Alex McColgan

Smaller than the ISS, but still large enough that it had to be assembled module by module in space, with modules launched between 2021 and 2022.

Life aboard the Tiangong is in many ways similar to life aboard the ISS.

China tries to keep its taikonauts happy with a wide range of space foods, 120 different kinds.

Naturally, given the muscle-atrophying effect of microgravity, it's important for taikonauts to spend time each day exercising, or else they'd have a very bad time of things when they came back to Earth.

Similar to the ISS, one of the main aims of the Tiangong Space Station is the popularization of science, so taikonauts spend some of their time taking part in presentations and collaborations with schools in China.

For instance, this demonstration, involving what fire looks like when there's no gravity,

Students are also involved in growing rice seeds from the same batch of seeds growing on Tiangong, which will help Chinese scientists explore the impacts of microgravity on plant growth.

Tiangong is home to several live plants, although some care has to be taken while watering them.

Nothing so far here is too much out of the ordinary.

However, there is a theme to the experiments being carried out on Tiangong over the course of its 15-year lifespan.

Five themes, in fact, that all point to a truly ambitious goal.

The five research themes are on-orbit assembly and construction technologies in space, robotics and autonomous system technology,

New energy and propulsion technology.

Environmental control and life support system technology.

And new generic technology for spacecraft.

The technical terminology can make things a little murky, so let's break down what each of these means.

Even just the first of these areas of research is awe-inspiringly ambitious.

By on-orbit construction technologies in space, we're talking about developing all the technology necessary to build large space facilities or even spacecraft.

In a paper released in 2023, Chinese scientists laid out their goal to develop 3D printing capabilities and other manufacturing tools in orbit.

They're already some of the way there.