China plans to launch an ambitious bilateral flight with a single rocket to other planets, Ace Minion and Uranus around 2030, and it will call the Tianwen 4 mission and see a larger probe dedicated to Jupiter and a smaller spacecraft flying above the distant planet Uranus.
According to the “Space” website, the couple will launch a long rocket on March 5, and China previously indicated that it is in the planning stages of the Jupiter mission, but new details were provided by Wang Qiong from lunar and space exploration. Engineering Center. From the China National Space Administration (CNSA) at the 2022 International Astronautical Congress in Paris.
The main spacecraft will also be dedicated to exploring the Jupiter system and will eventually enter orbit around Callisto to conduct a detailed investigation of the outer dimensions of the Galilean moons.
A smaller spacecraft, which will have a mass of about a few hundred kilograms, according to Wang, will make a longer trip to Uranus.
“Scientific objectives are still being studied,” Wang said, and previous presentations had indicated that China was considering focusing on Callisto as a major target that could reveal much about the Moon and the history of Jupiter’s system, or to investigate Jupiter’s irregular moons. It could provide insight into the early days of the solar system itself.
The CNSA previously considered a lander as part of a mission profile focused on Callista, but Wang says the latter concept includes an orbiter but not a lander.
The mission is part of China’s expanded program to explore the solar system, named Tian Wen after the poem “Questions from Heaven” attributed to the ancient Chinese poet Qu Yuan, born about 2,300 years ago.