Quickie
Colonel
The nose cone diameter is variable to a certain degree depending on the type of payload. It just so happens the CZ-7 was shown with a larger diameter nose cone compared to its body.
China's Space Program News Thread
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The nose cone diameter is variable to a certain degree depending on the type of payload. It just so happens the CZ-7 was shown with a larger diameter nose cone compared to its body.
SinoSoldier
Colonel
Take a look at the strap-on boosters. The ones in the CZ-7 had nose cones with their apexes pointing directly up while the ones in this rocket had apexes leaning towards the core of the rocket, as do the boosters of the CZ-5 identified during testing phase.
broadsword
Brigadier
Quickie
Colonel
That's correct with regard to the CZ-5 boosters, but t2contra was referring to the nose cone/fairing of the CZ-7 main core.
Quickie
Colonel
I think it's the smaller version (CZ-340?) of the CZ-5 family of rockets. The CZ-522 version is the one with the 5.2m core diameter.
Apologies, if this bit of news has been posted earlier. If it was to eventuate it could lead to more complex co-operation which I think is a win win for everybody.
"WASHINGTON— China has taken a small, but potentially meaningful, step toward more normalized relations with the international space community, a top US general announced this month.
Gen. John Hyten, the head of US Air Force Space Command, told an audience at a Dec. 5 Air Force Association event that Chinese officials, for the first time, have asked that the US share space situational awareness information directly through a military-to-military connection.
Space Command typically shares that information with industry and other nations through conjunction summary messages (CSM), essentially small reports that tell satellite operators the Air Force predicts their system will be traveling dangerously close to another in-orbit object. The goal is to give those operators enough time to move their systems out of the way, either from another satellite or from space debris.
The Air Force can share this information directly with the vast majority of the world’s governments and industry operators, with two notable exceptions: Russia and China. In both cases, those CSMs have to be transferred from Space Command to the US State Department, then sent over to state’s equivalent and then down to the Chinese or Russian operators.
“It takes a long time to get through that process, sometimes too long,” Hyten noted. “It’s a big deal because they asked for that kind of information direct, and I think that’s a good thing.”
Hyten stressed that from an operational standpoint, the only thing changing is the final address of where the CSMs go, and how long that takes. The data shared with China remains the same.
But he expressed optimism this could be a step forward for China in joining international norms for space, noting, “we want space to be a safe place to operate, and that means every nation needs to be involved in that.”
“That’s tremendous,” Hyten said of China’s request. “That’s awesome. Because that is the kind of international partnership we need to think about.”
A State Department official directed a request for comment back to the Pentagon. The longer CSM process remains with Russia.
Brian Weeden, technical adviser to the Secure World Foundation, compared the situation with China to that with Russian space launch, where US intelligence experts understand how Russian systems are put into orbit and operate.
“Like the US, Russia has settled into some pretty defined patterns and operational techniques,” he said. “We didn’t have that same familiarity with China, and anytime there’s unfamiliarity, there is a risk of both misperceptions and mistakes.”
Weeden said lines of communication were also open between the Russians and US during the Cold War, which may not be there on space issues between the US and China. Opening those lines is the biggest result of this new policy shift, he said.
“China is on a path to develop full spectrum space capabilities, and there are those in the US that see that as not only competition, but potentially adversarial,” he added. “Lines of communication and some degree of familiarity can help incidents from escalating out of control.”
"WASHINGTON— China has taken a small, but potentially meaningful, step toward more normalized relations with the international space community, a top US general announced this month.
Gen. John Hyten, the head of US Air Force Space Command, told an audience at a Dec. 5 Air Force Association event that Chinese officials, for the first time, have asked that the US share space situational awareness information directly through a military-to-military connection.
Space Command typically shares that information with industry and other nations through conjunction summary messages (CSM), essentially small reports that tell satellite operators the Air Force predicts their system will be traveling dangerously close to another in-orbit object. The goal is to give those operators enough time to move their systems out of the way, either from another satellite or from space debris.
The Air Force can share this information directly with the vast majority of the world’s governments and industry operators, with two notable exceptions: Russia and China. In both cases, those CSMs have to be transferred from Space Command to the US State Department, then sent over to state’s equivalent and then down to the Chinese or Russian operators.
“It takes a long time to get through that process, sometimes too long,” Hyten noted. “It’s a big deal because they asked for that kind of information direct, and I think that’s a good thing.”
Hyten stressed that from an operational standpoint, the only thing changing is the final address of where the CSMs go, and how long that takes. The data shared with China remains the same.
But he expressed optimism this could be a step forward for China in joining international norms for space, noting, “we want space to be a safe place to operate, and that means every nation needs to be involved in that.”
“That’s tremendous,” Hyten said of China’s request. “That’s awesome. Because that is the kind of international partnership we need to think about.”
A State Department official directed a request for comment back to the Pentagon. The longer CSM process remains with Russia.
Brian Weeden, technical adviser to the Secure World Foundation, compared the situation with China to that with Russian space launch, where US intelligence experts understand how Russian systems are put into orbit and operate.
“Like the US, Russia has settled into some pretty defined patterns and operational techniques,” he said. “We didn’t have that same familiarity with China, and anytime there’s unfamiliarity, there is a risk of both misperceptions and mistakes.”
Weeden said lines of communication were also open between the Russians and US during the Cold War, which may not be there on space issues between the US and China. Opening those lines is the biggest result of this new policy shift, he said.
“China is on a path to develop full spectrum space capabilities, and there are those in the US that see that as not only competition, but potentially adversarial,” he added. “Lines of communication and some degree of familiarity can help incidents from escalating out of control.”
Quickie
Colonel
China Yutu Rover Just Changed Everything We Thought We Knew About Our Moon
23:45 13.03.2015(updated 05:10 14.03.2015)
4493200
The “Jade Rabbit” discovered at least 9 subterranean layers beneath the lunar surface, 5 more than was previously thought.
Scientists believe the layers are a result of ancient lava flow between strata of regolith, the moon’s soil.
Professor Long Xiao, a researcher at the China University of Geosciences in Wuhan, told Space.com there are two interesting things about the layers found by Yutu, whose name means “Jade Rabbit.”
China's Yutu moon rover, photographed by the Chang'e 3 lander on Dec. 16, 2013.
"One is [that] more volcanic events have been defined in the late volcanism history of the moon. Another is the lunar mare [volcanic plain] area is not only composed of basaltic lavas, but also explosive eruption-formed pyroclastic rocks"
"The latter finding may shed light on … the volatile contents in the lunar mantle," he said.
China’s Chang’e-3 spacecraft landed on the moon in December 2013 and dispatched Yutu to study the landing site, Reuters reported. It ended up near a relatively fresh crater in a region known as Mare Imbrium, a site much younger than those explored by NASA’s 1969-1972 Apollo landing sites and those explored by Soviet lunar missions.
By looking at images of the subsurface of the moon, and new data obtained by Yutu, researchers say it’s likely that more eruptions have filled the basin creating greater depths and more layers than Yutu can “see.”
“The layering structures tell us the late-stage volcanism show different styles,” Xiao said. “It (also) means volatile elements played an important role in the thermal history of our moon.”
OT
There has been cooperation with Russia and before with the Soviet Union on space matters since the mid '70's. Why doesn't that extent to the CSMs?
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