Space environment consists of many hazards such as the radiation, space debris, meteoroid impact, temperature, and so on. 

The study of space environment or better known as the space environment exploration, seeks to understand and address conditions existing in space that will affect the operation of spacecrafts. In general, it focuses on the study of space environment and its effect on spacecraft, as well as the space detection technique development to best serve the spacecraft design and space flight security.

The areas of study in this field include but not limited to the following aspects:

•　probing into and monitoring high energy electron, proton and heavy ion and their single event effect and radiation dose effect, hot plasma and its charging effect, upper atmosphere density and composition,

•　ultraviolet atmosphere ozone exploration,

•　space physics initiative experiment,

•　aerocraft electric digit initiative control,

•　solar electromagnetic radiation, etc.

Research in space exploration also cover the ground simulation experiment of space environment and its effects, and laboratory study on protective measures against harmful space environment effects.

For decades, NSSC researchers have studied space environment and have strived to develop tools, equipment and countermeasures to fight against the unfavorable space environment factors and to finally overcome these environmental challenges. 

The tasks being undertaken by NSSC in this field include China’s weather satellites FENGYUN, earth observation satellite ZIYUAN, technology demonstration satellite SHIJIAN and some other tasks concerning space environment monitoring and catastrophic environment event warning for spacecraft.  

　　　　　　 　

　  space environment exploration (Image by NSSC)