China's Space Program News Thread

[kroko]

it may be used on the future Long March 9. also the LM-5 is considered under powered, many people think the thrust of the YF-77 and the YF-100 are not enough, so it may be used to re-configure the LM-5. there's report that pre-research has been carried out on large kerosene engine with thrust around 500t.

Has LM9 been aproved by chinese government, or is it just a proposal?

How can LM5 be underpowered? Unless they want it to be able to lift more than 25t LEO, but in that case they wouldnt they want a new rocket?

 

[Quickie]

The next higher range of payload after that of the LM-5 can be handled by the LM-9, that is if there is going to be a LM-9. There's also the Y-120t rocket engine under development. It's possible the Y-120t is to be used on the rocket stages of both the LM-5 and LM-9.


The 500t engines are considered large. Just 7 or 8 of this engines have more lifting capability than the 5 F-1 engines used by the Saturn V first stage.

 

[escobar]

some news dating from 2012...

- The GEO Millimetre Wave Atmosphere Temperature Sensor Project completed its acceptance review. It was reportedly the world’s first full-sized prototype able to obtain temperature data with a ground resolution of 50m from geostationary orbit.

- Aerospace Dongfanghong Satellite is developing 6 small military meteorological satellites to be launched in 2015.

- On 7 November, at 9:10 Beijing Time, the LIPS-200 ion electric thruster on the SJ-9A satellite made a successful firing lasting 3 minutes. It was the first time for China to test an electric propulsion system in space. One hour and 40 minutes later, another electric thruster on the same satellite, the LHT-100 Hall Effect electric thruster fired for 180 seconds. At 12:28, the LIPS-200 made the second firing for 4 minutes. Up to 14 November, it has completed the first phase of in-orbit testing with 12 firings. According to the plan, the LIPS-200 will be tested for 200 firings totalling 50 hours. LIPS-200 is developed by the Institute 510 of CAST, has a diameter of 20 cm and a weight of 140 kg, and provides a thrust of 40 mN and a specific impulse of 3,000 seconds. The LHT-100 was developed by Institute 801 of AAPLT, providing a thrust of 4 mN and a specific impulse of 1,600 seconds.

- There are a 2.5m resolution multispectral imager on the SJ-9A and a 73m resolution infrared focal plane array assembly on the SJ-9B.

- Shijian-10 microgravity satellite development was officially kicked off. It was the fourth satellite which got approved under the Space Science Pioneer Programme. The other three are the Quantum Science Satellite, the Dark Matter Exploration Satellite (DMES) and the HXMT (Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope).

- The Quantum Science Satellite has started prototype development in early December.

- On 8 October, the payload of the DMES completed the beam test in CERN

- In November, airborne calibration testing was perform the Sino-French Oceanic Satellite (CFOSAT).

- Long delayed SST (Space Solar Telescope) project was revived recently. The one metre telescope is now renamed DSO (Deep-space Solar Observatory) with a new role and will be placed at the Sun-Earth L1 point. DSO is expected to be approved in the near future.

- China plans to launch a two metre space telescope, comparable to the Hubble Space Telescope, around 2020.

- The Banxing-2 sub-satellite will be carried with TG-2 and will be released from it. Similar to the Banxing-1 released from the Shenzhou 7 in 2008, it is developed by Shanghai Engineering Centre for Microsatellites

- CE-3 3000N thrust engine completed the first simulated high altitude test firing using an expanded nozzle. It was another milestone after its first successful test firing. The engine will be used for orbit transfer and lunar landing.

- The 35m deep space tracking antenna in Kashi and 64m one in Jiamusi have been completed.

- CAST conducted 4 rocket sled tests for the recovery system of CE-5. In all tests, the parachute bay cover was ejected and the drag chute was deployed as expected.

- The microwave docking radar of CE-5 completed an important review. CE-5 will perform lunar orbit rendezvous and docking. The lunar orbit docking radar is developed on the basis of the Shenzhou docking radar, but smaller, lighter, more precise and has higher automation level.

- LM-11 all-solid small launcher has been approved by the government.

