China's Space Program News Thread

[escobar]

China's retrievable scientific research satellite has so far conducted 18 unmanned microgravity experiments out of a total of 19 and sent a series of scientific data as of Saturday, the 11th day since the satellite was put into space from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China's Gobi desert.

One of the experiments was the law of interactional transportation of substances between cells, which can be used to reveal the reasons that lead to bone loss, muscle atrophy and dysimmunity of astronauts in weightless environment.

Anthropogenic endothelial cells and rat mesenchymal stem cells were chosen in the experiment in which the growth, differentiation and metabolism of them under microgravity environment were observed to see how the change in gravity can affect these cells in growth and evolving.

"Cell is a living thing. It needs to eat, which in this case is nutrient substance. The interactional transportation of substances in space is difficult as there is no air circulation or settlement. So we need to provide a circulation which enables us to put the nutrient substance into cell to let it eat regularly," said Long Mian, scientist in charge of experiment.

In order to get more precise experiment results, scientists designed a control group in a Beijing laboratory."When we give the cells a circulation, it will affect the function of them. Thus one important goal of the task is that we hope through controlled trials in space and in the laboratory, we can separate the real influence under the zero-gravity environment from the influence gained by artificial circulation," said Long.

 

[escobar]

China's retrievable scientific research satellite has so far made 18 unmanned microgravity experiments out of a total of 19 planned and sent a series of scientific data as of Sunday, the 12th day since it was put into space.

One of the experiments is the mutation of mouse embryonic cells which could be obviously seen from the photos it sends back every four hours from space.

"We sent them up in two-cell type, and now it has developed into the blastocyst stage -- the two cells developed into four, and then into eight, 16, and the blastocyst at last -- a whole stage of early embryonic development. The work had never been explored successfully before. The embryonic development is a very good model to study the whole life cycle, so the development instilled a lot of confidence in us," said Duan Enkui, a researcher of Institution of Zoology of Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Duan said the experiment fully proved that the mouse early embryonic cells can develop in space environment, which is of great significance for human beings to explore the universe. "The development of embryo serves a good model for research of a whole life course, and it gives us a lot of confidence if the embryo develops," Duan said.

According to experts, the incubator with mouse embryos was the last loaded onto the satellite among the materials and devices for the 19 experiments, less than eight hours ahead of the launch. Experts said only by so doing can they guarantee the embryos not develop before arriving in space.

Experts had made much effort to meet the high storage demand that the embryos need. Zhang Tao, a researcher from Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics of Chinese Academy of Sciences, said altogether 5,000 mouse embryonic cells were stored in various culture units in the incubator.

"This culture unit is as wide as a toothpick. Inside such room, we need to culture 150 to 200 cells, while ensuring the temperature and air as well as supply of nutrient solution; this unit is a key part that we explore for this project," Zhang said.Zhang said the microscope is also specially made for the project.

"We specially developed a microscope that is able to capture the embryos for this project. This microscope, via a special algorithm, can capture the images of embryos and send it back to ground to enable the scientists see directly the process of embryo development in microgravity environment," Zhang said.The embryo cells are fixed after the development, and subsequent experiments will start after SJ-10 returns, experts said.

 

[escobar]

China's SJ-10 retrievable scientific research satellite landed in the designed area in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous region at 16:30 Monday after 12 days of space flight.It was found in good shape after operation in space, engineers said.China put into space the satellite in the early hours of April 6, 2016.

While in space, the bullet-shaped satellite conducted 19 experiments involving microgravity fluid physics, microgravity combustion, space material, space radiation effect, microgravity biological effect and space bio-technology. It's of great importance in making key breakthroughs in biotechnology, new material and life sciences, said engineers.

"We could hardly imagine before such project could be completed. There were few chances even if we wanted to. Only on such a large platform, can we complete so many tasks," said Duan Enkui, deputy chief engineer of application system of SJ-10 satellite.

 

[escobar]

Chinese scientists started to analyze the results of the experiments aboard the SJ-10, the country's first retrievable microgravity satellite, after the satellite's re-entry capsule returned safely to Earth in Siziwang Banner of north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region on Monday.

Researchers said the equipment which carried 11 experiments, two on microgravity and 9 on life sciences, on the re-entry capsule are in good condition after a 12-day journey in space. The equipment of the other eight experiments remains on the orbital module of the satellite in space for further research.

