空间科学突破的前瞻和中国的贡献

Prospects of Global Space Science Breakthroughs and China’s Contributions

空间科学是依托航天器平台研究宏观和微观世界的前沿交叉学科,自20世纪60年代以来在基础科学前沿催生了诸多诺贝尔奖级的重大发现和原创科学成果,突破了人类对自然世界的认知边界,不断拓展人类知识图谱。进入21世纪,在新一轮科技革命孕育爆发之际,空间科学也进入了革命性突破的新时代。文章回顾了近10年来国际空间科学重大进展,结合世界空间科学前沿发展态势及主要航天国家和地区空间科学任务的未来规划布局,对未来10—15年空间科学的可能突破领域进行了研判和分析,指出基于重大科学目标的系列空间科学任务,极端条件下的物理规律、中低频引力波、宇宙黑暗时代和黎明时代、太阳活动爆发机制、日地系统多圈层耦合、太阳系地外生命指征、系外行星探寻等学科前沿有望取得重大科学进展。我国正在加快建设航天强国和科技强国,空间科学领域正在奋起直追,围绕极端宇宙、时空涟漪、日地全景和宜居行星等科学主题开展前沿探索,有望在这一轮探索宇宙奥秘的世界竞技舞台上取得优异成绩,贡献中国智慧、作出中国贡献。

Space science is a frontier interdisciplinary subject that probes the macroscopic and microscopic worlds with spacecraft as a platform.Since the 1960s,many Nobel Prize-level discoveries and original achievements have been spawned in related basic science,breaking through the boundaries of human cognition of the nature,and expanding the human knowledge graph continuously.In the 21st century,with a new round of scientific and technological revolution brewing,space science has also entered a new era of revolutionary advancements.Here we review the major progress in global space science in the past ten years,as well as the trend of space science and the future layout of flight missions in major spacefaring countries and regions,forecasting the possible breakthroughs in the next 10 to 15 years.With a series of strategic missions and projects focused on key scientific goals,major advances are expected in the fields of physics laws under extreme conditions,gravitational waves of medium and low frequency,the dark age and dawn of the universe,solar eruption mechanism,coupling of the solar-terrestrial system,fingerprints of extraterrestrial life in the solar system and beyond.We will carry out cutting-edge exploration on four major themes:the extreme universe,ripples in time and space,the panoramic view of the Sun and Earth,and the search for habitable exoplanets,aiming to make significant contribution to China’s goal of building of a space power and world leader in science and technology.