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Posted on November 6, 2018
China unveiled Tuesday a replica of its first space station "Heavenly Palace" (Tiangong) with a permanent crew and composed of three parts – a central module associated with two space laboratories – with a total weight greater than 90 tons , the Dit. academy, space station, which would replace the laboratory in orbit of the international community and symbolizes the major ambitions of the country beyond the Earth.
The 17-meter (55-foot) core module was a flagship attraction at the Airshow China biennial show, held in the southern coastal city of Zhuhai City, the country's leading aerospace show.
The main module, Tianhe, or Harmony of Heavens, will consist of three parts: the connection section, the life control and control section, and the resource section. The module will be equipped with three mooring hatches dedicated to manned space vehicles or visiting cargo and two docking locations used to connect to space laboratories. There will also be a trap for extravehicular activities of astronauts.
The basic module will have a length of 16.6 meters and a diameter of 4.2 meters. It will occupy a central place in the operations of the space station, insofar as the astronauts will live there and control the entire station. The module will also be able to host scientific experiments.
China will begin building its first inhabited space station by 2020, according to government plans. First, a 5B Long March heavy-lift rocket, developed by Chinese scientists, will put the station's core module into orbit that year. Then, about four manned space flights will be made to send astronauts to assemble the station.
The space station is expected to be fully operational by 2022. It should work in about 15 years, according to the Chinese Academy of Space Technology, developer of the station.
By 2024, it will become the only global space station if the US-led International Space Station is withdrawn as planned.
The station will carry more than 10 tons of scientific and experimental equipment. It will have 26 payload internal cabinets, 67 external hatches designed to dock with medium-sized space vehicles and four external points for towing large instruments, according to the designers.
Once the international space station withdrawn in 2024, China will be the only country to have an inhabited space station.
China will then have the only space station in orbit, although it will be much smaller than the ISS, which weighs 400 tons and is about the size of a football field.
The country announced in May that the laboratory would be open to "all countries" to conduct scientific experiments. "There is no doubt that China will use its station in the same way that the ISS partners use their outpost: research, technology and as a springboard for deep space exploration. said Chen Lan, an analyst at GoTaikonauts.com. a website specialized in the Chinese space program.
Research institutes, universities and public and private companies have been invited to propose projects. According to the official media, some 40 projects from 27 countries and regions have been received.
The European Space Agency sent astronauts to China for training to work inside the Chinese space station once it is launched.
"I'm sure that over time, China will succeed in developing partnerships," said Bill Ostrove, space analyst at US-based forecast International Consulting. "Despite many discussions on the contrary, the United States remains the most dominant power in space at the moment," Ostrove said. "The most likely scenario for the future is that China will become one of the major space powers," he said.
But Russia, the European Space Agency, Japan and India will continue to play "major roles" in space exploration, while private companies become more and more important in the sector , added Ostrove.
"The space market is diversifying," he said, "so it will be difficult for one or two countries or companies to dominate the market in the same way as the US and the Soviet Union during the war. cold ".
The Daily Galaxy via AFP and China.org
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