China's Space Program News Thread

[Quickie]

Okay now I understand the mode and it is not lunar orbit rendezvous like Apollo or the failed Russian program.
It's more of a hybrid of earth orbit rendezvous and lunar orbit rendezvous. Dual orbit Rendezvous.

So, according to the video posted by Bltizo, three separate lunar spacecraft modules are to be individually launched and boosted to the lunar orbit. All the spacecraft modules' docking are to be done in the lunar orbit only, with none in earth orbit.

 

[TerraN_EmpirE]

I think the Chinese space programme just spends less on CGI for display than other agencies in general.

There's a better full video with the various CGI clips that can be viewed here, with commentary:

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Hay I am not knocking It. I love KSP. It's better then How to orbit for Dummies.

So, according to the video posted by Bltizo, three separate lunar spacecraft modules are to be individually launched and boosted to the lunar orbit. All the spacecraft modules' docking are to be done in the lunar orbit only, with none in earth orbit.

I call it a hybrid of Earth Orbit and Lunar orbit but the terms are a bit misleading
When the US was in it's Early stages of Planing what would become Apollo and the Russians for their aborted moon program, Their were two Modes. That is possible overall flight plans DA or Direct Accent was to build a massively biggly hugely titanic ROCKET A rocket So big that it would have towered over any rocket ever built and probably rivaled a super Carrier in mass. sitting atop this monstrosity of a rocket would have been a Lander/Ship that would have had the power to trans lunar inject, land on the moon. lift off the moon trans earth eject and return to earth. Basically the upper stage would have been equal to most LEO launch stages
The Other Was Earth Orbit Rendezvous, This plan by the way was to be used for Nasa's Constellation program but it was Canceled or at least officially taken off the books Things can change in the next presidential terms. Any who. The Idea was that rather than one titanic Rocket that would have had the power of a Atomic bomb had anything gone wrong. you would launch a number of smaller rockets carrying segments of your vehicle into LEO have them on orbit assemble or have a main vehicle launch and then rendezvous with a fuel stop and then fly off to the moon. And break down for landing, recover, Trans Earth, Reentry
In the end for Apollo and the Russian mission the Mode they chose was a Third option. Lunar Orbit Rendezvous. In the US and Soviet Space Programs two men Who probably never meet, Arrived at the same conclusion. The Cheapest way to get there Was to have the Main craft park it's self in Lunar Orbit well a Light weight lander would land then take off again Rendezvous with the main craft then get tossed away the main craft then returns to earth.

The US Apollo mission had the Saturn V stage out into LEO then the last stage would separate with the Lunar lander in the shell and the Command and service modules coming away. The CSM would turn around and Rendezvous and Dock with the lander and pull it free from the discarded stage and then set for translunar injection. The Apollo crews has internal access to the LEM and could transfer at their lesure

The Russian Program had the N1 stage out and the last stage was mated to the base of the L1 lander which was mated at the bottom of the Soyuz engine The whole thing would be sent to Trans-lunar where on orbit the last stage would be separated a Single Cosmonaut would space walk his way to the lander cab and separate off for a landing. ( I never liked this idea If anything went wrong there was nothing that could be done. )

In both cases Every thing going to the moon came from the same rocket and transferred to the moon with every part in a single burn. The Lunar Orbit Rendezvous came on the return from the moon where the LEM Accent stage would dock and the Astronauts or cosmonauts would transfer everything they were tacking back to earth

This Proposal however takes it's own unique course pulling pages from both EOR and LOR likely taking from the limitations of weight due to the 50 mton LEO lift class rather then the 94 mton of the N1 or 140 mton of Saturn V

The First launch is the lander module then the accent module then a Shenzhou based capsule which it's self is really 3 machines. In this case the stock Shenzhou crew capsule and possibly a modified avionics module, and it looks like a new ball shaped Orbital module that serves as a docking port, much like those on the Russian Soyuz that service the ISS. but rather then assemble in LEO they do so in Lunar orbit, Transfer the whole crew to land and then rendezvous again leaving the landing stage behind like Apollo did.

 

[plawolf]

It's the moon, unless they intend a dark side landing they would have perfect coms

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Actually, the dark side of the moon is exactly where they have the most interest in exploring, because the lack of direct sunlight exposure means there is a greater chance of water (ice) and other useful deposits being found in viable quantities relatively close to the surface there.

As I said before, I believe China's short to medium term plans are to build a space station in orbit as a stepping stone to a manned lunar base.

Then, in the medium to long term, they plan on using that lunar base as the stepping stone to a manned Mars mission.

If they could find a good deposit of water on the dark side of the moon, they can set up a mining and processing facility to harvest the lion share of the fuel necessary for a Mars mission from the moon, and be able to take advantage of the much lower lunar gravity to get that fuel mass into orbit at a fraction of the lift cost of getting so much payload into orbit from earth.

