China's Space Program News Thread
- Thread starter crazyinsane105
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We've known that development for a manned spacecraft to succeed Shenzhou has been underway for a while now. It might end up looking quite a lot like Apollo and Orion, more than Soyuz. Though the Russian PPTS also has a similar appearance, especially in terms of re entry capsule.
escobar
Brigadier
LM-6 preparation takes 7 days. The rocket remains in the integration area for 4 days; this period is compressible, as is the total preparation time. The transporter vehicle weighs 50t and can provide air conditioning for the rocket and its satellites. The transporter vehicle enters fully autonomous mode, without any human intervention as it reaches 10 m from the launch pad. Mooring and lifting of the rocket are automatic.The rocket remains between 2-3 days on the launch pad before launch:
Boosted version of LM-6 will make its first flight during the 13th Five Year Plan. it will have a 4t payload capacity to 700 km SSO:
Boosted version of LM-6 will make its first flight during the 13th Five Year Plan. it will have a 4t payload capacity to 700 km SSO:
broadsword
Brigadier
I think the LM-6 is the world's biggest mobile missile/rocket on wheels that can travel on freeways. The Topol-M tips the scale at 47.2 tonnes with a length of 22.7m. The LM-6 weighs over a hundred tonnes with a length of 30 meters. But the tires look crappy compared with the Topol-M's.
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Equation
Lieutenant General
And it keeps on going..and going..and going..
Point a telescope at the moon, and you might just see one looking back. Chinese researchers have reported that their robotic telescope, the first of its kind, has been operating flawlessly ever since it landed on the moon in 2013.
The 15-centimetre telescope is mounted on the , which touched down on the lunar surface in December 2013. Chang’e 3 (pictured above) carried the , which repeatedly the lunar night and ceased working in March this year – but the lander is still going strong.
The telescope sees in ultraviolet light, making it particularly suited for observations that aren’t possible here on Earth. “There is no atmosphere on the moon, so unlike Earth, the ultraviolet light from celestial objects can be detected on the moon,” says Jing Wang of the National Astronomical Observatories in Beijing, China, who is in charge of the telescope. And since the moon rotates 27 times more slowly than the Earth, the scope can stay fixed on the same star for a dozen days without interruption, he says.
Snapping Earth
In a paper published this week, Wang and his colleagues detail the first 18 months of the telescope’s operation, during which it has observed for 2000 hours and monitored 40 stars. The team also captured a picture of the Pinwheel galaxy, shown below.
Astronauts on the mission had a manually operated UV telescope, which they used to take pictures of Earth, stars and the Large Magellanic Cloud. But the Chinese telescope is the first to be operated remotely from Earth.
That’s a challenge, because the moon is a hostile environment, full of charged and abrasive that can get into equipment and destroy electronics, as Yutu’s troubles demonstrate. To counter this, the telescope is stowed within Chang’e 3 during sunrise and sunset on the moon, when dust is thought to be at its worst, and has survived much longer than its expected one year life. Wang says the scope is still working today, and the team are awaiting a decision to continue its mission past the end of this year.
I'm not sure if the transporter vehicle for LM-6 is really for travelling on freeways and roads, but for transporting the rocket to launch pad, like the much larger vehicle for the space shuttle.
Also the Russian ICBM transporter may have some off-road travelling capability to hide them better.
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