China's Space Program News Thread

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plawolf

Lieutenant General
Gaofen series of satellite is touted as China's first high definition earth observable satellite, the name "Gaofen" means "high definition". Gaofen-1 is a 2 m resolution satellite with a launch mass of 1080 kg. The thing I found it interesting is the fact that Gaofen-1 was launched in April 26, 2013.

Now Dubai, a country that has never launch a satellite before, designed and launched a earth observable satellite called DubaiSat-1 back in July 2009. DubaiSat-1 has a resolution of 2.5 m.

On 21 November 2013, same year China's Gaofen-1 was launched, Dubai launched DubaiSat-2, weighing only 300 kg, it has a highly advanced propulsion system known as The Hall Effect Propulsion System; along with the High Resolution Advanced Imaging System (HiRAIS) which can capture images at 1 m resolution.

It is almost not until almost a year later on September 2014, did China launched Gaofen-2 with a 1 m resolution camera.

So how did China lag so far behind in term of imaging satellite technology? China a supposed upcoming super power to challenge the US, can't even compare to Dubai, a country that has never launch a satellite before nor design one before managed to designed and launched satellites that's more advanced than China and years before China. Let's not even compare to India, a third world country with even smaller budget than China.

India launched Cartosat-1, a 2.5 m resolution rarth observation/remote sensing satellite back in May 2005, a good 8 years before China's Gaofen-1. They then follow up with Cartosat-2 which weighs only 680 kg and carries a camera with resolution of 0.8 m - a good 7 years before China's Gaofen-2. They followed up with Cartosat-2A and 2B, and now they are almost ready to launch Cartosat-3 in 2017, with a resolution of 0.25 m!

I just find it bizzare how China allows itself to lag so far behind in this key area, that even a complete novice to this sector like Dubai is able to outsmart China's best effort.


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First if all, these are civilian satellites, not military, so do not represent the state-of-the-art of what China can do in terms of imaging resolution.

When we are talking about civilian kit, cost-benefit becomes a massively important factor, and often operators don't go for the very best and instead opt for a good enough package that only costs a fraction of what the best would set them back.

Since the Dubai Sat was its first, it would serve more than purely civilian purposes and is almost certainly a quasi-military programme, so its costs would be subsidied but the military who would prefer better capabilities even if it costs significantly more. I expect its a similar deal with India.

China may also draw upon civilian satellites if it came to it, but it has its own dedicated military spysat programmes and constellations, so would have less interest in trying to use civilian satellites for that purpose. So the PLA would probably much rather launch more of their dedicated spysats than subsidies civilian programmes they will probably never be called upon to use.

Secondly, you are either incredible naive, or deliverably overlooking the fact that the Dubai/Indian satellites are on utterly different levels to China's in terms of indigenous tech content.

The Dubai and Indian satellites are jammed packed with foreign parts that the host nations cannot produce themselves. Whereas China's satellites are 100% designed and built in China.

Its like comparing someone who went to the store and bought all the components needed for a computer and then put it all together against someone who made every last chip and circuit of a computer themselves from raw mineral ores.
 

Ultra

Junior Member
The dubaisats were "developed" with the Satrec Initiative of South Korea, who are far from novices in satellite development. Basically, the Dubaisats are Korean satellites. It's not like Dubai suddenly developed the technology indigenously.

Also, the Gaofen satellites are not China's first LEO EO satellites. The Yaogan series preceded them by many years... and they are basically military in nature, whose specifications have not been released. During the cold war there were also a series of Fanhui ShiWeixing (recoverable recon satellites) launched, whose resolution we also do not know.





Higher than 0.62m, Chinese Spy Satellite has a better Resolution
2011-08-16 (China Military News from China-defense-mashup) – At the end of 2008, China launched anew remote sensing satellite “Yaogan 5″ at the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in north China’s Shanxi Province.