- the China Meteorological Administration announced an ambitious plan for China’s weather satellite. It will invest RMB 21.7 billion to launch 3 FY-2 Block 3 satellites, 3 FY-3 afternoon satellites, 2 FY-3 morning satellites, 1 rainfall radar satellite, 2 FY-4 optical satellites and two experimental satellites during 2012 to 2020 (one FY-2 has already been launched in January 2012). Currently China has five weather satellites in operation. In addition, two recently retired satellites, the FY-1D and the FY-2C, have been working for more than 10 and 8 years respectively, far exceeding its designed 2-year and3-year working life.

- The 4th Academy of CASC made progress on solid motor development. It successfully test fired a demonstration motor using a new type of gimballed nozzle.

- The location of six ground stations for China’s first carbon dioxide monitoring satellite (TanSat) was recently decided. In addition to the planned TanSat, China will also place carbon dioxide monitoring equipment on the upcoming FY-3 weather satellite.

- The study of “key technology of the wide field hyper-spectral small satellite payload”, led by China Geological Survey, completed a review in Beijing, setting a foundation for the satellite’s approval.

- The new generation geostationary meteorological satellite, the FY-4, started prototype development. An engineering model of the atmospheric composition detection system, developed by Anhui Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics (AIOFM), completed the acceptance testing organised by SAST.

 

[AssassinsMace]

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

02/08/2013 03:17 PM

Shifting Constellations

Europe Eyes China in Space Race

By Kevin Holden Platt in Beijing

As America has reduced its space funding and capabilities, the European Space Agency has turned to the new rising power in space: China. Though obstacles remain, collaboration could one day take a European-Chinese crew to the moon.


A contingent of astronauts and instructors from the Paris-headquartered European Space Agency (ESA) recently found themselves attempting to navigate an alien frontier: the Beijing training base for taikonauts, China's new space explorers.

Joining the week-long visit in January to the Astronaut Center of China were representatives of ESA's Human Spaceflight Directorate, along with a young European astronaut who is studying Chinese. Just weeks earlier, a group of Chinese taikonauts had visited the European Astronaut Center in Cologne.

Some ESA higher-ups have been pushing for strengthened spaceflight ties with China, which launched its first manned capsule into orbit a decade ago. The January gathering in Beijing was just the latest in a whirlwind of high-level exchanges aimed at mulling and perhaps shaping a new European-Chinese space alliance.

Last spring, after viewing the liftoff of an Ariane rocket bound for the International Space Station (ISS), one director of the Chinese space agency urged speeding up joint space endeavors. But the heads of its ever-expanding program have yet to issue a formal invitation for a European astronaut to join the crew on a mission using China's Shenzhou spacecraft.

In Europe, Thomas Reiter, the former space station astronaut who now leads ESA's Human Spaceflight Directorate, is spearheading the drive to forge closer ties with China. In early 2012, Reiter told SPIEGEL: "Our goal is that, within the current decade, a Chinese spaceship will dock at the International Space Station or a European spaceship will dock at the Chinese space station."

Obstacles to Cooperation

But several obstacles stand in the way of Reiter's goals of European-Chinese space collaboration.


•First, any new space pact covering joint operations with Chinese astronauts will require approval by ESA's 20 member states.



•Second, proposals to transform Europe's space freighter, the Automated Transfer Vehicle, into a capsule capable of transporting astronauts are still awaiting ESA approval. But Pål Hvistendahl, the ESA's head of media relations, says there are currently "no plans ESA-side on our own crew capsule."
•Third, there is substantial resistance in the United States Congress to allowing China to become an ISS partner. "Due to Chinese espionage in the aerospace industry, this remains a hot-button issue on Capitol Hill," says Clay Moltz, a professor at the Naval Postgraduate School, in Monterey, California, and author of the 2011 book "Asia's Space Race."


The US has also been bombarded with a barrage of cyberattacks from China. With military-like precision, hackers have hit an array of American targets, including the email accounts of members of the US House of Representatives, Google's central servers, NASA's high-security database and major newspapers, including the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.

Chinese membership in the space station, says Moltz, "would require US consent, and it seems very unlikely to be forthcoming before at least 2020."

