China's Space Program News Thread

[taxiya]

No LES tower? Capsule integrated LES?

I guess the artist is a fan of NASA+Boeing+SpaceX like insisting J-20 having a 2D boxy TVC+removing canard and tail fins.

 

[siegecrossbow]

The beauty of Chinese ppt is that even though the illustration is often crude, there is at least a 70 percent chance that we’ll see the project realized within the decade.

 

[kentchang]

The cost of such a landing tethering system should be fairly negligible. After all, it is just a bunch of steel towers, cables and nets. So this could easily be deployed widely.

And remember how many failures SpaceX encountered when developing a launch system with legs. This would avoid all those expensive failures and delays as a rocket dropping into a net is really simple.

In addition to saving the weight of the landing legs, they would also require less fuel for landing. Currently SpaceX rockets spend a lot of fuel to slow down and hover before landing. That would translate into cost and payload.

In addition to savings on weight and more complicated engine plumbing, the tethered approach can increase safety margin and landing site options by recovery at sea since ships can move and adjust based on actual flight profiles. Also usable for sea-launched boosters too.

They seem to have chosen a more conservative approach showing confidence/faith in their lunar/Mars lander design. Just a transitional phase before we get to regular SSO flight in the 2040's.

 

[Andy1974]

It is certainly important news to confirm CZ-5DY will have the first stage be capable of being reusable.

But, why would a tethered landing scheme be preferred over having legs? It seems to me that the tethered landing scheme will limit the geographical locations to which the first stage can be recovered at (i.e.: only sites with the tether system), which in turn will also likely limit the number of simultaneous recoveries that can be achieved at once (as that will be limited by tether systems).
Also, if there is a failure with the legs on a rocket during landing, you only lose that given rocket and the specific landing site (which doesn't have much specialized infrastructure) -- but if there's a failure with a tethered landing system, not only may you lose the rocket, but the specialized infrastructure for said landing.

I suppose one benefit is that the lack of legs may save some weight compared to the tether system.... but given how well proven the VTVL with integrated legs have been, I'm surprised they'd choose such a strange system.

It's not like that presentation is trying to be fancy either -- one of the concepts displayed is basically just Starship and Super Heavy, albeit they describe it as only having a payload of 20 tons.


View attachment 83097
View attachment 83098



Still, it is encouraging that at least they're seriously looking at reuseable rockets now and they're now explicitly saying that CZ-5DY will be intended to have a reusable compatible first stage.


BTW, I think since late last year we've known CZ-5DY will have a LTO of 27 tons, this isn't new afaik

Perhaps they want to have a system that they have all the IP for, hence the need for innovation?

 

[Blitzo]

I see the tethered landing structure an addition to a dedicated landing pad or landing drone ship, therefor not a geographical limit.
Yes, the destruction of the landing tethering device is an extra damage than a pad.
The tether however reduce or remove the requirement of 1:1 thrust to weight ratio for last moment hovering capability, making the landing easier.


My thought isn't about weight saving although it does. It is the extra requirement of hovering demand on engine's deep throttling capability.


Super Heavy uses similar tethering landing except it is rigged tether instead of wires. Another reason of CZ-5DY's choice for 1st stage.

Well, we will see I suppose.
At least they're seriously looking at reusable 1st stages now for CZ-5DY.

I guess the artist is a fan of NASA+Boeing+SpaceX like insisting J-20 having a 2D boxy TVC+removing canard and tail fins.

Pretty sure they're basing their art from this official depiction from last year (on the left of the slide)

 

[taxiya]

Pretty sure they're basing their art from this official depiction from last year (on the left of the slide)

I take it that the left is not for the cargo launch by having fins for escape. Seems that there are two parallel approach in escape system. Maybe that is where they got the two extra tons for LTO.

 

[by78]

Glass beads discovered by the Yuutu-2 lunar rover. These are a few centimeters in diameter and were likely formed from meteoroid strikes. I hope they will collect some samples in a future mission.

 

[Richard Santos]

Fan art, it looks great though

What are those 4 little wings sprouting from the service module?

 

[no_name]

What are those 4 little wings sprouting from the service module?

I think they are part of the second stage rocket, for hooking onto arresting wires during recovery. See post #10236

 

[KYli]

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!