Since 2008, the Chinese Academy of Sciences has been proactively demonstrating the feasibility of space gravitational wave (GW) exploration in China. After years of scientific frontier research, it has put forward the "Taiji Project" for space gravitational wave exploration in China and determined the development strategy and roadmap of a three-step strategy to launch "one satellite in 2019, another two satellites after 2023, and three more satellites around 2033".
In August 2018, one satellite task of the "Taiji Project" was initiated and implemented under Phase II of the Strategic Priority Program on Space Science (SPPSS-II), which started the first step in the three steps.Taiji-1, China’s first microgravity technology experimental satellite, was launched at 7:41 am on Aug. 31, 2019 at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center as the first satellite under Phase II of the Strategic Priority Program on Space Science (SPPSS-II), which is sponsored by the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Up to now, the first stage of the satellite’s in-orbit tests had been completed successfully. The results and data analysis show that displacement measurement precision for the laser interferometer onTaiji-1reached 100 picometers (approximately equal to the width of a single atom). The precision of the gravitational reference sensor on the satellite reached 10 billionths of the magnitude of the earth’s gravitational acceleration. The thrust resolution of the microthruster on the satellite reached the sub-micronewton level.Taiji-1achieved China’s highest accuracy for spatial laser interferometry; successfully conducted China’s first in-orbit drag-free control technology test; and realized the world’s first in-orbit verification of micronewton-level radio frequency ion propulsion technology and dual mode hall-effect microthruster technology.
The successful launch ofTaiji-1and the successful completion of the first stage of in-orbit tests have taken the first step of space gravitational wave detection in China, laying a foundation for China to take the lead in making breakthroughs in space gravitational wave detection. The Taiji Project consists of three satellites. Each satellite follows a heliocentric orbit. The three satellites together form a giant equilateral triangle with the side length being approximately three million kilometers.
