US versus China – in outer space

New frontier: A November 2019 file photo presented on Monday showing China’s Mars lander's hovering, obstacle avoidance and deceleration capabilities being tested at a facility in Huailai, Hebei province. China is scheduled to launch its Mars rover and an orbiter around July 23 in a mission named Tianwen, or ‘Questions for Heaven’. – AP

IF you have been too preoccupied with all the awful stuff happening on Earth, you might have missed something that is shaping up. Up, as in up in space.

I did and it was only recently I caught up somewhat with the New Space Race. That was when I stumbled across the January graduation ceremony of the first class of 13 astronaut candidates comprising seven men and six women under the Artemis programme.

This is the long-awaited successor to the 1960s and 1970s Apollo missions by the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa). Artemis – goddess of the moon and twin sister of Apollo – is Nasa’s plan to finally return to Earth’s closest celestial body.

The first man to land on the moon was, of course, Neil Armstrong on July 20,1969, and that historic occasion marked the winner of the first space race between the United States and Russia (or USSR as it was then called).

I still remember the excitement of watching RTM’s delayed telecast of the very grainy footage of the Apollo 11 moon landing. I was all of 10 years old.

The subsequent Apollo missions were very much part of my teenage years, but with the exception of the near disaster of Apollo 13, none of them came close to the global excitement over Apollo 11’s achievement.

That feat will be exactly 51 years old come Monday. Since Dec 14,1972, when Apollo 17 landed, no humans have visited the Moon.

While the six Moon missions did deliver much scientific data and 382kg of lunar soil samples, the race to the moon was essentially a politically-motivated contest to prove American technological prowess over Russian and once achieved, the enormously expensive one-upmanship (total cost was US$20bil) was over.

Nasa went on to do other great stuff like Skylab, the space shuttle and the International Space Station (ISS), which is still going strong after 20 years.

Without a doubt, for the last 50 years, the United States has held dominance in space exploration. But its pole position is now being challenged in the new space race.

This time it’s between the US and – no surprise – China, which also has its eye on the moon and beyond.

When China sent its first yuhangyuan (meaning “space navigator”) into orbit in the early 2000s, the West chuckled. They wondered what they would do during the flight and a think tank analyst guessed they would do some “physical exercises” and “space medicine-type things”.

No one is laughing now. In January last year, China landed its Chang’e 4 lunar lander on the far side of the moon, the first ever by any nation. (Chang’e is the Chinese moon goddess.)

From there, the Jade Rabbit 2 rover was able to transmit data back to Earth via a satellite that had been previously deployed around the moon for this purpose.

With that successful landing, China proved it has become a force to be reckoned with, which was President Xi Jinping’s declared intention in 2016 – to make China a “space giant” with the Moon as the vital centrepiece.

On May 5, China successfully launched its Long March-5B rocket, which is designed to ultimately transport astronauts into space. That was quickly followed by back-to-back launches of Earth-imaging satellites.

It might have faced a setback when its Kuaizhou-11 rocket carrying low-orbit remote sensing satellites failed to launch on July 10, but that won’t derail China’s plans to launch 60 spacecraft in over 40 launches this year.

What’s more, China plans to have its own space station in operation by the end of 2022. While Nasa partners with several other national space agencies on the International Space Station and welcomes newbie astronauts from many countries, including Malaysia, no yuhangyuan has been allowed on board.

China’s space station will orbit the moon to give it what is known as cislunar domination. Cislunar refers to the space between the earth and the moon and the moon’s orbit. If China succeeds, it will have the space equivalent of the Silk Road, because once cislunar is secured, it can develop a sustainable presence on the moon for in-space manufacturing, mineral extraction, and space-based solar power (SBSP) technology. From that, it can leap into deep space exploration and stage manned missions to Mars.

Nasa’s Artemis programme too has big plans for a permanent station orbiting the moon called the Gateway that would be instrumental to its ambition to send its first manned mission to Mars.

To do that, President Donald Trump proposed a US$4.7bil (RM20bil) budget submission for Nasa for 2021 so that Artemis can ensure “the next man and the first woman on the moon will be American astronauts (by 2024) – using this as a launching pad to ensure America is the first nation to plant its flag on Mars” by 2033.

