generallyanoaf t1_iuivy4b wrote
Reply to comment by Temstar in China launches 3rd and final space station component by miso25
Are those plans looking realistic or just early proposals for now?
Temstar t1_iuix0au wrote
Well the Tianhe-2 core module is in storage and all ready to go, it was built together with Tianhe-1 as a backup should the launch go wrong and since it wasn't required it's available for whatever mission you can think of immediately.
Lab 3 and lab 4 do not exist yet, so they will need to be built first. CNSA has expressed interest that they welcome other countries if they want to be a partner and build a module of their own to attach to Tianhe-2. Many years ago Italy expressed interest and came up with a module design called HERD (High Energy cosmic-Ray Detection) but that's probably dead now.
Here's a rough idea of what phase 2 expansion will look like. Obviously lab 3 and 4 are just placeholders and clones of Mengtian and Wentian without the solar panels. Note during phase 2 expansion Tianhe-1's solar panels will be detached and moved to the end of Mengtian and Wentian.
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