Another Giant Leap
A new chapter in extraterrestrial exploration opens with the launch of the ‘control room’ of China’s space station
At 11:23 a.m. on April 29, a rocket blasted off from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in Hainan Province, carrying the core section of China’s space station. After traveling a little over eight minutes on the domestically developed Long March-5b Y2 rocket, the module, named Tianhe, which means harmony of the heavens, separated from the rocket and entered into orbit. A key step in the construction of the space station that is expected to be completed next year, Tianhe will act as the management and control hub of the station as well as a node for docking with other spacecraft, up to three at a time, including both manned and cargo spacecraft.
The successful launch marks China’s space station construction entering the full implementation stage, laying a solid foundation for follow-up tasks, President Xi Jinping said in a congratulatory message.
The space station, Tiangong or heavenly palace, will be a crewed space station independently built with homegrown technologies. Besides Tianhe, it will have two other sections, Wentian and Mengtian. Expected to be launched next year, these are the space laboratories for conducting experiments in a wide range of areas including space medicine, technology and life science.
“Building a space station and national space laboratory is an important goal of the three-step strategy of China’s manned space program, and an important leading project to boost the country’s strength in science and technology, as well as in space,” Xi said.
Three-step plan
When China’s manned space program started in 1992, the first step was to send astronauts into space and have them return safely. Shenzhou-1, the country’s first experimental manned spacecraft, was launched with no crew in 1999 and four years later,
Shenzhou-5 successfully sent Yang Liwei, China’s first astronaut into space. Yang, a military pilot, was 38 at that time. The milestone feat made China the third country to send astronauts into space.
The second stage was to test key technologies needed for a permanent space station, including extra-vehicular activities and orbital docking. In 2008, fighter pilot Zhai Zhigang ventured out of Earthorbiting Shenzhou-7 spacecraft and walked in space, becoming China’s first taikonaut to leave a “footprint in the universe.”
To amass more experience for developing a space station, an experimental space lab, Tiangong-1, was lifted up in 2011 to test the technologies for rendezvous and docking between spacecraft. A month later, Shenzhou-8 entered into orbit and accomplished the first automatic rendezvous and docking with Tiangong-1.
In 2016, an improved version, Tiangong-2
was launched. It docked with Tianzhou-1,
China’s first cargo spacecraft, in April 2017, which also carried out the first in-orbit refueling.
So far, China has launched 11 manned spacecraft, one cargo spacecraft, and Tiangong-1 and Tiangong-2 into space, as well as sent 11 astronauts, and completed the first two steps of its manned space program.
“Progressing steadily with systematic and long-term planning - this is an example of how we do things,” Zhou Jianping, chief designer of the Chinese manned space program, told Xinhua News Agency.
The third step is to assemble and operate a permanently crewed space station. The successful flight of the new large carrier rocket Long March-5b in 2020 inaugurated the new stage in the manned space program. With work having started on assembling a space station that will be permanently crewed, four more missions have to be completed this year. The Tianzhou-2 cargo spacecraft and Shenzhou-12 manned craft will dock with Tianhe. The three astronauts aboard Shenzhou-12 will enter the module and stay in orbit for three months. Then, cargo spacecraft Tianzhou-3 and manned spaceship Shenzhou-13 will dock with Tianhe, and another three astronauts will begin their six-month stay in orbit. So far, the longest stay in space by Chinese astronauts has been 33 days.
Tianhe will also be a platform for scientists to verify key technologies, such as flexible solar wings that are used to provide electricity for spacecraft. “It is bound to enrich our understanding of the universe and promote the development of science, technology and applications,” Zhou said.
A home in space
When completed, the space station will be T-shaped with Tianhe at the center and a lab capsule on each side. It is designed to serve 10 years in low-earth orbit at an altitude of 340 km to 450 km. However, the lifespan can exceed 15 years with maintenance.
“We will learn how to assemble, operate and maintain large spacecraft in orbit, and we aim to build Tiangong into a state-level space lab supporting the long stay of astronauts and large-scale scientific, technological and application experiments,” Bai Linhou, deputy chief designer of the space station at the China Academy of Space Technology under the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp. (CASC), told Xinhua.
He said the station would be able to support maximum six astronauts together. If the Tiangong-1 and Tiangong-2 are like one-bedroom apartments, the space station can be regarded as a spacious apartment with three bedrooms, a living room, a dining room and a storage, more than six times the area of Tiangong-2.
Crewed and cargo spaceships will be launched regularly for long-term manned presence to carry out in-orbit research and services. The station will provide the visitors with a comfortable environment, and zones for work, sleep, sanitation, dining, healthcare and exercise with convenient facilities and advanced technology.
For instance, in Tianhe, the crew will be supported by a new system that recycles urine, exhaled breath condensate and carbon dioxide for different uses, such as flushing toilets or experiments.
“We will develop the technology step by step, first recycling water and oxygen in Tiangong, and then planting vegetables and crops in space to gradually realize food self-sufficiency,” Bai said.
Global cooperation
After 2024, the International Space Station (ISS), currently the only space station in orbit, built and operated by the space agencies of several countries, is due to retire. If that happens, then Tiangong, about a quarter of the size of the ISS, could be the only space station in Earth’s orbit at that time.
China is not a partner in the ISS consortium, nor has any Chinese astronaut visited the station. Initially excluded as the fledgling
Chinese space agency was regarded as being too inexperienced to contribute to space programs, China has still not been included despite the rapid development of its domestic space endeavors. However, the Chinese Government has said that it would welcome international participation in Tiangong.
“The station will contribute to the peaceful development and utilization of space resources through international cooperation,” Bai said.