But the Democrat-controlled Congress isn’t playing ball and wants to push the return-to-moon target date to 2028 because they don’t want it to be a Trump triumph.

This is the rare Trump initiative I actually like and how that will pan out, like his re-election, remains to be seen. But the space race is definitely on. There are other serious players, namely India and the newest – and I must say surprising – contender, the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Russia, while maintaining a presence with its participation in the ISS, is by all accounts no longer a serious contender as its space agency Roscosmos is beset with corruption and mismanagement.

In 2014, India’s Space Research Organisation beat China in putting out a satellite in orbit around Mars, becoming the fourth national space agency to reach Mars. In the pipeline is the launch of its first crewed orbital space craft named Gaganyaan by 2022.

Today the UAE will launch its first mission to Mars: A spacecraft called Hope that will orbit the Red Planet to study its atmosphere and weather.

Undoubtedly, there are great bragging rights for a nation that has the means to undertake space exploration, truly the final frontier.

To be fair, the US has been very magnanimous in freely sharing Nasa’s inventions and innovations with the rest of the world. These include baby formula, scratch resistant lenses, artificial limbs, camera phones, athletic shoes, wireless headsets, water purification systems, the computer mouse and freeze-dried food. Just check out inventions we use every day that were actually created for space exploration on usatoday.com or bit.ly/spacethings.

I do wonder whether China will be as magnanimous?

YouTuber and former Nasa Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineer Mark Rober aptly sums up what he considers the five best reasons for space exploration in his video, “Is Nasa a waste of money?”

The one that seems the most far-fetched yet most compelling is finding habitable planets that humans can live on to prevent humanity’s extinction. Earth could be destroyed by a meteor strike or by our own human doing, a possibility which has become more real with the Covid-19 pandemic and worsening climate change.

But space exploration is no longer the sole domain of governments. Increasingly, private sector entities like Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Roger Zhang Changwu’s LandSpace have become important players and collaborators.

Still, instead of Artemis versus Chang’e, I wish the US and China can resolve their differences and work together on their space ambitions for the good of humankind instead of turning space into the latest battleground for economic and military supremacy.

I had a glimpse of the future of space exploration in 1995. That was when I visited the Johnson Space Center in Houston and saw the prototype design for the ISS.

That was in my lifetime, as was the 1969 moon landing. I may live long enough to see the first woman to walk on the Moon but perhaps not the Mars manned mission.

That saddens me but it also thrills me to know that it will happen. Bon voyage, astronauts and yuhangyuan!

The views expressed here are entirely the writer’s own.

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• NASA closely watches Tiangong-2 launch

• NASA closely watches Tiangong-2 launch. The space industry has paid close attention as China sent the Tiangong-2 lab into space. NASA is watching the Tiangong-2, as well as China's space program in general. It says the launch marks another step on China's long march to a permanent orbital outpost. Former...
  
  https://youtu.be/pRgAmhCZ9AM
  
  China on Thursday hurled its first Tiangong-2 lab into space, marking another step forward in the country's plans to establish a permanent station by the early 2020s.
  
  China's rapid development in space exploration within the past decade has impressed the world. Martin Barstow, director of Leicester Institute of Space & Earth Observation at the University of Leicester, told Xinhua in a recent interview that China's developing space program is another major milestone towards establishing a permanent presence in space.
  
  "The earlier success of the first space station (Tiangong-1) shows how the program is developing and the new space laboratory will continue to add to China's status as a major space power," the professor said.
  
  Former NASA astronaut Leroy Chiao, the first Chinese-American to be commander of the International Space Station, hailed Tiangong-2 as "another significant step for China's human spaceflight program."
  
  "China is moving in a very deliberate and orderly fashion to advance their space capability," Chiao said. "I think the technology is good, and they are moving to get more operational experience through TG-2, before the beginning of space station construction."
  
  Barstow also spoke highly of China's space capability, saying "China is already a key player in the international space industry," and Tiangong-2 will "enhance" its well-developed space capability.
  
  Gao Yang, director of Surrey Technology for Autonomous Systems and Robotics (STAR) Lab, said manned spaceflight is of indicative significance in space technology, and China's rapid development in this area is well-known.
  
