JIUQUAN, Gansu, Dec. 18 (Xinhua) -- In a crowd 1,500 meters from the launch pad, Liu Cixin watched the rocket rising into the sky, wondering how its payload will change astrophysics and humanity's future.

The Long March-2D carrier rocket carrying Wukong, China's first dark matter probe satellite, blasted off at 8:12 a.m. Beijing time Thursday from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China, starting its mission to explore the darkness of the universe.

Liu, author of the bestseller "The Three-Body Problem" and the first Chinese winner of best novel honor at the Hugo Awards for science fiction and fantasy, has imagined many deep space expeditions in his works. "Even in science fiction, the theme of dark matter is seldom touched," he said.

Wukong was named after the Monkey King in the classic Chinese legend, "Journey to the West," following a global campaign organized by its developers National Space Science Center (NSSC) and Purple Mountain Observatory in Nanjing. The number of proposed names submitted from September 29 to October 31 reached 32,000, with almost 1,000 received every day.

Wukong is a household name in China. The Monkey King had supernatural powers and was responsible for protecting a pilgrim on a journey to retrieve the Buddhist sutras from India. Also, "wu" means comprehension or understanding and "kong" means space, so "Wukong" the satellite has a mission to "understand space," according to the NSSC.

At 1.5 meters long and wide and 1.2 meters high, the 1.9-tonne dark matter particle explorer (DAMPE) has been lifted into sun-synchronous orbit 500 kilometers above the ground, and will remain there for three to five years searching for evidence of the existence of dark matter.

Wukong's payload has four parts: a plastic scintillator array detector, a silicon array detector, a BGO calorimeter, and a neutron detector. They will measure high-energy electrons and gamma rays in space, which will lead to possible traces of dark matter particles' annihilation or decay and help to reveal physical details and spacial distribution.

Like the Monkey King who can see through everything with his sharp eyes, the satellite has 10 times the energy observation spectrum of the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer mounted in the International Space Station, and four times the energy resolution of other similar detectors. It is the most sensitive and accurate detector especially designed for dark matter.

Chang Jin, Wukong's chief scientist and vice director of the Purple Mountain Observatory, said China's first space telescope could totally change the way we understand the universe, promising major breakthroughs in space science and an answer to a decades-old riddle for physicists and astronomers.

In the early 1930s, Swiss astrophysicist Fritz Zwicky found the mass we can see is not enough to hold the universe together. Without another kind of matter that we can't see, galaxies would have disappeared long ago. He coined the term "dark matter" to describe it.

In the 1970s, astronomic discoveries such as rotation curves of disk galaxies, X-ray observations of clusters and the gravitational lensing effect all suggested the existence of dark matter. However, it can't be seen directly by optical or electromagnetic observation equipment, as it doesn't take part in electromagnetic interaction.

From dark matter's gravitational interaction with common matter, scientists calculate that dark matter and dark energy form 95 percent of universe mass, as the stars and planets we see account for just five percent. Any discoveries in this area could be as significant as heliocentric theory, the law of gravity, relativity theory and quantum mechanics.

China launched its first satellite in 1970, sent astronauts into space since 2003 and landed a rover on the moon in 2013. But unlike leading space powers, China never developed satellites for pure science research - until now. Most of its satellites are designed for applications such as communication, navigation and remote sensing.

Wukong is just the start of China's new stage in space exploration. The Space Science Pilot Projects initiated by NSSC under Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in 2013 has developed four space science satellites. Another three will be launched in the near future.

Wukong is China's first attempt to solve this enduring mystery. It is hard to predict when dark matter will be found or the applications of the discovery. Even so, exploration will continue despite uncertainties and setbacks.

Chang Jin said when scientists discovered quantum mechanics in the early 1900s, many at first thought it had no use at all. Now quantum mechanics is a pillar of modern physics and everything is related to it.

"Only when we understand the nature of dark matter, can we find how it will change the future. But the development of fundamental physics will definitely boost science and technology," said Chang Jin.

Liu Cixin believes China's space industry should have more vision and innovation. "Space exploration is innovation in its essence. We can't fear failure when marching to unknown worlds," he said.

"The Earth is a place to live only for now; humanity's future is in space. We should be more courageous."