The construction of the new station is a huge achievement and a justifiable source of pride for China, giving, among other things, new opportunities to Chinese scientists
The new Chinese space station “Tiangong” (Tiangong) it is now almost complete and is expected to host more than 1,000 scientific experiments within the next decade. The third and final section of the station, named Mengtian, will launch on Monday aboard a Long March 5B rocket from the Wenchang Launch Center in southern China.
It will be the second space station in operation after the International Space Station (ISS). The construction of the new station is a huge achievement and a justifiable source of pride for China, giving, among other things, new opportunities to Chinese scientists.
Among the experiments to be carried out on the “Tiangong”, where three Chinese astronauts – two men and one woman – are currently located, will be the effects of microgravity on living tissues and the health of astronauts, the behavior and prevention of fires in space, quantum properties of gases etc.
The Mengtian experimental module has completed the general assembly and testing work of the launch site technology area as planned, and completed the propulsion agent addition yesterday.
Mengtian test room will soon be with CZ-5B Y4 pic.twitter.com/KJCybmMU1R— Seger YU (@SegerYu) October 10, 2022
Researchers from other countries will also have access to the space station. China has already selected nine international experiments that will “fly” to the station, in collaboration with scientists from Japan, Russia, India and Mexico, according to the magazine “Nature”.
The station consists of three sections: the main Tianhe (launched in April 2021) and two scientific “arms”, Mengtian and Wentian (which had been in orbit since July this year). Several Chinese missions of cargo and astronauts have already made their way to the station.
The Chinese station will feature, among other things, more than 20 mini-laboratories equipped with centrifuges, cold chambers with temperatures down to minus 80 degrees Celsius, a high-temperature oven, multiple lasers and an optical atomic clock. All this will be exploited to carry out experiments similar to those at the ISS. In three facilities attached to the outer part of Tiangong, the effects of cosmic radiation on plants and microorganisms will be studied.
China is not participating in the ISS, where its astronauts do not have access. The US government has also banned the US space agency (NASA) from engaging in bilateral cooperation with China.
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