China at the 75th International Astronautical Congress
Various state-owned and private entities from China were at the 75th International Astronautical Congress.
Last week, from October 14th to 18th, the 75th International Astronautical Congress was held at the MiCo Convention Center in Milan, Italy. Present at the congress were several state-owned and private space entities showcasing their achievements and future plans, as well as doing ‘business-to-business’ networking.
This year’s conference had the overarching theme of "Responsible Space for Sustainability" to promote sustainable development of space technologies and sustainable exploration.
On October 17th, day four of the congress, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the China Manned Space Agency, among others, led a panel called ‘New Opportunities Benefit Human Space Flight on Earth, in Space, and Beyond’, which is emmbed below. This panel largely covered existing science opportunities aboard the Tiangong Space Station and the lunar surface in the near future, with the Chang’e 7, Chang’e 8, and crewed missions.
Speakers from China were Zhong Hongen, Deputy Chief Designer of Space Utilization System of China Manned Space Program, and Li Ming, Chairman of Science & Technology Committee of China Academy of Space Technology. Introductions to the panel from China were also given by Hui Sun, Director of Division of International Organization programs and Bureau of International Cooperation at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, as well as Lin Xiqiang, Acting Director General of China Manned Space Agency. Moderating the panel was Mengyun Chen, Acting Director of International Cooperation Center in Technology and Engineering Center for Space Utilization at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
During the introduction to the panel, Lin Xiqiang, via video, shared that over two hundred experiments have been conducted aboard the Tiangong Space Station along with three crew rotations, two cargo resupply missions, and five spacewalks during the operational phase of the station. Lin Xiqiang also shared that the Chinese government has green-lit the lunar landing phase of the human lunar exploration program, and will aim to achieve a landing before 2030. All systems were said to be in active development and active prototyping, with overall development going smoothly. These systems are the Long March 10 launch vehicle, the lunar spacesuits, as well as the Mengzhou and Lanyue spacecraft.
Hui Sun’s introduction to the panel emphasized the space achievements of the Chinese Academy of Sciences through its operation of numerous satellites along with the Tiangong-1 and Tiangong-2 space laboratories, and now the Tiangong Space Station. The introduction by Hui Sun also reiterated China’s support for cooperative international space science endeavors.
Li Ming was the first speaker on the panel and spoke extensively about China’s manned space missions. After briefly talking about the Tiangong Space Station’s current scientific capabilities, Li Ming shared that plans are currently underway to expand the space station with three more modules, further expanding scientific experiment space along with crew capacity. Plans also exist to add additional exposed payload adapters to the outside of the existing modules.
As part of upgrades to the space station capabilities, refurbished Mengzhou spacecraft will also become part of routine crew rotation operations in the future, due to the ability to carry up to seven taikonauts to low Earth orbit. This increased crew-carrying capacity can also be used to fly international astronauts.
Capabilities, data, and analysis of the Xuntian space telescope, or China Space Station Telescope, were stated as being open for international communities by Li Ming.
After having covered China’s efforts in Low Earth orbit, Li Ming moved on to the nation’s lunar efforts, this is split into three phases. The first is a demonstration phase and has already been completed with the Chang’e 1 through Chang’e 4 missions. Phase two is the implementation phase, which aims to have a taikonaut on the surface before the end of the decade. The final phase is research and development, this phase will see continuous human missions along with possible utilization of lunar resources.
How China plans to land taikonauts on the Moon was also restated. The process requires two Long March 10 launch vehicles, one carrying the Lanyue lunar lander and the other carrying the Mengzhou spacecraft with crew. Both spacecraft will dock in lunar orbit. Lanyue will carry two crew to the surface while one stays in lunar orbit aboard Mengzhou. Once surface operations are complete Lanyue will enter lunar orbit and dock with Mengzhou. After all three crew members are aboard Mengzhou the spacecraft will return to Earth.
Ending his presentation, Li Ming shared the various ways other countries and organizations can cooperate with China’s human spaceflight efforts. It was stated that China remains open to flying other astronauts aboard its space station, performing personnel exchanges and educational science outreach, along with flying experiments. New cooperation opportunities will also be provided with the crewed lunar missions.
Zhong Hongen’s presentation was largely focused on the scientific capabilities of the TIangong Space Station. The first slide of the presentation also reshared to plans for a Tianzhou spacecraft to visit the space station approximately every nine months, carrying 6,500 kilograms of cargo, along with a minimum crew of three at all times. The expected lifetime of the station is still planned at ten years with a goal of twenty, having it possibly last until 2040.
