Tiangong Space Station: How Is China Joining Space Race?

Three months after the American Perseverance rover landed on Mars, China's Zhurong rover also landed on the Red Planet. The Tiangong space station's core module has already been launched into orbit after undergoing preliminary checks for rendezvous and docking maneuvers.

In what amounts to a modern-day space race, China and the United States are undertaking different research flights. This raises a slew of concerns about human settlements outside Earth.

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Chinese Space Agency to Finish Space Station By 2022

Science Times said the Chinese Space Agency hopes to finish the Tiangong space station before the end of 2022. That would necessitate at least 10 more flights to provide supplies over the next 18 months.

These launches occur in quick succession. After three weeks after the station's launch, China plans to send the first cargo shipment to the station, refilling the station and supply materials required to keep astronauts alive.

The first crewed flight will occur next month, in June 2021, and astronauts will spend three months onboard the central module. Crews will be on board for six months at a time in the future.

Tianhe, which means "harmony of the heavens," is the name of the main module released in April. Later modules can permanently connect to Tianhe to extend the station's habitable area to 3,884 cubic feet, allowing for experimental experiments. On the other hand, the International Space Station has almost four times the habitable space, at 13,696 cubic feet.

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How Chinese Space Station Would Look Like

Gu Yidong, the chief scientist of the China Manned Space program, told Scientific American that the Tiangong space station would be shaped like a big "T."

The main Tianhe module is 18 meters long and can house three astronauts for up to six months. Two experiment modules with a total length of 14.4 meters can attach on either side of the main node. The first will be called Wentian, which means "quest for the heavens," and the second will be called Mengtian, which means "dreaming of the heavens."

Tianhe module will have about 1,700 cubic feet of living space for astronauts on the station, and the two experiment modules will add another 2,100 cubic feet. CGTN said the room for astronauts will be divided into six zones for "working, sleeping, sanitation, dining, healthcare, and exercise." A treadmill designed for use in space and an exercise bike is included in the exercise equipment.

The Tiangong station will be able to recycle air and water and urine emitted by the spacecraft itself. China Daily said the urine recovery machine is a crucial technology that allows China to keep astronauts in space for months at a time. It can remove 80 percent of the water from liquid waste at a rate of 2.5 liters per hour.

External robotic arms are available on both the Tianhe and Wentian modules, and the Mengtian module has an airlock for taikonauts to leave the station and conduct tests on the outside. In addition, the Tianhe module has two ports on opposite ends for cargo and spacecraft docking. The module also has five docking ports.

China also plans to install a telescope named Xuntian, or "survey of the heavens," that will have a resolution comparable to the Hubble Telescope but a field of view 300 times larger. The telescope will look for asteroids in ultraviolet and visible light and will be able to locate them. It would also be able to dock with Tiangong and orbit separately, making maintenance and refueling much easier than the Hubble.

Why China Is Building A Space Station

NASA said China is not a member of the 15-country consortium that maintains and runs the International Space Station, even though it is an international research vessel.

This suggests China has missed out on two decades of practical experience holding astronauts alive in space, as well as the opportunity to perform bioengineering and materials science that is only feasible in Earth's orbit's low gravity.

A 1998 congressional commission caused the country's exclusion from the 15-country consortium. The inquiry discovered that China used the information given by American space firms to make intercontinental ballistic missiles.

The Wolf Amendment, enacted more than a decade later, codified the agreement, stating that NASA could not cooperate with China until a bill was passed expressly authorizing it.

The space station may also be used for research purposes. China expressed its readiness to cooperate on research projects on board the proposed space station with every UN member state in a statement released by Xinhua in 2018.

China is also expected to carry nine foreign experiments to the Tiangong station, ranging from space tumor science to high-efficiency solar cell research.

The country isn't the only nation interested in constructing a space station. Science Times previously said that Russia has announced that it will develop the Russian Orbital Space Station after the cooperation deal with the International Space Station ends in 2024. In another Science Times report, the US has already started to venture beyond the ISS and collaborates with aerospace firms to create commercial space stations.