Science Is Reaping the Benefits of China's Investment in Space

This Long March-7 rocket carried a cargo craft to the Tiangong-2 space lab in April.

RISING STAR Science is reaping the benefits of China’s investment in space.

BY JANE QIU

ime seems to move faster at the and meticulous,” says one. “No single failure in called Chang’e-3 landed on the Moon, deliv- National Space Science Center on 10,000 trials,” encourages another. ering a rover that used ground-penetrating

the outskirts of Beijing. Research- For director-general Wu Ji, this 19.4-hectare, radar to measure the lunar subsurface with VCG/GETTY ers are rushing around this brand- 914-million-yuan (US$135-million) campus unprecedented resolution. China’s latest space Tnew compound of the Chinese Academy of represents the coming of age of China’s space- lab, which launched in September 2016, carries Sciences (CAS) in anticipation of the launch science efforts. In the past few decades, Wu says, more than a dozen scientific payloads. And of the nation’s first X-ray telescope. At mis- China has built the capacity to place satellites four additional missions dedicated to astro- sion control, a gigantic screen plays a looping and astronauts in orbit and send spacecraft to physics and other fields have been sent into video showcasing the country’s major space the Moon, but it has not done much significant orbit in the past two years, including a space- milestones. Engineers focus intently on their research from its increasingly lofty vantage craft that is conducting pioneering experi- computer screens while a state television point. Now, that is changing. “As far as space ments in quantum communication. crew orbits the room with cameras, collect- science is concerned,” he says, “we are the new These efforts, the work of the CAS and other ing footage for a documentary about China’s kid on the block.” agencies, have made an impact well beyond meteoric rise as a space power. The walls are China is rushing to establish itself as a leader the country’s borders. “The space-science pro- festooned with motivational slogans. “Diligent in the field. In 2013, a 1.2-tonne spacecraft gramme in China is extremely dynamic and

394 | NATURE | VOL 547 | 27 JULY ©20172017 Mac millan Publishers Li mited, part of Spri nger Nature. All ri ghts reserved. ©2017 Mac millan Publishers Li mited, part of Spri nger Nature. All ri ghts reserved.