  British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) said in an article published on Thursday that "Beijing has made space exploration a national priority and is the third country, after the Soviet Union and the U.S., to put astronauts into space."
  
  INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION NEEDED
  
  In different interviews Xinhua carried with space experts, all mentioned the need for international cooperation in space exploration. Space station programs have always been a cradle for countries to work together, Gao said.
  
  Such collaboration has been vividly reflected in the Tiangong-2 mission, which carries, among a number of scientific experiments, an astrophysics detector that is the first space-science experiment built jointly by China with European countries.
  
  POLAR, dedicated to establishing whether the photons from Gama ray bursts (GRBs) -- thought to be a particularly energetic type of stellar explosion -- are polarized, was built largely with Swiss funding, and with the collaboration of Swiss, China and Polish scientists and support from the European Space Agency (ESA), according to the British journal Nature.
  
  POLAR project manager Nicolas Produit, who spoke to Nature, said U.S. law bars NASA from doing joint projects with China's space agencies, but the Chinese Academy of Sciences is discussing a number of other collaborative space projects with the ESA.
  
  Gregory Kulacki, senior analyst and China project manager at the U.S.-based Union of Concerned Scientists' Global Security Program, said that it is encouraging that China intends to solicit international participation in its space station project.
  
  "My hope is that the United States and China will, at an appropriate time in the future, find a way to cooperate in the peaceful exploration of space instead of competing to turn it into a battlefield, as they are now," he said.
  
  Chiao said international coperation is "a common point of interest that helps improve overall relationships. The International Space Station is a great example of that. Many nations came together to build the amazing facility, and we are working together to further science. This helps to improve overall relations between the member countries."
  
  Barstow believed that more and more countries are seeing the importance of space activity but this will not turn into a race. He said that to benefit smaller economies, a growth of space activity across the world will need to be nurtured by the major agencies like ESA, NASA, the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscomos) and China National Space Administration (CNSA).
  
  CHINA'S AMBITIOUS SPACE PROGRAM
  
  China has been actively developing a three-step manned space program since the first decade of the 21st century.
  
  The program's first mission took place in 1999 with the launch of the Shenzhou-1 to examine the performance and reliability of the launcher and verify key technologies relating to capsule connection and separation, heat prevention, control and landing.
  
  The first step, to send an astronaut into space and return safely, was fulfilled by Yang Liwei in the Shenzhou-5 mission in 2003.
  
  The second step was developing advanced space flight techniques and technologies including extra-vehicular activity and orbital docking. This phase also includes the launch of two space laboratories -- effectively mini space-stations that can be manned on a temporary basis.
  
  The next step will be to assemble and operate a permanent manned space station.
  
  China will begin building a space station that is more economically efficient and uses more data than the current International Space Station (ISS), starting as early as 2017, chief engineer of China's manned space program Zhou Jianping told Xinhua on Thursday.
  
  With the ISS set to retire in 2024, the Chinese space station will offer a promising alternative, and it will make China the only country to have a permanent space station after the  ISS. -Xinhua
  
  

  China launched first 'cold' atomic clock aboard second space station

  
  
  Every clock on Earth is flawed. Even science’s most accurate atomic clocks are beholden to our planet’s gravitational pull, and end up slowing down ever so slightly over time. That’s why researchers from Shanghai decided to send one up into space.
  
  On Sept. 15, Chinese researchers launched a cold atomic clock into orbit around Earth, where it will only slow down by one second every billion years, as opposed to every 300 million years like the current gold-standard of atomic clocks. The Cold Atomic Clock in Space (Cacs), as it is called, will likely become humanity’s most accurate timekeeping device.
  
  Atomic clocks are largely used for calibrating extremely sensitive electronics, like global positioning systems (GPS), or conducting experiments in hyper accuracy-dependent disciplines like particle physics and geology. According to the South China Morning Post, the Chinese government intends to use Cacs to improve their own national GPS, which currently operates at levels below the system employed by the US.
  
  Atomic clocks were originally created to run on the exact measure of a second as agreed upon by the entire scientific community. Seconds used to be measured as a tiny fraction of a day. The trouble is, the average day includes a lot of variation, depending on where you are and the earth’s axial wobble, caused by its magnetic poles and, more recently, melting ice sheets.
  
