The next few years of the space race promise curves. World powers have a number of missions planned, some of them manned, with the Moon and Mars as prime targets before the next jump. And in this context, China has emerged with strength in recent years. The Asian giant has deployed an ambitious space program that already rivals that of the United States and is attracting attention among all its projects Queqiao, the constellation of satellites they intend to deploy around the moon, which serves to understand the technological muscle they already display in space.
“The constellation will be used to establish high-speed communications between the Earth and the Moon, specifically ground stations and habitats, spacecraft, rovers and astronauts on the moon. A constellation of satellites can help ensure continuous coverage and reduce the risk of signal interruptions caused by the moon’s rotation, while increasing transmission speed. And they can provide the spacecraft with position data, trajectory, precise time signals, fixed positions and velocity updates, helping with maneuvers such as landing, docking and orbit adjustments,” explains Andrew Jones, journalist SpaceNews specializing in coverage of China’s space program.
The expert notes that the project is expected to be ready in the 2030s to assist China-related operations led by the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS). But from there, the information becomes opaque. It is not known how much money the country will invest in this project, nor the number of satellites the constellation will have.
“The first Queqiao satellite was launched in 2018 to support the Chang’e-4 mission. That was its main job. Queqiao-2 was launched this March to support the Chang’e 6, 7 and 8 missions, as well as to enable the follow-on 4. Another large autonomous satellite, Queqiao-3, could be launched by the end of the decade, and then the constellation will consist of many smaller satellites and Tiandu-2, which joined the Queqiao-2 launch. These satellites test communication and paid navigation. “They’re communications and navigation payloads, and they’re scouts for the entire following constellation,” Jones summarizes.
Future satellites will likely be launched from spaceports located as close to the equator as possible to conserve fuel and payload capacity. Which means that Wenchang and possibly Xichang want to be ideal launch sites for the constellation, which, as Jones points out, “will extend beyond the moon to encompass the entire solar system.”
Although few details are known, NASA and ESA have similar projects. “But as far as I know, Queqiao-2 is the only spacecraft currently performing this function,” says Kevin Pollpeter, an expert at CNA, an independent US security research and analysis organization.
China’s rise in space
“China’s space program has advanced remarkably over the past 25 years. Before they launched very few satellites and their rockets were unreliable. But now China is the country with the most satellites in orbit, second only to the United States, and is the leader in launches. “They have a live human spaceflight program to the Tiangong space station, have sent robotic probes to the moon, and plan to take astronauts to a satellite by 2030,” Pollpeter summarizes.
But it doesn’t end there. The Asian giant has a complete Earth observation system and a GPS-like global satellite navigation system. According to Pollpeter, China’s space technology today is still no match for America’s, but They themselves calculate that by 2045 they will be the first space power on the planet. And according to a declassified report by the US Director of National Intelligence, many of China’s space technologies will match America’s by 2030.
“Their space program is very ambitious, but so far they have achieved all their goals,” comments Quentin Parker, Deputy Director of the Space Research Laboratory at the University of Hong Kong. “China spends huge resources on its space program for various reasons: national pride, prestige, science and research for technological development. Therefore, its achievements in space research and technology in the past five years are unprecedented,” he adds. And he cites another example: the Tianwen 1 mission, which landed on Mars in May 2021 with the Zhurong rover, and which was perhaps “the most complex and dangerous of China’s space missions.”
But only now The crown jewel was the Chang’e lunar missions, which were “surprisingly successful” for Parker.. In 2013, China became the third country to achieve a soft landing on the moon with Chang’e 3. With Chang’e 4, they were the first to reach the far side of the Moon in 2019. A year later, Chang’e 5 was the first Chinese mission to successfully bring back samples of lunar rocks, a milestone that only two countries (USSR and USA) have achieved again to date. And at the time of this writing, the Chang’e-6 probe is in lunar orbit and, if all goes according to plan, will collect more samples from the far side.
Future projects
China promises not to take its foot off the gas in the future. Because in addition to improving all of their current technology and the mission to deliver astronauts to the moon, they have very interesting projects, many of them around the satellite. Starting with a plan to build the International Lunar Research Station in the 1930swhich is to become a permanently inhabited facility in the 2040s, and in 2025 they want to launch Xutian, a space telescope comparable to Hubble but with a field of view 350 times larger.
In parallel, they are also developing the Long March 9, a super-heavy rocket that they will use to explore the moon, comparable to NASA SLS or SpaceX spacecraft. And also inspired by Elon Musk’s company, they are betting on the commercial space, because Chinese companies want to produce reusable rockets.
“They want to send more robotic probes to the moon, but that doesn’t mean China – or any other country – has a right to the moon. In fact, the Outer Space Treaty prohibits any country from claiming it as part of its territory.” However, there are concerns that efforts to mine lunar ice could lead to competition for the best sites. Whoever got to the ideal spot first could try to claim the commercial rights to the ice monthly. Even if that is still decades away,” says Pollpeter.
.
