'Lagrangian points' could become a new battleground in the space race

Science news site ScienceAlert reports that the space development competition between the United States and China is intensifying, and the ``Lagrange point'' has become a fierce battleground.

Lagrange Points Could Become Battlegrounds in a New Space Race : ScienceAlert

Lagrangian points are locations where the gravity and centrifugal force of two celestial bodies balance out, allowing a third celestial body to stay stably, and there are five in total.

Taking the Sun and Earth as an example, Lagrangian points L1, L2, and L3 are on the straight line connecting the Sun and Earth, and L4 and L5 are located 60 degrees before and after the Earth on the Earth's orbit.

What is a Lagrange Point? - NASA Science

L1 and L2 are particularly popular as locations for satellites and telescopes, as they are close to the moon. L2 is located 1.5 million km far from the Earth as seen from the sun and offers an unobstructed view of deep space, making it ideal for installing high-sensitivity telescopes.

China has installed a satellite, Queqiao, at L2 that relays communications from the lunar probe Chang'e 4 .

In the future, we are planning a mission to bring back samples from the moon using Chang'e 5, and a mission to the south pole of the moon using Chang'e 6.

On the other hand, the United States is proceeding with plans to install a space station called ``Gateway'' that will orbit the moon in L2 of the Earth-Moon system, and is concerned about China's move to advance into space. The committee noted that ``NASA and Department of Defense programs are critical to countering the Chinese Communist Party's malign ambitions in space, including ensuring that the United States becomes the first nation to permanently deploy resources to all Lagrangian points.'' We have issued a report titled ``Providing funds to

It should be noted that it is not only the United States and China that are interested in Lagrangian points, but also the European Space Agency, which is also pursuing its own mission. 'While both interesting and troubling, it is at least interesting to see how Lagrangian points can be used to advance space exploration.'