China has stepped up its operations to train a new generation of astronauts for more space exploration, including a crewed lunar landing mission by 2030.
Chinese space programs have come under the media spotlight in recent years.
China made history by retrieving rock and soil samples from the far side of the moon in June this year. China’s rover Zhurong (祝融號) on Mars has also collected data and transmitted images on the red planet to scientists since it landed on a large plain in the northern hemisphere about three years ago. Scientists have found evidence of a coastline from a short-lived ancient ocean.
The country has also trained more young astronauts, including Song Lingdong (宋令東) and Wang Haoze (王浩澤) – who are from the post-90s generation. Song and Wang were chosen to join the Shenzhou-19 spaceship mission late last month and they are the youngest generation of Chinese astronauts to go to the space.
Along with their commander Cai Xuzhe (蔡旭哲), Song and Wang will work in the nation’s Tiangong space station for more than six months until April 2025.
JET FIGHTER’S PILOT-TURNED ASTRONAUT
Song’s dream of space flight became a reality when he turned from a jet fighter pilot to become an astronaut.
Song, aged 34, who was born in a humble family Shandong’s Caoxian (曹縣) county in August 1990, enrolled in Air Force Aviation University in 2007 and graduated with distinction in his class. Having completed intensive flight combat training, Song was deployed to the nation’s air force and participated in air patrols in South China Sea and other flight operations.
In 2018, Song learned about astronaut recruitment and decided to take on new challenges.
He once told Mainland media that one of the biggest challenges was the centrifuge training as he always struggled with motion sickness.
A high-performance human centrifuge uses strong rotating force at high speed to simulate gravitational forces, also known as G-force, to train astronauts inside. Astronauts experience G-force during a spacecraft’s launch. Song overcame the sickness through repetitive training.
After passing through all the daunting and intensive training processes, he became an astronaut in 2020 and was selected as a crew member of the Shenzhou-19 mission last year.
FEMALE ASTRONAUT WITH ROCKET ENGINEERING
Wang, who was born in Hebei’s Luanping county in March 1990, is the first female astronaut with a rocket engineering background.
Wang served as a senior engineer at the Academy of Aerospace Propulsion Technology under the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (中國航天科技集團).
Unlike her two predecessors Liu Yang (劉洋) and Wang Yaping (王亞平), who were both trained as aircraft pilots, the 34-year-old Wang is an expert in rocket engineering.
Wang once said she had kept pushing the limits of her body to complete all training sessions.
TRAINING FOR MOON LANDING MISSION
Apart from Song and Wang, China has selected and trained more young astronauts as part of the goal on manned moon mission by 2030. The country has made major progress in its moon probes since the launch of its first orbiter, the Chang’e 1, in 2007.
The moon is exposed to both the sun’s rays and the cold of space. There is no atmosphere on the moon, and temperature changes are rapid and extreme – from around 120 degrees Celsius to minus 130 degrees near the lunar equator.
In the moon landing mission, Chinese astronauts would be exposed to almost vacuum-level atmospheric pressure and solar radiation levels much higher than that on the Earth. They would also work in a harsh environment on lunar dust and lunar soil, rough lunar surface terrain and extreme temperature.
China National Space Administration (國家航天局) has designed basic training for young astronauts in various areas, such as operating spacecraft systems, flight engineering, robotics and life support systems and skills for extravehicular activities.
Astronauts will also receive tough training for driving spacecraft and lunar rovers, identifying celestial bodies, conducting geological research, floating in weightlessness in space, and spacewalking.
Currently, astronauts in Tiangong space station have conducted various experiments, including testing how bricks made from simulated lunar soil to withstand extreme space conditions.
China has earlier unveiled the specially designed spacesuit its crew will don for in the landmark lunar mission.
The imminent mission is designed as part of the country’s broader set of lunar master plans to establish an international lunar research station on the moon.
All images are from China National Space Administration.