  Scientists realized that the way that electrons (the tiny negatively charged particles that surround atoms) jump back and forth between different energy states in molecules or atoms, was a much more precise way of calculating a second. These oscillations end up appearing like vibrations that occur at a constant rate—as long as molecules or atoms are at a constant temperature. Since 1967, the official definition of a second has been “9,192,631,770 vibrations of a cesium 133 atom.”
  
  Laser-cooled “cold” atomic clocks are generally considered to be the most accurate clocks that exist—other clocks and watches, like the kind anyone could buy in a store, tend to slow down over time. Although it’s often just a couple of seconds, that inconsistency won’t do in a research setting.
  
  But alas, on Earth, even cold atomic clocks are prone to slowing down ever so slightly. Because of the force Earth’s gravity applies to atoms, the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s NIST-F2 atomic clock in Boulder, Colorado will slow down by a second every 300 million years.
  
  Cacs, which will orbit our planet gravity-free, will use rubidium atom vibrations to keep time, and will slow down much more slowly than Earth-bound atomic clocks. It’s also a lot smaller—about the size of the trunk of a car, whereas the NIST-F2 takes up an entire room.
  
  Cacs was sent into space on the second Chinese space laboratory, called Tiangong-2, launched from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in Inner Mongolia. Although there are currently no humans aboard, the China National Space Administration plans to send two astronauts to the lab in October to conduct various experiments for a month, as the next step towards launching a full-fledged space station in 2020. - Quartz @ qz.com
  
  China launched its second space station, Tiangong-2, from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China's Gobi desert on Thursday with the world’s first “cold” atomic clock on board – representing a pivotal step in China’s plan to become a major player in the modern-day space race.
  
  Two astronauts are set arrive at the station in October where they will spend one month completing experiments. Running the Cold Atomic Clock in Space, one of 14 different experiments planned for the station’s two-year orbital stint, aims to determine if escaping the effects of gravity increases the accuracy of the timepiece.
  
  “It is the world’s first cold atomic clock to operate in space ... it will have military and civilian applications,” Professor Xu Zhen, a scientist involved with the atomic clock project, told the South China Morning Post.
  

  China to launch world's first 'cold' atomic clock in space ... and it'll stay ...

  www.scmp.com › News › China South China Morning Post 

  
  
  Atomic clocks, some of which are so accurate that it would take billions of years to drift off by even a second, are used to conduct sensitive experiments across a variety of scientific fields and calibrate electronics used by global positioning systems.
  
  To keep time, these clocks rely on measuring the natural vibration rates of atoms and the scientific definition of a second: 9,192,631,770 vibrations of a cesium 133 atom. China’s cold clock will use a laser to slow down the atom and thus lessen the likelihood of the timekeeper missing one of the atom’s rotations and introducing an error, according to the South China Morning Post. Additionally China hopes that sending the cold clock into space and freeing the timekeeping atoms from their ties to gravity will make it more accurate than other atomic clocks currently keeping time around the world and make it capable of measuring fluctuations in microgravity.
  
  The station will serve as a laboratory for a variety of experiments across scientific disciplines that China expects to culminate in launching its own equivalent of the International Space Station (ISS).
  
  "The launch of Tiangong-2 will lay a solid foundation for the building and operation of a permanent space station in the future," Wu Ping, deputy director of China's manned space engineering office, said during a prelaunch briefing, according to Xinhua.
  
  China is not a member of the international consortium that operates the ISS (and isn't allowed to send its astronauts to the station), so it is planning to build its own permanent space station, which at an estimated 60 tons will be 380 tons lighter than the ISS.
  
  China's president, Xi Jinpin called on engineers and scientists to help advance the Chinese space program at a Space Day celebration earlier this year.
  
  "In establishing Space Day, we are commemorating history, passing on the spirit, and galvanising popular enthusiasm for science, exploration of the unknown and innovation, particularly among young people," Xi said at the celebration, according to The Economic Times. "Becoming an aerospace power has always been a dream we've been striving for.”
  
