News / Brèves Space / Espace Back to previous selection / Retour à la sélection précédente Chinese Officials Lay Out Ambitious ’Space Odyssey’ at National Legislative Conference 12 March 2014 (LPAC)—During the on-going week-long meeting of the Chinese Peoples’ Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) in Beijing, officials of China’s space program, who are also delegates to the conference, discussed that nation’s ambitious plans for the development of Earth-orbital space infrastructure and exploration for the coming few years. The next steps in increasing capabilities for the manned space program in Earth orbit will centre on being able to deploy and service the space station, which laboratory is to be completed by 2020. Zhang Bonan, chief designer of China’s space station program, told People’s Daily that around 2016, China will launch a cargo ship, "Tianzhou," or Heavenly Vessel, which will ferry cargo back and forth to the station. The ship will be able to dock automatically with the up-coming Tiangong-2 small laboratory module, which will be an improved follow-on to the highly successful Tiangong-1. To gain experience with complex in-orbit operations before the cargo ship is ready, China plans to launch a "space shuttle bus," this year. Yuanzheng-1 (Expedition-1) will not be a free-flying spacecraft, but will be launched as an upper stage, carried to space on a Long March rocket. It will have its own propulsion system, to take it in to its appropriate orbit. On the lunar front, originally the plan that had been discussed was that the next lunar mission, Chang’e-4, would be basically a replay of the current Chang’e-3 lander/rover mission. But apparently, even though the Yutu rover encountered problems that greatly shortened its mission, the Chinese planners decided to take a bit higher risk route. At the NPPCC, top official, Ye Peijia, reported that the next lunar mission will be a rehearsal for the very challenging 2017 Chang’e-5, which is to collect samples from the Moon’s surface, and return them to the Earth. Ye described the next mission as a "test probe." The most stunning statement by Ye on the lunar program, especially considering the venue — a non-scientific conference but a national policy/legislative one — was: "We plan to send a manned mission to the Moon. The Earth is our cradle," he said, (quoting Russia space visionary Konstantin Tsiolkovksy), "and humanity will go out from here someday. The Moon is the nearest: if we cannot land on it, where else can we go?" Zhang Bonan added: "Exploration is the ultimate target [goal] of human beings. If we cannot break through the technological bottleneck, the future for the whole species will be bleak. The future lies beyond the Earth," he said. "We know so little about the Milky Way, and the whole universe is even more vast." It is the "unknowns" that are the biggest driver for humans to explore. [MGF]