But even in the face of American opposition, at least technically, any ISS partner could use its allocation of astronaut slots to invite a single Chinese taikonaut, rather than an entire Shenzhou spacecraft, to visit the station. Russia might do this, Moltz predicts, "in order to make a political statement."

Efforts to get the Chinese to the globe-orbiting station could echo 1975's Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, when Cold War combatants Washington and Moscow crafted their first link-up in space. The event heralded the end of a nearly two-decade long space race between the two superpowers and ultimately paved the way for their joint construction of the ISS.

Reliance on Russia and China

Meanwhile, in its 2011 report, NASA's Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) warned that "there is a greater-than-30-percent chance that the ISS could sustain a (loss of mission) sometime during its projected operating life." Since August 2011, when the US mothballed its aging Space Shuttle fleet, NASA has relied solely on Roscosmos, its Russian counterpart, to transport American astronauts to the ISS. But a series of failures over the past two years has raised doubts about the reliability of the Russian launchers.

In December 2012, Scott Pace, the director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University, cited the report when speaking before Congress on NASA's strategic direction. Pace testified that ASAP "believes that continued reliance on a single, foreign (launch) system could result in the temporary or permanent abandonment of ISS prior to its end-of-life, resulting in an unplanned, potentially uncontrolled deorbit significantly earlier than the 2020s."

In other words, following a worst-case chain reaction of missteps -- including, for example, a life-threatening accident, emergency evacuation and then failure to be able to rocket a rescue team up in time to save the station -- the ISS could plunge back to Earth like a giant missile.

To prevent such a catastrophe, scientists at the Paris-based International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) are urging ISS partners to approve contingency plans guaranteeing that there are at least two alternative launch systems available for getting humans to the ISS. Since Russia and China are now the only powers in a position to get astronauts into space, the group recommends that Beijing's Shenzhou spacecraft be retrofitted with American or European docking equipment for future ISS missions.

In its 2010 report entitled "Future Human Spaceflight: The Need for International Cooperation," the academy also called on Europe to develop a spacecraft capable of taking humans into orbit and beyond, and recommended "reciprocal access to the ISS and Chinese space stations for international cooperation."

Internally, "ESA has been discussing ... with its partners whether and how the ATV could become human-rated," and its possible role in averting an accidental destruction of the ISS, says IAA member and Italian rocket designer Claudio Bruno.

But Pace, who co-edited the report, cautioned that proposed Shenzhou missions to the ISS, jointly piloted by Chinese and American astronauts, would depend on improved political ties between the rival superpowers.

A Change in Space Leadership

While the heads of China's space program are screening elite cadets to deploy on a new mission to the Sky Palace-1 orbital spacelab in June, they are also finalizing plans to land a robotic explorer on the moon as well as to test a new Long March 5 rocket designed to transport the first taikonauts to the lunar surface.

"China is on track to become the world's leading space-faring nation," says Michael Griffin, who headed NASA between 2005 and 2009. "They have some ground to make up, but today are in the No. 2 position, behind Russia, in the only metric that really counts: the capacity to conduct an independent human spaceflight program."

China's steady advances in sophisticated rocketry and human spaceflight have coincided with a series of retreats by NASA over the past four years.

Griffin, a physicist and aerospace engineer by training, is widely regarded within the American space community as one of the agency's greatest leaders. This is primarily attributed to his former role as the chief architect of blueprints to create a human settlement on the moon starting in the 2020s.

These ambitious plans envisioned a powerful Ares V rocket, Orion capsule and Altair lunar lander to get Americans back on the moon, where they could establish a permanent human outpost. But the White House terminated the so-called Constellation program in 2010, roughly a year after Griffin had left NASA, citing budgetary reasons. Although Congress rallied to save the Orion spacecraft and to order the development of an alternative booster, America's entire human spaceflight program is severely underfunded and lacks an overarching vision.

As a result, says Griffin, the US hasn't just lost its ability to launch astronauts into space for the time being. It has also ceded its long-standing position as the world's leader in manned spaceflight to Russia and China.

