HELSINKI — China is preparing to launch a pair of lunar experimental technology satellites in a planned constellation to support lunar exploration.
Tiandu 1 and Tiandu 2 will be launched together with Queqiao-2, a lunar communications relay satellite that will support the upcoming Chang’e far side of the moon and South Pole mission.
Tiandu 1 and 2 will fly in formation in lunar orbit and conduct tests to verify navigation and communication technology. Tests include satellite-to-ground laser ranging methods and inter-satellite microwave ranging methods.
The purpose of the Tiandu satellite is to inform the design of China’s proposed Queqiao lunar navigation and communications satellite constellation. This system will provide support services for lunar surface operations. Robotic and manned operations on the lunar surface, particularly on the lunar south pole and on the far side of the moon, which are of intense interest, face limitations in line-of-sight communications.
A lunar constellation that includes positioning, navigation, and timing services is also being planned by Lockheed Martin and the European Space Agency. These systems will face challenges such as linking with ground stations on both the Earth and Moon surfaces, integrating navigation and communications, maintaining intersatellite links, and harsher solar radiation environments.
However, early visions of China’s Queqiao constellation envisioned a more extensive system of spacecraft that would be located in circumlunar space and at Lagrangian points between Earth and the Moon, and then expand to form interplanetary staging stations. Ta.
The first Tiandu experiment is part of infrastructure construction to support the China-led International Lunar Research Station (ILRS). The project aims to establish a lunar base in his 2030s, and DSEL is active in attracting international partners. China also aims to land two astronauts on the moon by 2030.
Establishing lunar infrastructure could give developers greater collaboration opportunities, soft power, and leadership in space.
Last year, senior Chinese space officials urged the country to accelerate its plans to develop lunar infrastructure or miss out on a never-to-be-repeated opportunity.
Lunar infrastructure, Tiandu payload
China is beginning to expand its lunar infrastructure. This country already has an aging satellite orbiting Lagrangian Point 2 between the Earth and the Moon, tens of thousands of kilometers from the Moon. The 2018 mission supported the Chang’e 4 far side lander and rover mission.
The new larger Queqiao-2 mission will operate in a frozen elliptical orbit to support the Chang’e 4, 6, 7, and 8 missions. The Tiandu satellite will be a precursor to a larger system.
The 61-kilogram Tiandu-1 carries a Ka dual-band integrated communications payload, a laser retroreflector, a space router, and other payloads. Weighing 15 kilograms, Tiandu-2 carries a communications payload.
Both the Queqiao-2 and Tiandu pairs arrived in Wenchang in the past few days. The multiple Chang’e 6 probes were delivered in early January. The latter will be launched by a Long March 5 rocket.
Chinese state media reports that the launch of the Queqiao-2 and Tiandu satellites will take place in the first half of this year. However, the launch using a Long March 8 rocket from the coastal Wenchang spaceport is scheduled for February or March. As a result, Queqiao-2 will take more time to test run before the Chang’e-6 mission to return samples to the far side of the moon is launched around May.
The Tiandu satellite will be placed into lunar orbit together with Queqiao-2. The satellite will then perform a near-lunar braking maneuver to enter the large elliptical lunar orbit, said Chief Commander of the Tiandu Navigation Technology Test Satellite at the China Deep Space Exploration Laboratory (DSEL). Chen Xiao told Xinhua News Agency.
Last weekend’s launch may also have carried a satellite designed to test connectivity between the Tiandu satellite and low Earth orbit (LEO). The DRO-L satellite was developed by his IAMCAS under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). CAS scientists published a paper last year on the requirements for intersatellite tracking between LEO and distant retrograde orbit (DRO) satellites.
The Tiandu satellite is the first developed by DSEL (also known as Tiandu in Chinese). DSEL was established in 2022 under the China National Space Administration (CNSA) to support China’s lunar and deep space exploration programs. DSEL has also played a role in ILRS diplomacy.
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