Zhou Jianping, the chief designer of China Manned Space Program (CMS), said that building the China Space Station is a milestone of China's aerospace development.

"Without any referential experiences in many new technologies, we achieved leapfrog development through continuous effort," he said.

Three decades of hard work

The chief designer attributes the achievements in the last step of the "three-step" manned space program to hard work since the program was established 30 years ago.

He said that CMS and the China Space Station began developing late and there would be big challenges for them to surpass the predecessors and they must be clear about that.

Zhou is proud of the achievements they have made, like the robot arm technology and bioregenerative life support system for taikonauts (Chinese astronauts).

"They are new for us. Even for the entire international community, they took a long time to be achieved. Now, we did it in a short time and at low cost and we are very proud of this," Zhou said.

Systems like life-support save cost

The chief designer noted the bio-regenerative life-support system in the station, which is to collect the water and urine and purify them for drink or electrolysis oxygen generation.

"From the Shenzhou manned spacecrafts to Tiangong-1 and -2 space labs, our life-support system was not regenerative," he recalled the past.

Based on calculations for three taikonauts living in the space station for a year, they need to supply about eight tonnes of material to provide water and eliminate harmful substances.

"But in the same situation, now we only need to supply some 400 kilograms a year to give them sufficient water and oxygen," he said.

The chief designer said that the quality of the water generated by the system is strictly standardized, meaning it is even better than that on Earth.

Global space cooperation stressed

The space station aims to become a space scientific platform for all human beings. So far, 14 experimental cabinets have been installed, and international cooperation is encouraged.

"We have been doing things in this sector. For example, together with the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, we collected a group of experiment projects from around the world and we will begin to set them in orbit soon," Zhou said.

"In science experiments, we have close cooperation with other countries, for example, the Xuntian space telescope which involves the international participation and an international evaluation panel," he said.

"We are preparing the science applications of the telescope and organized four science centers," Zhou explained the telescope to be launched.

He said that China will use the data gathered by the telescope once it's put into operation and will build a cloud system and offer them to scientists across the world and help human being understand the universe.

China Space Station's future expansion outlined

The China Space Station was completed by the end of 2022 with a configuration of three modules: the Tianhe core module and the Wentian and the Mengtian lab modules.

According to Zhou, CMS has outlined the future mode of expansion, including docks, energy, control, and the bio-regenerative life support system. All these are based on the needs of science and technology.

"We could develop it to a six-module configuration with a total weight of about 180 tonnes," he said.

The chief designer said that the designed life of the station is ten years, but that will not be the end of the project.

"We could expand it to 15, 20 or even 30 years. This is a big challenge, not just expansion, but technology upgrades as well," he said.

"I feel very glad that we took less than two years to finish the construction and accumulated many experiences. Our designers are confident to face the development and challenges. And the challenge inspires us to ignite our creation," he noted.

Manned lunar landing planned

Zhou said that it won't take a long time for taikonauts to land on the moon and they are developing the new generation of carrier rockets and manned spacecrafts, as well as the landers.

"The goal is to send Chinese to the moon and realize our dreams that we have been holding for thousands of years. We have acquired such capability in technology," he said.

The chief designer said that through 30 years of work at CMS, they have accumulated good experience, and they are confident. 

"In the foreseeable future, we will send the Chinese to step on the moon. We will explore how human beings can use the resources on the moon and how to live on the moon for a long period and get ready for manned deep space exploration," he said. 

"I hope that our human beings can go into deeper space, and I believe there could be many more things for us to achieve. It requires our great efforts since there will be bigger challenges and greater difficulties, but we could do that," he noted.