China is building a cutting-edge space telescope, dubbed the China Space Station Telescope (CSST), which will rival the James Webb Space Telescope. The CSST will not only be as powerful as the JWST but also fully repairable and upgradable from space.
The telescope’s primary mission is to conduct surveys of the deep universe, aiming to solve cosmological mysteries such as dark matter and dark energy. It will map hundreds of thousands of galaxies and study voids and clusters, providing clues about the nature of these mysterious substances.
One of its key tests will be measuring weak gravitational lensing, a phenomenon that occurs when light from distant galaxies is bent due to space curvatures. The CSST’s advanced optics will give it a field of view 300 times greater than the Hubble Space Telescope’s.
Launched no earlier than 2026, the telescope will join the next generation of game-changing telescopes, including the Euclid and Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescopes. The CSST will complement these instruments, providing access to different regions of the universe and distances.
Its unique feature is that it will share an orbit with the Chinese Tiangong space station, allowing for easy servicing, instrument module trades, and upgrades. This arrangement will enable the telescope to continue providing reliable data for many decades into the future.
The CSST’s capabilities make it a significant addition to the world of cosmology observatories, and its mission is expected to provide valuable insights into the nature of the universe.
Source: https://www.livescience.com/space/space-exploration/china-is-building-a-space-telescope-to-rival-the-jwst-and-it-could-survive-in-orbit-decades-longer