China Plans to Build Space ‘Superhighway’ with 30 Satellites and Lunar Stations

23rd Jul 2024
China Plans to Build Space ‘Superhighway’ with 30 Satellites and Lunar Stations

The project includes a network of 30 satellites and three lunar ground stations to provide real-time communication, navigation, and monitoring services to space travellers and global users. 

According to Chinese scientists, the main feature of this superhighway is that it will allow 20 or even more space travellers to communicate simultaneously with Earth through audio, images or video. It would also provide accurate positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) during Earth-moon flights and lunar surface operations.

Researchers from the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST) and the Beijing Institute of Spacecraft System Engineering say that the project will enable them to monitor and track moving targets as small as one metre in the cislunar space.

Cislunar space – a new frontier of cosmic exploration 

Cislunar space usually refers to the region of space that lies between Earth and the Moon, approximately 400,000 kilometres away. It includes various orbits, such as low Earth orbit (LEO), geostationary orbit (GEO), Lagrange Points (L1 and L2), and the lunar orbital environment. 

Chinese scientists have quite ambitious plans to explore cislunar space and are now focused on building cislunar infrastructure, as it will open new opportunities for lunar exploration and space exploration in general.

Three stages of building a network

According to Yang Mengfei, chief designer of China’s Chang’e-5 mission, the project consists of three main stages.

The first stage would focus on supporting the country’s moon missions. Two satellites in elliptical lunar orbits and a lunar control station would enable communication with the moon’s south pole region for up to 10 users simultaneously.

The second stage will include ten satellites and a second lunar station, increasing data transmission rates to 5 gigabytes per second and improving navigation accuracy to 100 metres for the lunar south pole region.

The third and the final stage will include a network of 30 satellites and three lunar ground stations, aiming for 10 gigabytes per and 10-metre navigation accuracy for lunar surface activities and 50 metres for Earth-moon journeys.

Chinese scientists make great efforts in lunar exploration, aiming to become a major player in space exploration and establish a sustained human presence on the Moon. A planned communication highway between Earth and Moon that includes satellites as well as lunar ground stations is a daring project that will definitely help to achieve this goal.

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