China's Space Program News Thread

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escobar

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China's first dark matter detection satellite has completed three months of in-orbit testing, with initial findings expected to appear before the end of the year, according to the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).Dark Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE) Satellite "Wukong" detected 460 million high energy particles in a 92-day flight, sending about 2.4 TB of raw data back to Earth, DAMPE chief scientist Chang Jin said.

Launched on December. 17, 2015 on a Long March 2-D rocket, "Wukong" was handed over to the CAS Purple Mountain Observatory on Thursday.The four major parts of the payload -- a plastic scintillator array detector, a silicon array detector, a BGO calorimeter, and a neutron detector -- functioned satisfactorily. The satellite completed all set tests, with all its technical indicators reaching or exceeding expectations.

"Wukong" is designed for a three-year mission. It will scan space nonstop in all directions in the first two years and then focus on areas where dark matter is most likely to be observed in the third."The whole in-orbit operation is running stable. The data it sends will be more precise with the increasing observation time. We are expecting to publish related scientific gains by the end of 2016," said Li Huawang, chief designer of the DAMPE system.

The CAS released a report on the future of space science promising major progress and breakthroughs by 2030 in research into the formation and evolution of the universe and the search for extraterrestrial life.It will also strive to find new physical laws that supplant current basic theories.

The goals will be achieved by manned and unmanned programs, including a black hole probe, a Mars probe and extraterrestrial life exploration.Chinese lawmakers on Wednesday approved the country's economic and social development blueprint for the 2016-2020 period, including research on the origins of the universe and life.
 

TerraN_EmpirE

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China's 1st space lab Tiangong-1 ends data service
Source: Xinhua | 2016-03-21 19:25:14 | Editor: huaxia

BEIJING, March 21 (Xinhua) -- After an operational orbit of 1,630 days, China's first space lab Tiangong-1 terminated its data service, the manned space engineering office said Monday.

The functions of the space laboratory and target orbiter have been disabled after an extended service period of about two and a half years, although it remains in designed orbit, according to the office.

Tiangong-1 was launched in September 2011 with a design life of two years.

It had successfully docked with the Shenzhou-8, Shenzhou-9 and Shenzhou-10 spacecraft and undertaken a series of experiments, contributing to the nation's space program, the office said.

The lab had completed its main missions following Shenzhou-10's return to earth in June 2013.

During its extended flight, Tiangong-1 conducted experiments on space technology, space-earth remote sensing and space environment exploration, according to the office.

Tiangong-1 was invaluable to scientists understanding of the construction and management of a space station, the office said.

The aim of China's multi-billion-dollar space program is to put a permanent manned space station into service around 2022.

By around 2020, the country's first orbiting space station should be completed.

The flight orbit of the space lab, which will descend gradually in the coming months, is under continued and close monitoring, according to the office, which said the orbiter will burn up in the atmosphere eventually.
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Qi_1528

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According to some sources, the CZ-2F will be replaced by the CZ-7, which is itself allegedly based on the former.

The CZ-5 will be tasked for launching heavy unmanned payloads into LEO, GTO, or LTO. One of them includes a lunar rover designed to undertake sample return missions. However, that does not preclude the launch vehicle from being purposed to launch manned spacecraft, such as a notional Sino-Orion.

Sorry to quote from so many pages back. Does the 2F still have some problems with vibrations being a bit much for the crew to cope with? I'd like to think the problem can be ironed out for the replacement.
 

antiterror13

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BeiDou is far ahead of Galileo, Beidou second generation is already operational since Dec 2011 and provide services to customers in the Asia-Pacific region in December 2012. Galileo is not operational yet

In-mid 2015, China started the build-up of the third generation BeiDou system which is significantly more advanced than the 2nd generation.
 

TerraN_EmpirE

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Has Tiangong 1 gone rogue
by Morris Jones
Sydney, Australia (SPX) Mar 30, 2016

tiangong-1-space-laboratory-lg.jpg
upper atmosphere and makes its final orbits. Nobody will be able to say when or where it will come back. Nobody can really be sure if fragments will reach the surface of the Earth, whether it is land or sea.