  China’s ambitious goals for space exploration in the coming years include plans to study the yet-unexplored dark side of the moon, and a mission to Mars that will not only orbit the Red Planet, but land and deploy a rover. Both missions are scheduled to launch in 2020.
  
  Dean Cheng, a Chinese space policy expert at the Heritage Foundation in Washington D.C., told New Scientist that Thursday's launch is about national pride – "a reminder that China has a manned space program, including the ability to put its own astronauts into space, something the Americans cannot do [without assistance from Russia]." - Source: Christian Science Monitor
  
  

  Astronauts given comfort upgrade on China's new space lab

  
  
  
  
  New space lab will be equipped with Bluetooth, better lighting, sound dampening, exercise equipment and other features
  
  China's newest space laboratory, Tiangong II, will provide more comfortable digs to astronauts living aboard than its predecessor, Tiangong I, the spacecraft's designers said.
  
  Zhu Zongpeng, chief designer of Tiangong II at China Academy of Space Technology, said designers aimed to create an astronaut-friendly environment in every regard when they refitted the space lab that was developed based on Tiangong I.
  
  "We considered many factors including the sound, lighting, inner decorations as well as support facilities. For instance, we installed a foldable, multifunctional table that can be used for dining and experiments. We also equipped the astronauts with Bluetooth headsets and Bluetooth speakers," he said.
  
  "A number of particulars were taken into account－the carpet in Tiangong I was replaced with floorboards. The light is softer and its brightness can be adjusted. Each astronaut has a bed lamp," Zhu added.
• 
  
  
  China's space lab Tiangong II roars into the air on the back of a Long March-2F rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Northwest China, Sept 15, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]
  
  The Tiangong II consists of two cabins with separate functions－the experiment cabin will be hermetically sealed and will act as the astronauts' living quarters, while the resource cabin will contain solar panels, storage batteries, propellant and engines.
  
  Liao Jianlin, a senior engineer at the academy who took part in Tiangong II's development, said the lab has about 15 square meters for astronauts to live and work, including a separate sleep section and waste storage area.
  
  He said engineers installed muffler devices in the spacecraft to ensure its inner sound is kept under 50 decibels. Environmental controls will keep the temperature within the experiment cabin between 22 C and 24 C and the humidity between 45 and 55 percent.
  
  In addition, Tiangong II has an air detector capable of checking for and dealing with more than 20 hazardous gases and microbes.
  
  Furthermore, designers placed exercise equipment in the space lab such as a treadmill, exercise bike and acupuncture point massager to help astronauts keep healthy, according to Liao.
  
  He said its communications systems also allow astronauts to receive and reply to emails and make calls to family and friends.
• 
    

  Space lab to cross five-year mark.

  
  China’s space lab Tiangong-2 may serve for more than five years and co-exist with its first space station, scheduled for completion around 2020, an expert at the space programme said.
  
  China successfully launched Tiangong-2 on a Long March-2F T2 rocket, blasting off from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in the northwest Gobi Desert on Thursday.
  
  With a designed life of two years, Tiangong-2 was originally built as a backup to Tiangong-1, which completed its mission in March, said Zhu Congpeng, chief designer of Tiangong-2.
  
  “But we expect Tiangong-2 to serve for more than five years given the introduction of an in-orbit propellant technique for the first time,” Zhu said.
  
  In April 2017, China’s first cargo spaceship Tianzhou-1 will be sent into orbit to dock with the space lab, providing fuel and other supplies.
  
  “If the fuel-supply experiment goes well, we will become the second after Russia to master the in-orbit propellant technique,” Zhu said.
  
  While in space, the 8.6-tonne space lab will manoeuvre itself into orbit about 393km above Earth surface.
  
  “As it is higher than past space missions, the Tiangong-2 will be more cost-effective and have a longer lifespan,” said Zhu. — Xinhua
  
  

  Beyond borders

  

  This is the space station that China is installing in Neuquen, Argentina. The station will begin operation in March 2017 and will allow the tracking of different missions to space that the government is planning in the coming years, according to official sources.
  
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  China successfully launched Tiangong-2 space lab

  https://youtu.be/2Ia25ls46WM https://youtu.be/goRzJM4PIEI China's Tiangong-2 successfully launched Crossover: China's Tia...