A white paper published in 2017 clarifies China’s position on space development, saying it is for peaceful purposes and opposed to militarization of space. China welcomes UN members to use the space station and has announced nine international projects with the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA). China also looks forward to foreign astronauts’ participation in the space station in the future because international cooperation will promote understanding between countries as well as lower costs.
So far, 17 countries have confirmed their participation in the nine projects and in the future, China and UNOOSA will continue to explore more cooperation projects. CA
zanjifang@chinafrica.com
Chinese scientist Yuan Longping, renowned for developing the first hybrid rice strains that have pulled countless people out of hunger, died of illness in Changsha, Hunan Province, on May 22 at the age of 91.
As a pioneer of research and development of hybrid rice in China, Yuan was the first scientist in the world to successfully utilize the heterosis of rice.
Having spent over five decades on hybrid rice research, the academician with the Chinese Academy of Engineering and the director of the China National Hybrid Rice Research and Development Center, has greatly contributed to food security in China - a country having nearly one-fifth of the world’s population with less than 9 percent of the world’s total land.
On September 29, 2019, one day before the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, Yuan was awarded the “Medal of the Republic” for his life-long devotion to conducting research, application and promotion of hybrid rice technology, creating a super hybrid rice technology system, and making outstanding contributions to China’s food security, agricultural scientific development and world food supply.
The death of Yuan set off an outpouring of grief among the Chinese public. A large number of people turned out in Changsha to pay their respects to the esteemed rice scientist. On China’s Sina Weibo, a Twitterlike platform, the news of his death has been viewed 6.4 billion times as of May 23.
“Three times a day, when we enjoy the fragrance of rice, you will be dearly remembered,” said a comment that has been liked more than 770,000 times.
Road to super hybrid rice
“I dreamt that the super rice in the experimental field grew taller than sorghum,” Yuan talked of a dream he once had. “Each ear of rice was as big as a broom and each grain of rice as huge as a peanut. I could hide in the shadow of the rice crops with a friend.”
Getting enough to eat used to be a serious problem in China. Yuan, born in September 1930, saw heartbreaking scenes of people starving to death on the roads before 1949, and he wanted to lift people out of hunger.
In 1949, Yuan applied for Southwest
Agricultural College and began his special connection with rice - a staple food for many Chinese people. Since then, he has devoted himself to the research and development of a better rice breed.
He came up with the idea for hybridizing rice in the 1960s. In 1964, he happened to find a natural hybrid rice plant that had obvious advantages over others. Greatly encouraged, he began to study the elements of this particular type.
In 1973, in cooperation with others, he was able to cultivate a type of hybrid rice species which had great advantages. It yielded 20 percent more per unit than the common ones.
The next year their research made a breakthrough in seeding. They successfully developed a set of technologies for producing indica (long-grained non-glutinous) rice, putting China in the lead worldwide in rice production. For this achievement, he was dubbed the “father of hybrid rice.”
For the next four decades, he continued to research and upgrade hybrid rice, which has now reached its third generation. Until early this year, he had been conducting research in a seed breeding base in Hainan Province. In May this year, the spring yield of a super hybrid rice in a demonstration field, grown by a team of Yuan, has reached 1,005 km per mu (0.067 hectare) at the Sanya National Paddy Park - 100 km more than the goal, according to yield measurement experts.
Now, in China, the accumulated planting area of hybrid rice has exceeded 16 million hectares, or 57 percent of the total planting area of rice, helping feed an extra 80 million people a year, Xinhua reported.
From China to the world
Yuan had another dream - to introduce hybrid rice breed to the whole world and benefit every nation.
Since the 1980s, Yuan’s team has offered training courses for more than 14,000 agricultural specialists in over 80 countries in the developing world - providing a robust food source in areas with a high risk of famine. In African countries, Yuan is not an unfamiliar name for many people.
In Madagascar, the paddy rice field is a part of its national emblem, which has existed in the country for nearly 2,000 years. However, outdated rice breeding hindered its rice production. It had to import 200,000 to 400,000 tons of rice annually.
In 2007, experts from China began helping Madagascar to localize hybrid rice. Since then, Madagascar has developed 40,000 hectares of hybrid rice fields, with each hectare producing about 10.8 tons on average, far exceeding the yield of 3 tons of local rice. At present, Madagascar boasts the largest plantation area and the highest yield of hybrid rice in Africa.
In June 2019, Yuan sent a video message to a China-africa seminar on rice development as part of the first China-africa Economic and Trade Expo held in Changsha. “It’s my great pleasure to help other developing countries develop hybrid rice to solve their food shortage problems,” he said. “I am confident that through our joint efforts the purpose will be realized in the near future.”
The Hunan Agricultural Committee data shows that the hybrid rice planting area overseas has reached 7 million hectares, with the average yield at least 20 percent higher than local breeds. Hunan’s hybrid rice pilots in 16 African countries, including Egypt, the Republic of Guinea, and Liberia, achieved notable success with a per hectare yield at least 2 tons more than the local breeds.
Long Ping High-tech, which is named after Yuan, has periodically carried out technical assistance projects in Africa, and provided training to some 3,600 officials and agricultural specialists in almost 50 African countries including Ethiopia, Mali, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Gabon.
Kenneth M. Quinn, President Emeritus of the World Food Prize (WFP), Vice Chairman of the Yuan Longping International Rice Development Forum, and a long-time friend of Yuan, said in a statement after the death of the scientist: Yuan was truly beloved in his country and by all of us who knew him, and will be greatly missed. His legacy will provide inspiration to generations far into the future, in China and across the world.
Yuan was a co-winner of the 2004 World Food Prize, the top international honor recognizing the feats of individuals who have advanced human development by improving the quality, quantity or availability of food in the world. CA