SCIO briefing on white paper on China's space activities

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Speakers:
Wu Yanhua, vice head of China National Space Administration
Li Guoping, director of Department of System and Engineering, China National Space Administration

Chairperson:
Xi Yanchun, vice director-general of the Press Bureau, State Council Information Office

Date:
Dec. 27, 2016

CNR:

Just now the speaker mentioned the goal of becoming one of the world's leaders in the space industry. Does China have any specific plan for achieving the vision? And what new space projects will be launched in the future? Moreover, the Long March 5 carrier rocket was launched successfully this year. Could you give us a brief introduction to the general arrangement of the heavy-lift carrier rocket and its development? Thanks.

Wu Yanhua:

Just now I have introduced the vision for development.

Generally, we hope we can finish important space projects and tasks under the framework of the 13th Five-Year Plan. Through the strengthening of the infrastructure project, we wish to fix the weaknesses which may hamper the development of our space industry. We wish to build relatively sound space infrastructure within ten years. We hope to become one of the leading space countries by 2030.

There are more details about the important projects and highlights for future space development in the white paper.

In January 2016, the Chinese government officially approved our first Mars probe mission, which indicates that the Chinese space probe will extend from the moon to the deeper universe. This is the common responsibility and obligation of people all over the world.

Next, I will give a brief introduction to the plans of our deeper space probe in the coming 10 and 15 years.

Firstly, we will probe planets like Mars, Jupiter etc. We will orbit Mars, land and deploy a rover on it, and we will collect samples of the surface of the Mars and bring them back to Earth for study.

Secondly, we are developing the Long March 9 – a new type of heavy-lift carrier rocket. We are in the phase of project feasibility study and key technology research.

Thirdly, we will build a space-ground integrated information network. Once it's established, there will be no obstacle for communication and transmission on Earth, and it is in accordance with the development of the 5G technology of the telecom industry.

Fourthly, we need to improve the on-orbit service and maintenance ability for the spacecrafts. Valuable geostationary satellites should be fixed when they are out of service.

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