FEATURE NEWS

innovative,” says Johann-Dietrich Wörner, missions, but that changed with the first lander, an earlier record of 144 kilometres (ref. 3). director-general of the European Space Agency Chang’e-3. The mission made China the third The team is also using the satellite to test (ESA) in Paris. “It’s at the forefront of scientific nation to accomplish a soft landing on the the possibility of establishing a quantum- discovery.” Eagerly anticipated missions in Moon. More importantly, Chang’e-3 touched communication channel between Graz, near the coming decade include attempts to bring down in an area that had never been studied up Vienna, and Beijing. The aim is to transmit back lunar samples, a joint CAS–ESA project close. Radar measurements and geochemical information securely by encrypting it with a key to study space weather and ground-breaking analyses unveiled a complex history of volcanic encoded in the states of photons. “If successful, missions to probe dark matter and black holes. eruptions that could have happened as recently a global quantum-communication network But despite the momentum, many research- as 2 billion years ago1. “It has really helped to will no longer be a science fiction,” says Pan ers in China worry about the nation’s future in bridge the gap in our understanding of the Jian-wei, a physicist at the CAS’s University of space science. On 2 July, a Long March-5 rocket Science and Technology of China in Hefei and failed during the launch of a communications the mission’s principal investigator. satellite, raising concerns about an upcoming Researchers are also expecting great Moon mission that will use a similar vehicle. things from the $300-million Dark Matter And broader issues cloud the horizon. “The “AS FAR AS SPACE Particle Explorer (DAMPE). The detector, international and domestic challenges are which launched in 2015, is the most cutting- formidable,” says Li Chunlai, deputy director SCIENCE IS edge equipment for picking up high-energy at the CAS’s National Astronomical Observa- cosmic rays, says Martin Pohl, an astrophysi- tories in Beijing and a senior science adviser CONCERNED, WE cist at University of Geneva in Switzerland and on the country’s lunar programme. China is a co-principal investigator of the mission. often sidelined in international collaboration, DAMPE’s data could help to determine and in recent years it has had to compete with ARE THE NEW KID whether a surprising pattern in the abundance the United States for partners because of a US of high-energy electrons and positrons — law that prohibits NASA from working with ON THE BLOCK.” detected by the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer China. Within China, the government has not (AMS) aboard the International Space Station conducted strategic planning for space science — comes from dark matter or from astronomi- or provided long-term financial support. “The Moon’s past and deep structure,” says study cal sources such as pulsars, says Pohl, who question is not how well China has been doing,” leader Xiao Long, a planetary geologist at the also works on the AMS. Because DAMPE is says Li. “But how long this will last.” China University of Geosciences in Wuhan. more sensitive than the AMS to high-energy The results have captured the attention of particles, Pohl says, it “will make a significant REACHING FOR THE MOON planetary scientists in other countries. “There is contribution”. China’s entry into the space age started with a an urgent need to determine the precise age and song. In 1970, the country’s first satellite trans- composition of the Moon’s youngest volcan- SCIENCE FOR ALL mitted the patriotic tune ‘The East is Red’ from ism,” says James Head, a specialist in planetary The dark-matter and quantum missions low Earth orbit. But it was only after the cultural exploration at Brown University in Providence, launched just before the CAS’s space-science revolution ended in 1976 that the nation made Rhode Island. This might soon be possible. As funding expired. Scientists, including Wu, serious progress towards establishing a strong early as December, the Chang’e-5 spacecraft will had to battle for continued support. The presence in space. The first major milestone launch on a mission to return samples from near Chinese government has lately prioritized came in 1999 with the launch of Shenzhou-1, Mons Rümker, a region known to host volcanic applied research, and it took intense lobbying an uncrewed test capsule that marked the start rocks much younger than those obtained from for the better part of 2016 before research- of the human space-flight programme. Since the Apollo landing sites. “It would be a fantastic ers convinced the government to allocate an then, the country has notched up a series of addition to lunar science,” Head says. additional $730 million to the CAS for space successes, including sending Chinese astro- science over the next five years. “It was not nauts into orbit and launching two space labs FIVE YEARS without a fight,” Wu says. “But we’ve managed (see ‘Earth orbit and beyond’). The rising fortunes of Chinese space science to pull it off.” “China’s space programme has made have come in part from efforts by the CAS, The new plan, which began this year, funds tremendous advances in a short period of which worked through the 2000s to convince a number of missions slated for launch in the time,” says Michael Moloney, who directs China’s government to boost the scientific 2020s, including China’s first solar explora- boards covering aerospace and space science impact of its missions. The academy’s efforts tion mission and a remote-sensing spacecraft at the US National Academies of Sciences, were eventually rewarded with a pot of money: to study Earth’s water cycle. Engineering, and Medicine in Washington the five-year Strategic Priority Program on The CNSA and the China Manned Space DC. And science has progressively become a Space Science kicked off in 2011 and provided Agency have also been ramping up their space- bigger part of missions run by both the China $510 million for the development of four science efforts. One source of excitement is a National Space Administration (CNSA), science satellites. $440-million X-ray telescope led by the CNSA, which governs lunar and planetary explora- One of the missions that has yielded early called Enhanced X-ray Timing and Polarim- tion, and the China Manned Space Agency. results — and garnered worldwide attention — etry (eXTP). Planned for launch by 2025, the The country’s newest space lab, Tiangong-2, is the $100-million Quantum Experiments at mission is being financed in part by European for example, hosts a number of scientific Space Scale (QUESS) mission. The spacecraft partners and involves hundreds of scientists payloads, including an advanced atomic clock launched in August 2016 and has been testing from 20 countries. It is designed to study and a $3.4-million detector called POLAR a peculiar phenomenon called entanglement, matter under extreme conditions of density, for the study of γ-ray bursts — blasts of high- in which the quantum states of particles are gravity and magnetism that can be found only energy radiation from collapsing stars and linked to each other even if the particles are far in space — in the interior of neutron stars or other sources. apart. Last month, the QUESS team reported around black holes, for instance. The country’s first lunar forays — orbit- that it had used the satellite to beam a pair of The most innovative aspect of the satellite ers launched in 2007 and 2010 — were more entangled photons to two ground stations is its ability to simultaneously measure with engineering demonstrations than scientific spaced 1,200 kilometres apart2 — far exceeding high precision the timing, energy distribution

©2017 Mac millan Publishers Li mited, part of Spri nger Nature. All ri ghts reserved. ©2017 Mac millan Publishers Li mited, part of Spri nger Nature. All ri ghts r27ese rJULYved. 2017 | VOL 547 | NATURE | 395

NEWS FEATURE

and polarization of X-ray signals, which will A nation that is notably absent from China’s EARTH ORBIT AND BEYOND provide insight into a range of X-ray sources, current list of collaborators is the United States. After achieving major space- ight milestones, says co-principal investigator Marco Feroci, In the past, China contributed key components China has put more support behind missions an astrophysicist at the Institute of Space to NASA missions. But NASA is now forbidden with scientic aims. Astrophysics and Planetology in Rome. eXTP from such collaboration by a US law passed in will also carry a wide-field telescope to hunt 2011, and as a result China is excluded from 1970 China launches its rst satellite, for unusual, transient signals. “Once it finds participation in the International Space Station. Dongfanghong-1. a potentially interesting source, all the other On board is a product of earlier collaboration instruments will be zoomed in that direction,” between the United States, China and a number

