Chinese Space Science

In China, space exploration is rarely done in the name of science.  China’s space program is run almost entirely by the military, and missions of national security and national pride are given precedence over science missions.  In fact, of the more than 100 satellites that China has put into orbit over the years, exactly ONE has had a primary science mission.

All that could be changing, however.  Control over China’s space science has recently been transferred from the do-nothing, no-budget China National Space Administration, to the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).  The civilian run CAS will be given $554 million to use over the next five years, and use it they shall.  They have an impressive five scientific missions planned for launch between 2014 and 2016, the first of which is a sophisticated space telescope called the Hard X-Ray Modulation Telescope (HXMT).  This will be China’s first space telescope, and should be able to catalog stellar objects like supermassive black holes and x-ray binary stars.  Other planned missions include a study of radiation on biological systems, a search for dark matter, and an experiment in quantum mechanics.

While China’s much lauded manned space program still remains completely under the command of the Chinese military, freeing up science missions is an important step.  Science can’t be done in a (figurative) vacuum, and removing the shackles of the secretive military may open up future science missions to international cooperation.  Indeed, one of CAS’s planned missions, to be launched in 2015, is a joint Canadian-Sino project that will measure solar winds.  It’s collaborations such as this that will prove to be the most beneficial in easing international fears of China’s space ambitions, not to mention the potential scientific gains.

The handing over of scientific space missions to a competent civilian agency is certainly a positive sign for China.  If there is ever to be any real cooperation between NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Chinese in space, it can only be done with the disentanglement of the military from science missions.

Source:

Xin H. Chinese Academy Takes Space Under Its Wing. Science 20 May 2011: 332 (6032), 904.