The guiding role of national demand in the first level discipline construction of planetary science

Abstract

Since the beginning of the 21st century, deep space exploration has become an important national strategy. Five lunar exploration missions and the first Mars exploration mission have been successful. New strategic plans such as asteroid sample return mission, Mars sample return mission, Jupiter exploration, solar system's frontier crossing and lunar scientific research station show the ambition of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. There is no doubt that China has become a rapidly rising power in deep space exploration. In this context, the lag of planetary science discipline construction has become a significant bottleneck restricting the development of deep space exploration in China. Planetary science has distinct basic research attributes, and it complements deep space exploration. Therefore, the construction of the first- level discipline of planetary science should be the basic research oriented by the national strategic demands, and the goal should be the discipline with "Chinese characteristics, Chinese style and Chinese manner".

Keywords

• deep space exploration
• planetary science
• first-level discipline
• national strategy