says Zhang Shuangnan, an astrophysicist at the of other countries — the AMS. NSSC CAS’s Institute of High Energy Physics in Bei- Representatives from NASA and Chinese jing, who is leading the mission. “It’s the total agencies still visit each other regularly. But weapon for X-ray astronomy.” with no official cooperation possible, there Work is also progressing on projects led may be some inevitable replication of effort. by the China Manned Space Agency. One is In March, STROBE-X (Spectroscopic Time- a dark-matter detector that has 15 times the Resolving Observatory for Broadband Energy sensitivity of DAMPE; it’s set to be installed X-rays) — a project similar to China’s eXTP on China’s permanent space station, which is mission — was selected by NASA for fur- slated for completion by 2022. There are also ther study. STROBE-X could launch by 2030, plans for a $730-million optical telescope to some five years after eXTP. “Having two very orbit near the space station. With a field of similar missions at the same time is not ideal,” 1999 The launch of the uncrewed Shenzhou-1 view 300 times that of the Hubble telescope, it says Colleen Wilson-Hodge, an astrophysi- test capsule kicks o China's human will produce survey data that could be ideal for cist at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center space- ight programme. studying dark matter and dark energy as well as in Huntsville, Alabama, and a member of the hunting for exoplanets, says Gu Yidong, a phys- STROBE-X team. “I wish there were a way we 2003 Astronaut Yang Liwei ies aboard Shenzhou-5 icist at the CAS’s Technology and Engineering could all work together rather than competing on China's rst crewed mission to orbit. Center for Space Utilization in Beijing and a with each other.” senior science adviser to the China Manned 2007 China’s rst lunar orbiter, Chang’e-1, MOVING FORWARDS is launched. Space Agency. For China’s space scientists, however, the main INTERNATIONAL TIES challenge is to convince their own government 2011 China’s rst space lab, Tiangong-1, reaches orbit. Such projects suggest that collaboration is of the need for long-term investment. Zhang, strengthening between the CAS and China’s the leader of several astrophysics missions other agencies involved with space. And a including eXTP, refers to the situation as “a 2013 The lunar spacecraft Chang’e-3 makes the country’s rst soft landing on the Moon. similar spirit is reflected abroad. China’s space constant state of zhaobu baoxi”, which trans- programme “has become increasingly confi- lates as “not knowing where the next meal dent and outward looking”, says Wörner. In the will come from”. “We’ll be safe for another five 2015 The Dark Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE) reaches Earth’s orbit. past, announcements were made only after a years,” he says. “But nobody knows what will mission was successful; now, China routinely happen afterwards.” broadcasts launches as they happen. And Chi- 2016 The Tiangong-2 space lab launches, Feats of engineering and exploration still carrying 14 science experiments. nese scientists are increasingly reaching out to get priority over science. The Chinese space their international colleagues, building ties station, for instance, has a budget of $14.5 bil-

2017 China launches its rst X-ray telescope, the through small-scale partnerships. lion. But even though Chinese President Xi Hard X-Ray Modulation Telescope (HXMT). Most major CAS-led missions have Euro- Jinping has said that the station will be China’s pean partners, with collaborations initiated national laboratory in space, there is no dedi- 2017 China plans to launch Chang’e-5 on a by researchers on both sides. But ESA hopes cated fund for the development of its scientific mission to bring lunar samples to Earth. to establish high-level cooperation with the payloads. The station might support science as rising space power. In early 2015, ESA and Tiangong-2 does, providing power and com- the CAS issued a call for proposals for space- munications to various experiments. But there science missions. They selected a project called is also the danger, Zhang says, that “it will be a Solar Wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link house without furniture”. Explorer (SMILE), to be led jointly and funded At China’s sprawling National Space with $53 million from each group. “The agen- Science Center, the furniture is new, and the air cies work intimately together at every stage of still smells of fresh paint. Having secured the the development,” says Wu. next bout of funding, Wu looks relaxed as he ESA and China collaborated more than settles into a big leather armchair behind his LIANG XU/XINHUA VIA ZUMA WIRE LIANG XU/XINHUA a decade ago on a project called Double desk. He acknowledges the institutional flaws Star to study magnetic storms, but it was a but is optimistic about the future. “So far, so China-led mission. Through SMILE, the good,” he says, glancing at the satellite models agencies are testing a new, more intimate that line his shelves. “We can’t expect things to cooperation model. “It’s about building change overnight.” ■ trust and bridges, so we could better understand each other,” says Fabio Favata, Jane Qiu is a freelance writer based in Beijing. head of strategy planning and coordination 1. Xiao, L. et al. Science 347, 1226–1229 (2015). at ESA. “Hopefully, this will open the way 2. Yin, J. et al. Science 356, 1140–1144 (2017). for larger-scale cooperation in the future.” 3. Ursin, R. et al. Nature Phys. 3, 481–486 (2007).