The satellite was successfully launched into the space on a Long March-4B carrier rocket. Although China said Yaogan-V is going to be used on civilian areas, in fact, this imaging satellite is a great milestone in Chinese space reconnaissance system. From some essaies published in China, Yaogan-V satellite has equipped new high resolution CCD camera and other new concept technologies to reach 0.65 meter or high resolution.

“High Resolution CCD Remote Sensing Camera” is developed by XIOPM (Xi’an Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics, CAS). The Chief Designer is Li Yingcai (李英才), who firstly announced the sub-pixel imaging theory of TDI-CCD camera. Then the technological demonstration proved that new theory can raise 1.4 time resolution in dynamic push-broom imagining.


After the “Yaogan-V”‘s launch in 2008, PLA Senior officers send congratulations to XIOPM. The images sent from Yaogan-V satellite have greatly improved quality and raise 45% and 70% in image recognition and target identification. the In 2011, the “High Resolution CCD Remote Sensing Camera” project was granted as the Top Scientific and Technological Awards of National Defense.


Besides, the “Yaogan-V” satellite is believed to has an optical design of “Three-Mirror-Anastigmat with Fold Mirror” for the space camera. And the “F” number is 14.4 and long focal distance reaches 7200mm. When “Yaogan-V” at 450km orbit, the swath width can reach 12.5km. And the size of imaging pixel is 10 μm, the ground imagine single pixel resolution can reach 0.62m.


Since 2006, China has launched 11 “Yaogan” series satellites. This satellite family has two types of remote-sensing methods: photograph imaging and SAR. A UK-based Journal of Strategic Studies recently published a report that China’s constellation of satellites is transitioning from the limited ability to collect general strategic information and China may already be able to match the United States’ ability in the next two years.




There you go, chinese military spy satellite has the resolution of 0.62 meter at the end of 2008.
 

escobar

Brigadier
SMILE Space Mission Passes First Hurdle
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A space mission called SMILE (Solar Wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer) which is jointly led by UCL and the Chinese National Space Science Center has received the go-ahead for an initial study phase this summer by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

SMILE aims to understand how the Sun controls the Earth's magnetic environment and space weather. If the initial studies are successful, the mission could be given a final decision of implementation in November 2015, with the launch expected at the end of 2021.

If launched, SMILE will monitor the solar wind and its effects on Earth for three years and will help scientists understand the chain of events leading to the disruption of satellites, power grids and radio communications. The information collected on the mission could be used to predict and mitigate the impact of future solar storms.

SMILE differs from previous missions looking at space weather as it will study what happens globally in the Earth's magnetosphere, as well as the ionosphere and aurora which are closer to Earth. This will provide more detailed information which will hopefully enable scientists to reach a complete understanding of how the Sun influences events on Earth by interacting with its magnetic environment.

Project co-lead, Professor Graziella Branduardi-Raymont (UCL Mullard Space Science Laboratory), said: "During the Sun's 11 year cycle, the frequency and strength of solar flares and coronal mass ejections varies a great deal. These cause damage on Earth - most notably are geomagnetic storms resulting from strong disturbances in the Earth's magnetic field caused by the charged particles coming from the solar wind. They can disrupt technological infrastructures including orbiting GPS satellites used for communications and expose air crew and astronauts to high doses of radiation."

The team will study how the charged particles in the solar wind interact with Earth's neutral atoms and molecules using a soft X-ray imager. Simultaneously, a UV imager will observe and measure the properties of the Northern aurora, while a light ion analyser and a magnetometer will monitor the solar wind conditions.

Professor Branduardi-Raymont, added: "SMILE will investigate the Sun's interaction with the Earth's magnetic environment in a unique manner, never attempted before: using the novel approach of imaging in X-ray, whilst measuring the UV aurora and the properties of the solar wind at the same time. SMILE will give us the opportunity to understand the processes from beginning to end and predict the effects of space weather events in a way unmatched so far."