China's announcement in late March that telemetry to the Tiangong 1 space laboratory had ceased is disturbing. The language used in the original Xinhua story was vague, but strongly suggested that Tiangong 1 had malfunctioned. This analyst has waited more than a week for a correction, clarification, or resumption of telemetry to be announced by China. That hasn't happened. We can safely conclude that Tiangong 1 has truly fallen silent.

Without telemetry, China will be unable to receive data from Tiangong's scientific instruments. More disturbingly, it seems highly probable that China will be unable to control the laboratory. Tiangong 1 is now a rogue spacecraft. That's no problem in the short term, but it could become a matter of concern when its orbit finally decays.

In recent years, the world has experienced several cases of large satellites falling back to Earth on uncontrolled trajectories. Thankfully, there have been no catastrophes. But the spaceflight community relies too much on luck instead of planning for spacecraft returns. At some point, that luck will run out, serious damage to property or lives will appear, and the space industry will have to explain itself to the public.

This analyst had long expected that Tiangong 1 would be de-orbited with a controlled thruster burn at the end of its mission, safely fragmenting over the Pacific Ocean. That could have been China's original plan, but if Tiangong cannot be controlled, that plan is now moot.

Tiangong 1 is a large spacecraft with a high drag coefficient. It's also hollow, with a low density. It will be tricky to predict its behaviour as it enters the upper atmosphere and makes its final orbits. Nobody will be able to say when or where it will come back. Nobody can really be sure if fragments will reach the surface of the Earth, whether it is land or sea.

Right now, it's impossible to make an educated guess on even a rough "window" for Tiangong's return. The orbit is still high. Unpredictable factors such as solar activity will influence its orbital decay. We won't have an estimate until it starts to fall much lower.

Could China intervene in the situation? Probably not. Boffins have long speculated on the use of tugboat spacecraft to safely de-orbit satellites. A Progress cargo ship was used this way to guide the ageing Mir space station to a controlled re-entry. But China doesn't seem to have a suitable tugboat spacecraft in its inventory right now. It's unrealistic to think that such a spacecraft would be developed before Tiangong returns.

And don't expect other nations to supply the goods. It isn't clear if an uncrewed Shenzhou spacecraft could dock with Tiangong in its current state, or if China would bother wasting such an expensive piece of gear on such a mission. The first mission of China's new Tianzhou cargo ship (larger than Russia's Progress) is months in the future, and slated for a docking with another fully operational space laboratory.

The only alternative to an uncontrolled re-entry would be to attack Tiangong with an anti-satellite weapon. But this would be far more outrageous than a rogue satellite falling back. China received a torrent of international condemnation for its first successful ASAT test. America's use of a missile to shoot down one of its own experimental spy satellites was also controversial. China probably does not wish to revisit these problems at this time.

Thus, the wait-and-see saga of a large falling spacecraft will soon repeat. Hopefully, it will not end in disaster. Probably, it will not damage life or property. But the re-entry of Tiangong 1 will serve as another reminder that space debris can be a problem for Earth as well as near-Earth space. That's a lesson not only for China, but the world.
 

Blitzo

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Not entirely sure if the author is aware of the original intended life of Tiangong 1 -- when it was originally launched in 2011 it was expected to be deorbited in 2013.

The fact that CNSA deliberately kept it up for this long nearly three years beyond its design life says to me they were deliberately trying to push it to see what its hard limit was. It obviously goes without saying that by now, all the scientific gains that could have been made from the onboard experiments should already have been completed and exhausted.
 

Hytenxic

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They raised the orbit back in December and then Xinhua announced the end of Tiangong-1 on 21 march this year. Considering it was supposed to deorbit in 2013, did they finally run out of fuel? If its out fuel are they just going to watch it burn up on re-entry?

Someone did some calculations and said on it current course, it will deorbit around May-June 2018.
 
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