"When we unload the equipment of these experiments, we find them complete and well-preserved. Now we are unloading the carriers of the nine experiments on life sciences. We have to secure their safety and keep the temperature of the samples," said Duan Enkui, a researcher at the Institute of Zoology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the vice general designer of the satellite's experiment system.

Duan said the carriers of the experiment samples are being sent to labs of various scientific institutions for further research. "The carriers will be sent back to the scientific institutions in charge of the equipment development. The research staff will unload the samples in the carriers for further experiment. The five carriers with cells, embryos and silkworm will be sent to labs in Beijing through the night," Duan said.

The researcher said the probe, which focuses on energy, agriculture, health, will give a boost to the basic research on bio-engineering, new materials and life sciences, in addition to pushing forward the development of China's research on microgravity and space life sciences.

The experiments including one on the early development of mouse embryos in microgravity and another on space radiation's effect on the genetic stability of fruit flies and rat cells, will shed new light on the research of human reproduction in space.

Before SJ-10, China has used such spacecraft to complete at least 13 space life science experiments, seven experiments for space material processing and those regarding space microgravity measuring, space radiation dose measuring and space cell culture.

 

[Dolcevita]

Expace Technology Co to launch commercial satellite launch business using the Kuaizhou Rockets

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

A second company to launch satellites
By Zhao Lei in Beijing and Zhou Lihua in Wuhan (China Daily) Updated: 2016-04-22 02:57
China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp, the country's largest missile maker, has established the country's second commercial launch company in an attempt to seize a share of the satellite launch market.

Expace Technology Co was founded and registered with the commerce department of Wuhan, capital of Hubei province, in mid-February, said Hu Xiaotao, general manager of the company.

Expace Technology has registered capital of 300 million yuan ($46.3 million) and will provide a satellite launch service to clients, Hu said.

Its parent company, China Sanjiang Space Group, a branch of China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp, is one of the three rocket developers in China. The two others are the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology in Beijing and the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology.

Previously, only China Great Wall Industry Corp in Beijing, part of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp, carried out commercial launches in the country.

Expace plans to launch a commercial version of the Kuaizhou 1 rocket for clients within the year. The next-generation Kuaizhou 11 rocket, which will have more capacity, is scheduled to make its first launch next year.

China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp began to develop Kuaizhou solid-fuel rockets in 2009, intending to form a low-cost, quick-response rocket family for the commercial space market.

The first flight of a Kuai-zhou rocket took place in September 2013, when the company launched the Kuaizhou 1 from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Gansu province to put an Earth-observation satellite into orbit. In November 2014, the Kuaizhou 2 sent another satellite into space from the same center.

"We are now in talks with more than 10 domestic and foreign companies that have expressed intentions to use this Kuaizhou 1 mission to lift their satellites," Hu told China Daily on Thursday. He declined to elaborate on the negotiations, citing business confidentiality.

"Moreover, some internet giants in China are keeping in touch with us to explore the possibility of cooperation in building a space-based internet," he said.

The government is very supportive of the founding of his company, since it will boost commercialization of the space launch sector, Hu added.

An insider from China Great Wall Industry Corp who requested anonymity said there is high demand for commercial launch for small and mid-sized satellites in the domestic and international markets, which will bring opportunities for Expace.

Contact the writers at [email protected]

 

[SinoSoldier]

Will a member please translate/summarize what's on the following slide? Thanks!

 

[Arcgem]

It details the possibility of using three CZ-5 rockets to get a lunar orbiter to the moon. It is possible that within 10 years 2-3 people will be able to land on the moon.

 

[Blitzo]

It proposes a manned moon mission using three CZ-5TZ rockets (TZ standing for tazhan, or “expanded" variant), which seems to be a proposed variant which can achieve 50 ton LEO (CZ-5's highest variant so far does 25 ton LEO lift).

Three rockets would be launched as part of a single mission (involving lunar orbit rendezvous and docking), and would deliver a 2-3 crew. And it suggests such a mission could be achievable within ten years time.

 

[TerraN_EmpirE]

Why 3 launches. I can see Lander and command pod but what's the third launch? A booster stage? Fuel tanker? Lunar Habitat? Luggage for the moon princess of some 1950s b movie?

 

[Equation]

Why 3 launches. I can see Lander and command pod but what's the third launch? A booster stage? Fuel tanker? Lunar Habitat? Luggage for the moon princess of some 1950s b movie?

Lunar satellite for better communication perhaps?