The mission is a joint endeavour of European, Chinese and Canadian scientists and engineers, with science support from the USA. The University of Leicester lead the development of the soft X-ray imager and UCL MSSL that of the light ion-analyser, which measures the properties of the solar wind. Imperial College London collaborate with Chinese colleagues to implement the magnetometer, whereas the auroral UV Imager will be led by the University of Calgary, Canada

 

escobar

Brigadier
Agency Set to Track, Deal with Space Junk
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China established a specialized agency on Monday to track and deal with space debris in response to the increasing threat posed to the nation's space assets by orbiting junk.

The Space Debris Monitoring and Application Center, part of the China National Space Administration, is responsible for tracking waste, analyzing hazards, developing prevention and disposal plans, setting up a database and communicating with other nations and international organizations.

It will be managed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences' National Astronomical Observatories.

"The situation is serious as humankind's space activities are rapidly adding new orbiting debris, posing a severe threat to spacecraft," Tian Yulong, the administration's secretary-general, said on Monday. "Monitoring and neutralizing it has become a pressing task."

Space debris includes everything from spent rocket stages and old satellites to fragments arising from disintegration, erosion and collisions. Some debris may strike operational spacecraft.

"There are more than 100 million pieces of debris measuring less than 1 cm in space that together weigh thousands of metric tons," Tian added. "Impacts by these particles can cause damage and disable spacecraft."

China has about 130 spacecraft, mostly satellites, in orbit, and there were more than 30 close encounters involving space debris last year, he said.

As of September 2013, more than 500,000 pieces of debris were being tracked as they orbited the Earth. They traveled at speeds of up to 28,000 kph, fast enough for a relatively small piece of debris to damage a satellite or a spacecraft, according to the United States' NASA.

All pieces of debris larger than 10 cm are tracked by NASA using radar and telescopes. Many millions of pieces of debris are so small that they cannot be tracked, the agency added.

A 1 cm object moving at 17,000 kph would deliver as much energy as a hand grenade and could destroy a spacecraft, according to experts. China started a space debris action plan in 2000 and has allocated a considerable amount of resources to research the detection, prevention and mitigation of space debris, Tian said.

He disclosed that the country has installed systems on its Long March rockets that prevent unused fuel from exploding and creating new debris. "However, developing ways to capture or remove orbital junk remains a tough challenge for scientists around the world and requires close cooperation among space authorities," Tian said.

Yin Hejun, vice-president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said his organization releases early warnings about pieces of space debris to the controllers of China's satellites on a daily basis.
 

escobar

Brigadier
SAST KM5B thermal vacuum chamber...

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escobar

Brigadier
CAST and the Purple Mountain Observatory ofCAS (Chinese Academy of Sciences) completed a review on an integrated asteroid sample capturing and analysis device jointly developed by the two organisations during the last two years.

 

escobar

Brigadier
Space Science Program:
PHmKJ3U.jpg


Stage 1
1) Mars Global Remote Sensing Orbiter and Small Rover
2) Near-Earth Asteroid Multi-Target Detection
3) Sun Fixed-Point Observation.

Stage 2 (Further Promotion)
1) Venus Exploration Orbiter
2) Mars Lander and Rover
3) Solar Polar Orbit Observer
4) Main-Belt Asteroid (Ceres) Sample Return.

Stage 3 (Sustainable Development)
1) Jupiter Orbiter
2) Mars Sample Return
3) Solar Storms Panoramic Observer.

2017 Chang'e 4 (Lunar Rover)
2018 Chang'e 5 (Lunar Sample Return)
2020 Chang'e 6 (Lunar Sample Return)
2020 Mars Global Remote Sensing Orbiter and Small Rover (Stage 1)
2022 Near-Earth Asteroid Multi-Target Detection (Stage 1)
2023 Mars Sample Return (Stage 3)
2024 Sun Fixed-Point Observation (Stage 1)
2024 Venus Exploration Orbiter (Stage 2)
2025 Main-Belt Asteroid (Ceres) Sample Return (Stage 2)
2027 Solar Polar Orbit Observer (Stage 2)
2028 Jupiter Orbiter (Stage 3)
 
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