When will Chinese be able to stand on the moon?
The construction of the Chinese space station is expected to be completed in 2022, and more than a dozen countries have successfully applied to join, including Japan and other countries!
June 17, 2021 is an unusual day, Chinese stood in his own space station for the first time, although there was an International Space Station before that, but this space station, which was completed as early as 2010, has not been allowed to enter Chinese astronauts, and its operation rights are mainly in the hands of countries such as the United States, Russia and Japan.
According to the current situation of the Chinese space station, it is expected to complete the construction in 2022, the design life is 10 years, the actual use time of the general spacecraft will exceed the design life, and the International Space Station is likely to be retired in advance in 2024, and there have been several leaks before, although it has not yet caused a threat to the astronauts on the space station, but the temporary patching can not cover up the many problems caused by aging.
China is the first country to build its own space station, so is it possible to become the second country to achieve a manned lunar landing?
The general public often noticed China's self-built space station when the Shenzhou 12 manned spacecraft was successfully launched, but the "three-step" development strategy of the mainland manned space project was actually formulated as early as 1992, and the construction of its own space station is one of the most important goals.
The manned lunar landing, although we have not yet achieved it, has been working hard, including retrieving samples from the moon from Chang'e-5 and Chang'e-4 landing on the far side of the moon for the first time for inspection and survey.
Ms. Jiang Jie, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, is the chief designer of the First Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, and just gave the answer to the question of "when will China achieve manned moon landing":
At present, China is studying a new generation of manned launch vehicles, which can meet the dual needs of today's space station operation and lunar exploration, and is expected to enable the mainland to reach the strength to complete the manned lunar mission by 2030. Of course, if you see that this launch vehicle under development actually needs to break through 13 major key technologies, you may worry about whether the development can be completed as scheduled, but this is not a desperate bet!
Because Ms. Jiang Jie also said that at present, there is a heavy launch vehicle in the mainland that is also under development, and its significance is more "intergenerational", which is likely to take 8 to 10 years, which is very important for the mainland to enter and use space, including manned moon landings, and even manned Mars exploration.
Of course, we cannot say with certainty that China will become the second country to achieve a manned lunar landing in the future, but to have the ability to land on the moon by 2030 is something worth looking forward to and believing. Just like the mysterious far side of the moon, even the United States, which has landed on the moon six times, has not been there, but our Chang'e 4 has done it!
The last unopened lunar sample: the Return of the United States to the Moon, why should it use samples taken 50 years ago?
According to the information released by NASA, the United States completed six manned lunar missions that year, and brought back a total of about 382 kilograms of samples from the moon, in addition to lunar dust, there are rocks, pebbles and so on on the moon. Although many people have questioned the series of lunar landings in the United States that year, the lunar samples they brought back have also been shared with us.
Scientists in the United States have been studying lunar samples for decades, but one thing is strange, that is, the last Apollo mission that year, the sample brought back from the moon by Apollo 17, will not open the last lunar sample until 50 years later.
The point is that the sample volume collected by the crew of Apollo 17 at that time was not small, a total of 115 kilograms, and this lunar sample, which had not been opened for the past few decades, was thought to prepare for the future return of the United States to the moon.
NASA said that the reason why the samples will not be opened until more than fifty years later is because they knew that today's research technology must be more advanced than it was then, after all, research equipment has always been advanced.
Moreover, when the scientists at that time studied the samples that Apollo brought back from the moon, they realized that the equipment was not complete, and then they kept the samples all the way, fortunately, so many years later, when the lunar samples sealed in the test tube were not affected by the Earth's environment, which would give them more understanding of the moon that they might not have known before, and help the United States return to the moon more smoothly.
There are no specially built rocket towers on the moon, how can astronauts return to Earth from the moon?
Indeed, the Apollo series of spacecraft of the United States was indeed launched through the Saturn V carrier rocket, so that many people doubted: Is it that the blueprints of saturn V have been lost, so that the United States has not landed on the moon in the past fifty years?
This problem, NASA personnel have previously debunked rumors, clearly indicating that the Saturn V design blueprint is still stored intact, the reason why it is no longer manufactured is because the cost of rebuilding the production line is too high, and there are already stronger launch vehicle systems, the so-called "SLS system".
There are no rocket launch stations built on the moon, but just as our Chang'e 5 can successfully sample and return, the Apollo series spacecraft of that year did not need to rely on rocket launch stations to return.
First of all, the Apollo series of manned lunar spacecraft, before landing on the moon, were separated, not landed on the lunar surface as a whole, and the astronauts arrived on the moon with the lunar module. Therefore, there were also special astronauts left on the spacecraft to fly around the moon, so that astronauts could be picked up when they left the moon.
Second, there are no rocket launch stations on the moon, but there is fuel on the lunar module, enough to meet the needs of leaving the moon. Moreover, the gravitational pull on the moon is far less than on Earth, so the lunar module does not need that much thrust to take off from the lunar surface. By the time the Apollo spacecraft returned to Earth, there was only one command module left.
Decades ago, the U.S. Apollo series of missions cost $25.5 billion, but also brought back about 382 kilograms of samples, and then many countries joined the lunar exploration activities, the cost of lunar exploration is so high, but the possibility of life on the moon is very small, what is the significance of spending so much manpower and material resources?
Yes, as the only natural satellite on Earth, there is a high probability that there will be no life on the moon, and it is unlikely that humans will actually survive on the moon. However, everyone also knows that the earth is becoming more and more unlivable, which has the effect of human activity destruction, but it is also an inevitable evolution of the earth and the solar system. Therefore, before the earth can completely accommodate us, it is very important to find another "earth".
If we only look at the terrestrial planets within the solar system, the hopes will shrink a lot, so many scientists are looking for the possibility of life on exoplanets. But if we can't build a base on the moon, how can we reach more distant terrestrial planets and even more distant exoplanets? Moreover, the deeper the understanding of the moon, the more conducive it is to our understanding of the evolutionary history of the solar system, which cannot be measured at a cost!