China plans to send ships to Jupiter and Uranus in a single rocket

Sep. 23 () –

China is planning an ambitious two-for-one trip to the outer planets with a pair of spacecraft which will launch towards Jupiter and Uranus around 2030.

The mission will be called Tianwen 4 and it will see a larger probe destined for Jupiter and a smaller spacecraft being sent for a flyby of distant Uranus.

The pair will launch on a Long March 5 rocket and use one flyby of Venus and two flybys of Earth to launch the spacecraft on a trajectory to the outer solar system. before splitting up and setting course for their respective goals.

China has previously stated that it was in the planning stages of a mission to Jupiter, but Wang Qiong of the Center for Lunar Exploration and Space Engineering of the China National Space Administration (CNSA) presented new details at the 2022 International Astronautical Congress in Paris.

The main spacecraft will be dedicated to investigating the Jupiter system and will eventually enter orbit around the moon Callisto. for a detailed investigation of the outermost of the Galilean moons.

The smallest spacecraft, which will have a mass of the order of a few hundred kilograms according to Wang, will make the longest trip to Uranus. The presentation also suggests that the spacecraft could fly past an asteroid at its sunrise.

“The scientific objectives are still under consideration,” Wang told Space.com after the presentation. Previous presentations indicated that China was weighing focusing on Callisto as a primary target, which could reveal much about the moon and the history of the Jovian system, or investigating Jupiter’s irregular satellites, which could provide insight into the early days of the solar system. .

Previously, the CNSA was considering a lander as part of the mission profile centered on Callisto, but Wang says the latest concept includes an orbiter but not a lander.