With Beijing's space advances and NASA's retrenchments, Griffin adds that, if it wanted to, "China could take the lead in developing a lunar base in the 2020s."

Within NASA, Griffin was also an early backer of proposals to send human explorers to Mars, which could even be inhabitable. But NASA's current disarray is making the prospect of seeing American astronauts land on the red planet seem ever more remote.

Europe Forges Closer Ties with China

In contrast, two years ago, ESA joined forces with the Astronaut Center of China and Russia's Federal Space Agency to launch Mars500, a simulated mission that lasted 520 days and included a 30-day sortie on a virtual Martian surface.

The simulation tested the ability of a crew of six -- three Russian cosmonauts, two European astronauts and one Chinese taikonaut -- to withstand a long-duration flight with only sporadic radio contact with Earth and together complete a joint mission.

The Mars500 experiment "will for sure help us in defining the best conditions for a successful human mission to Mars," says Jennifer Ngo-Anh, who headed the project and is based at the European Space Research and Technology Center in the coastal Dutch town of Noordwijk.

Ngo-Anh says that selecting a Mars500 crewmember from the Astronaut Center of China signaled that the ESA "is very keen on collaborating with our Chinese colleagues."

This collaboration and desire for more raises one question: If Washington continues to resist spaceflight cooperation with Beijing, could Europe, Russia and China instead agree on their own joint mission to Mars with a mixed crew such as the one used in the Mars500 simulation?

"Without question, Russia, China and ESA could … begin work on a joint program to mount the first expedition to Mars," says Griffin, who now sits on the board of Stratolaunch Systems, an Alabama-based start-up launched by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen that aims to revolutionize space transportation.

"It will take awhile to develop and execute such a mission no matter who does it, but the overall technical capability of these societies, especially Europe, is such that they can easily do it if they want to," Griffin says. "The question is one of societal will and commitment, not one of basic technical feasibility."

I find the reasons blocking cooperation weak. Yeah like the recent hacking into the New York Times was predicted way back when... But then I think China can go on without the West. Really, what does China get out of it except maybe a false sense of prestige from association? How much technology does Europe have is connected to the US where that can be used as a means for impediment? It must be a lot since it's talked about as a roadblock for cooperation. We don't see Europe attempting to break away from their dependency on the US that gives it veto power over virtually everything. If China is aiming to be a leader in space, the problem is leaders don't follow.

Hillary Clinton in her farewell speech at the State Department lauded herself as being the first high-level US official to visit South Pacific island nations as a sign of her greatness that she would care about nations big or small. What she didn't say was she only visited as a counter to previous high-level Chinese leaders visiting before her. That's how China should be playing the game when it comes to space. In the near-term and especially when China establishes a space station, China should regularly send people from countries you would never think of getting into space into space. That would do a whole lot for Chinese soft power around the world. Maybe it's too superficial for China to bother. Like partnering with the ESA in face of US restrictive conditions just for the false prestige value of association?

 

[mr.bean]

"In the near-term and especially when China establishes a space station, China should regularly send people from countries you would never think of getting into space into space. That would do a whole lot for Chinese soft power around the world. Maybe it's too superficial for China to bother. Like partnering with the ESA in face of US restrictive conditions just for the false prestige value of association"---------by AssassinMace

I would think China should focus on her own space projects and forget about the ISS. Don't have any illusions about the west in regards to space activites. China is in a great position right now and has good momentum and they should build upon it. Don't waste time and resources with ESA, remember the whole Galileo fiasco? Any space activity with NASA is another waste of time & resources because lets not mince words here, the US see's China as a threat in this area there is no going around it. And the whole softpower thing is way overrated! The sending people from countries you would never think of getting into space is a useless and bad idea. wasting precious resources and astronaut slots when they should be used to build china's own space expertise. China's space programs are to develop technologies and capabilities that are beneficial to the nation's modernization, screw softpower.