Much focus was also given by Zhong Hogen to the various experiment racks and adaptors onboard the station. These racks and adaptors are open for cooperation standard exposed payload adaptors can host experiments up to 160 kilograms while the three larger ones can host experiments between 500 and 2,000 kilograms.
When highlighting the Xuntian space telescope, five observation instruments were shared. They are:
Main Survey Camera (MSC) which provides high-resolution multi-band observation data.
Multichannel Imager (MCI) which provides high-precision photometry and ultra-deep field observations in the ultraviolet and visible light bands.
Integrating Field Spectrometer (IFS) which provides hyperspectral detection of galaxies.
Terahertz Superconductive Spectrometer (TSS) which provides spectral line surveys in the 410-510GHz band.
Cool Planet Imager Coronagraph (CPIC) which provides high-contrast imaging of exoplanets.
New technologies are also stated as being added, like AI for sorting through data and cloud technologies due to the expected 1.2 gigabits per second data downlink.
After speaking about Xuntian, Zhong Hongen shared that 161 domestic research projects had been completed on the station along with 17 international research projects. These experiments have generated approximately 265 terabytes of data. Many of these experiments relate to material science, improvements to crops, and recently aquaculture.
Zhong Hongen ended his presentation by also reiterating that the Tiangong Space Station is open to cooperation under the principles of peaceful utilization, equality, and win-win results. Under the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, experiments will be flown from Poland, India, Switzerland, Germany, Kenya, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Spain, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Peru.
After all presentations were completed, a few questions were asked by Mengyun Chen, the panels moderator. The first was about whether foreign astronauts are welcome aboard the Tiangong Space Station, which Li Ming answered with a simple yes, under the principles of peaceful utilization, equality, and win-win results. When asked about more potential international research opportunities Zhong Hongen answered that there will be, both inside and out of the station with the launch of new equipment.
Various booths from private and state-owned Chinese companies were also at the 75th International Astronautical Congress. A few of them are listed below.
Deep Space Exploration Laboratory
China’s Deep Space Exploration Laboratory, representing the country’s deep space exploration efforts, was showcasing major achievements of the Chang'e-6 mission from earlier in the year. Notably, seventy-five milligrams of surface samples retrieved during the mission were on display.
While at the congress, the laboratory advocated for extensive participation in international lunar scientific research station cooperation along with announcing that the second batch of international applications for Chang'e 5 lunar samples would be open soon.
Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology
The Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology had a display and team members at the congress, as a key part of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation’s delegation. On display were models for the Long March 6A, the Long March 6C, the Long March 12, and various components for spacecraft.
During the congress representatives of the academy negotiated with other space agencies and companies for the introduction of space products and services. Some products and services, like launch vehicles and satellite components, were actively promoted to potential international customers.
CAS Space
CAS Space was the largest commercial player in China’s space sector at the congress. The company’s booth had models of the Kinetica-1 and Kinetica-2 launch vehicles on display along with videos showcasing previous missions.
In its post-congress blog post, CAS Space shared that representatives engaged in the following activities:
“Participating staff introduced in detail the many notable achievements and core advantages of the Kinetica series rockets, reached important consensus with international customers on the establishment of a solid cooperative relationship, and carried out friendly and pragmatic communication on cooperative projects and vision plans.”
If there are any problems with this translation please reach out and correct me.
CAS Space’s takeaway from the congress is that it should continue to provide continuous, stable, reliable, efficient, and economical flight launch services for global customers.
Cosmoleap
During the conference, Cosmoleap was given the opportunity to give a presentation about its reusable launch vehicle tower-recovery system. According to the company, Cosmoleap is making the fastest progress for a tower-recovery system, within China.
Details on the presentation were not shared, but possibly similar to one held before the company revealed itself. The company did emphasize that it will adhere to the engineering culture of “extreme focus, extreme innovation” to contribute to the development of China’s commercial space efforts along with endeavoring to become an “outstanding global space transportation service provider”.
Cosmoleap did note that the day prior to the congress, SpaceX successfully caught its first Super Heavy booster, demonstrating the feasibility of the system in a real-world environment and boosting the company’s confidence in developing a similar smaller recovery-only system.
