China's Space Program News Thread

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STAFF with a Jiading District-based company are proud for their contribution to China's space industry after hearing the success of the country's manned space docking mission between Shenzhou-9 spacecraft and Tiangong-1 lab module a month ago, for both they have undertaken their part in research and development.

Shanghai Aerospace Electronics Co Ltd was responsible for new research tasks related to Shenzhou-9's frequency synthesizers and health monitoring equipment (including portable sports spirometers, microbiological monitoring components and blood pressure measuring instruments), in addition to other research tasks.

As the heart of Shenzhou-9 and Tiangong-1, the frequency synthesizers, in each of them, provide high stability time and frequency reference signals of multiple frequencies and multiple wave forms for the spacecraft's electronic equipment. If failed, they would affect the normal working order of crucial spacecraft equipment.

The Jiading company has managed to develop two different sets of frequency synthesizers for the two aircraft, both of superb quality.

Quality is particularly significant for this manned space mission and the most important thing is to ensure the safety and health of astronauts.

The designers of the health monitoring instruments are Su Boshi, Wang Defa and Pan Huafeng.

The blood pressure measuring instrument developed by Wang is a small wrist blood pressure meter, used for blood pressure measurement of the astronauts during the in-orbit operation. It automatically transfers the code and blood pressure data of the astronauts to the host machine in the cabin.

The microbiological monitoring component developed by Su includes a gas particle detection device and a surface microbial detection device. The first device monitors the cleanliness of the cabin air while the latter monitors the cleanliness of the table where food and appliances are placed.

The portable spirometer developed by Pan is used for the periodic evaluation of the astronauts' cardiovascular fitness and physical condition. Composed of the host machine, turbine flow transducer and other 12 components, it is the most complex among the three health monitoring products

 

[plawolf]

Is Compass an acronym for anything?

No, it's not an acronym, just the English name for the system.

As No_name has pointed out, the Chinese name Beidou means the Big Dipper, which has historically been used for navigation by Chinese sailors and non-sailors alike, and as such, has acquired a colloquial meaning synonymous with a compass in many respects.

 

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HJ-1C (first civil SAR sat) carry out thermal test

 

[antiterror13]

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Do you know what resolution for Yaogan 15 ? which was launched in May 2012 by Long March 4C. I am hoping would reach something like 0.35m resolution. Even that, it would still lag behind the American and Israeli

 

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China and Argentina have signed an agreement for space cooperation that will allow China to build an antenna for deep space observation in Argentina's southern Patagonia region, the Argentinian embassy in Beijing said Monday.

According to the agreement signed in Beijing last week, China plans to establish ground tracking, command and data acquisition facilities, including a deep space antenna, in the Province of Neuquén, Argentina.

"This agreement will allow China to count as from the year 2014, with a ground station in the Southern Hemisphere to support the Program for moon exploration and other space activities," the Argentinian embassy in Beijing said in an e-mail to the Global Times, stressing that such cooperation was "for peaceful uses."

"On the other hand, Argentina will share the use of the facilities for the benefit of its own space programs," it added.

The signing of the deal came after...

 

[J-XX]

Do you know what resolution for Yaogan 15 ? which was launched in May 2012 by Long March 4C. I am hoping would reach something like 0.35m resolution. Even that, it would still lag behind the American and Israeli

What is the resolution of the latest American satellite?

 

[jackliu]

There is only so much resolution that matters before atmospheric distortion make it ineffective. They are using the same principle of astronomy telescope, judging from 7200mm focal length, and /f=14.4 that means the mirror aperture is 500mm across. This is pretty awesome, to put it in perspective, a telescope of 150mm aperture costs you on average about 400+ dollars, and with it you can see the ring of Saturn and deep space nebula. And an 250mm aperture telescope will cost you about 3000+ dollars. It is all about the mirror aperture, the bigger it is, the more light it can capture and magnify, but there only so much you can zoom in before the atmosphere make it all fuzzy. If you want a more powerful spy satellite, that means get bigger mirror with bigger apertures. That also means heavier satellite to launch into the sky. So if you want to guess American spy satellite's resolution, compare the mass of this Chinese satellite with the American ones is a good start.

Also I'm pretty sure they are using Maksutov–Cassegrain type telescope for the spy satellite, otherwise if they are using reflector type, the whole satellite will be as long as a 2 story building.

I personally have a 150mm aperture 1400mm focal length reflector telescope, it is actually made in China as well, and the quality is just as good as the expensive Made in USA ones, so I have every confidence that China can make precision high aperture mirrors.

 

[Vini_Vidi_Vici]

Currently the highest civillian resolution is GeoEye-1, with 0.41m resolution, but US military usually has something more advanced, so it's not unreasonable to predict 0.35m-0.3m.

 

[escobar]

The three astronauts are currently visiting Hong Kong, they participated in press conferences and a Q/A session with young collegian

[video=youtube;peEZ-YKvP4M]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peEZ-YKvP4M[/video]

 

[escobar]

A plasma propulsion technology has been tested successfully by the CASTC (China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation) 11th Research Institute.