Shensuo (spacecraft)

Shensuo (Chinese: 神梭), formerly Interstellar Express is a proposed Chinese National Space Administration program designed to explore the heliosphere and interstellar space.The program will feature two or three space probes that will purportedly be launched in 2024 and follow differing trajectories to encounter Jupiter to assist them out of the Solar System. The first probe, IHP-1, will travel toward the nose of the heliosphere, while the second probe, IHP-2, will fly near to the tail, skimming by Neptune and Triton in January 2038. There may be another probe—tentatively IHP-3—which would launch in 2030 to explore to the northern half of the heliosphere. IHP-1 and IHP-2 would be the sixth and seventh spacecraft to leave the Solar System, as well as first non-NASA probes to achieve this status.

IHP-1
Mission typeHeliosphere science, planetary flyby
OperatorChinese National Space Administration
Mission duration25 years (planned)
Start of mission
Launch dateProposed: May 2024
Flyby of Earth (gravity assist)
Closest approachOctober 2025
Flyby of Earth (gravity assist)
Closest approachDecember 2027
Flyby of Jupiter
Closest approachMarch 2029
Flyby of 50000 Quaoar
Closest approach2040 (tenative)
DistanceTBD
 
IHP-2
Mission typeHeliosphere science, planetary flyby
OperatorChinese National Space Administration
Mission duration25 years (planned)
Start of mission
Launch dateProposed: May 2024–2026
Flyby of Earth (gravity assist)
Closest approachMay 2027
Flyby of Earth (gravity assist)
Closest approachMarch 2032
Flyby of Jupiter
Closest approachMay 2033
Flyby of Neptune
Closest approachJanuary 2038
Distance1,000 km
Flyby of Triton
Closest approachJanuary 2038
DistanceTBD
Flyby of Kuiper belt object (TBD)
Closest approachTBD
DistanceTBD
 
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