 

[AssassinsMace]

Depends on why China is in space in the first place. Are they in it just to copy what the West does and never do anything different just to legtimize to the Chinese people that China is up there with the elite countries? Then all it is about softpower. There is value in softpower. Just not the kind the West peddles. China landed a search and rescue team after the Haiti earthquake before the US. Obama was said to be furious. That's what China should be doing more of because it's nothing any civilized person would be furious about. You think the US will be able to send people from around the world into space as much. Why was Hillary Clinton going to South Pacific islands? It was to counter influence China was building with small countries essential for UN votes. Look at how these very island nations were used to counter China at Copenhagen.

 

[J-XX]

I find the reasons blocking cooperation weak. Yeah like the recent hacking into the New York Times was predicted way back when... But then I think China can go on without the West. Really, what does China get out of it except maybe a false sense of prestige from association? How much technology does Europe have is connected to the US where that can be used as a means for impediment? It must be a lot since it's talked about as a roadblock for cooperation. We don't see Europe attempting to break away from their dependency on the US that gives it veto power over virtually everything. If China is aiming to be a leader in space, the problem is leaders don't follow.

Hillary Clinton in her farewell speech at the State Department lauded herself as being the first high-level US official to visit South Pacific island nations as a sign of her greatness that she would care about nations big or small. What she didn't say was she only visited as a counter to previous high-level Chinese leaders visiting before her. That's how China should be playing the game when it comes to space. In the near-term and especially when China establishes a space station, China should regularly send people from countries you would never think of getting into space into space. That would do a whole lot for Chinese soft power around the world. Maybe it's too superficial for China to bother. Like partnering with the ESA in face of US restrictive conditions just for the false prestige value of association?

What China must do is to develop all components 100% in China so that American monopoly in technology is broken.
Once that happens, China can tell the Americans and their embargoes to take a hike.
No need to kiss up to the west by joining their groups and giving the west a sense of superiority.
China is more than capable of developing its own technologies without western help.

 

[Lion]

What China must do is to develop all components 100% in China so that American monopoly in technology is broken.
Once that happens, China can tell the Americans and their embargoes to take a hike.
No need to kiss up to the west by joining their groups and giving the west a sense of superiority.
China is more than capable of developing its own technologies without western help.

I think it's already happening.

 

[mr.bean]

Depends on why China is in space in the first place. Are they in it just to copy what the West does and never do anything different just to legtimize to the Chinese people that China is up there with the elite countries? Then all it is about softpower. There is value in softpower. Just not the kind the West peddles. China landed a search and rescue team after the Haiti earthquake before the US. Obama was said to be furious. That's what China should be doing more of because it's nothing any civilized person would be furious about. You think the US will be able to send people from around the world into space as much. Why was Hillary Clinton going to South Pacific islands? It was to counter influence China was building with small countries essential for UN votes. Look at how these very island nations were used to counter China at Copenhagen.

I believe its all about real crucial hardpower. China is in space because they intend to build a first rate aerospace industry. Yes I mean they are going the full nine yards. At this point they are still in the catch up period and are benchmarking themselves against the best, NASA and the US aerospace industry. Space is a very important component of a complete indigineous aerospace industry. Just look at what they are doing, its pretty obvious, they want to develop the capabilities to build both civillian and military aircraft of all type. From helicopters to civilian passenger aircraft, fighter jets and large military transport Y-20, awacs planes of all types, aircraft carrier operations, satellites systems and a full beidou sat navigational system, a full family of CZ rockets, a complete space infrastructure to do manned space launch, build they own space lab and then progress into a space station, and the elementary stages of their own ballistic missile defense system. when china builds fighter jets they are aiming for the complete systems of aircraft, avionics/radar, engine and weapons. the full nine yards. in some areas they progress very fast and others they run into technical bottlenecks but its very clear of their commitment. of course it doesn't hurt to milk as much PR from these programs since they have already spent so much resources on them, they minus well take full advantage of it. But these endevours are mean't for the modernizing of China's military, scientific capabilities first and foremost.

 

[luhai]

Depends on why China is in space in the first place.

I believe fundamentally, China sees space exploration in the same vein as exploration in the age of Sail. Who know, in a few hundred years, things like the Moon, Mars, astroid belt etc will become the stuff of strategic significance. China miss the boat in the 1500s, and their are determined not to do today.