But it won’t just be available to Chinese scientists. Foreign astronauts will also be welcome for a global collaboration on science experiments, said Hao Chun, director of the China Manned Space Engineering Office, in an exclusive interview with CGTN, the China Global Television Network that released the video. “China and the United Nations Space Office have worked together on requests to use the Chinese space station. We signed an agreement, ”Hao said. So far, a total of nine projects from 17 countries, including France, Germany and Italy, have been selected for the first round of testing in the new space laboratory.
“Exploring the universe, developing space programs and developing our power in space travel has always been a dream of ours,” Xi said in 2016. In 2020, the Chinese space industry achieved remarkable success: on June 23, China has successfully launched its latest Beidou satellite into orbit. On July 23, an unmanned spacecraft was sent into space on Mars. On November 24, a mission called Chang’e-5 was launched to collect lunar material. On December 1, the Chinese spacecraft Chang’e-5 successfully landed on the moon. And now it’s the turn of the Heavenly Palace, home of Beijing’s most distant ambitions.