 

[duncanidaho]

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Actually, the dark side of the moon is exactly where they have the most interest in exploring, because the lack of direct sunlight exposure means there is a greater chance of water (ice) and other useful deposits being found in viable quantities relatively close to the surface there.

The dark side of the moon doesn't lack of direct sunlight exposure, it is only the side you can't observe from the earth due to the tidal locking.

 

[TerraN_EmpirE]

The reason we call it dark is that until the advent of space flight we humans had no idea what it looked like.

 

[escobar]

Xu Dazhe, director of the China National Space Administration, announced on Friday that the Chinese government has set April 24 as the Space Day of China at a press conference in Beijing. "I am very glad to see our media friends here, and thank you very much for your attention and support for China's space industry," Xu greeted attendees.

"On April 24, 1970, 'Dong Fang Hong-I (Red East 1)', China's first man-made earth satellite, was successfully launched. This is an event of breakthrough and foundation-laying in China's space industry," Xu said.

"The Chinese government set this memorable day as the Space Day of China. It reflects the Communist Party of China and the country have attached great importance to the space industry, demonstrates China's principle of peaceful use of outer space, and shows Chinese aerospace worker's firm confidence in independent innovation and scaling new heights," said Xu.

China hopes to set up its National Space Day as a platform to popularize space knowledge and serve as an important window for the world to know China's space development,

"We hope the Space Day of China can be fostered as a booster of space industry so as to transform our country into a space power, a platform to popularize the space knowledge, encourage scientific research, and cultivate innovative culture, a crucial bond of space spirit inspiring enormous strength and a window for the world to know more about China's space industry," said Xu.

Xu said that 2016 marks the 60th anniversary of China to establish its space industry and during the past six decades; Chinese space scientists have been constantly striving to become stronger and therefore created a path of independent innovation with Chinese characteristics in developing its own space programs.

"At present, China has reached the world's advanced level in terms of space technology. We have accomplished soft landing on the moon, which is a celestial body other than earth, we have mastered the key technologies of manned space flights, the Beidou navigation satellite system is advancing toward global coverage, the remote sensing satellites now have achieved sub-metric high resolution, the Long March family of launch vehicles has completed 226 missions with a successive rate of over 96 percent. We have more than 150 satellites currently operating in orbit, working for telecommunications, remote sensing, navigation, and scientific and technological experiments," Xu said.

 

[escobar]

China plans to finish the construction of its space station in 2022, the National Space Administration announced on Friday.

"China had always projected to complete its own space station around 2020. Currently we are implementing the space lab plan, and will launch Tiangong-2 (the second orbiting space lab) into space and send up Shenzhou-11 spacecraft to rendezvous and dock with it this year. Meanwhile, we will also carry out a series of space lab experiments," said Director Xu Dazhe of the National Space Administration at a press conference on Friday, ahead of April 24 celebrations to mark the launch of the country's first satellite 46 years ago.

"The manned space program is one of the most challenging and complex programs. We now have clarified the projected deadline of around 2020 to 2022, to make it more specific," Xu added.

Xu said that China will build up its civil space infrastructure systems - navigation,telecommunication and remote sensing -- to serve different sectors, benefit the mankind and contribute to the improvement of people's livelihoods.

The Tiangong-1, which orbited for four and half years, has fulfilled its mission and ended service in March. It still remains in orbit and will descend gradually in the coming months until it burns up in the atmosphere.

 

[escobar]

China has used space technologies to develop all sorts of machines to facilitate people's life.
Some of the technologies were once associated with space missions, including night vision, 3D typing, laser radar, and microscopes. They are now being used for civilian purposes.

Optical technology is being used to build medical equipment to help common people. Surgical microscopes are becoming more prevalent in operating theatres. An imported surgical microscope would cost nearly 1 million yuan. But this prototype, completed with domestic intellectual property rights, will greatly reduce costs for many hospitals.

"General technologies can be used for both military and civilian purposes. So we've pushed them to make medical equipment. This is a product, mainly built with optical technology, can be used for us civilians. Although it involves electronic and other technologies, its core technology is optics. We are now in the stage of preliminary test. Then we will try to register it and obtain production permit later this year and introduce it to the market next year," said Meng Junhe, deputy head of the Tianjin Jinhang Institute of Technical Physics.

Among various products, many focus on current environmental issues. For example, the surveillance system can detect air pollutants in real time."We now have 115 monitoring points across Dagang District. The data collected can be stored at the district monitoring center in real time. If the data show pollutants exceed the limit, it will trigger an alert, and then the enforcement agencies will take field samples in real time and deal with the related enterprises," said Hu Jia of the Civilian Industry Research Center.

 

[escobar]

China's first "Space Day" (April 24) was celebrated across the country on Sunday.
A series of activities were held at the Scientific Research Training Center for Chinese Astronauts in Beijing. They included a grand national flag-raising ceremony as well as a signature campaign to celebrate the "Space Day".

Yang Liwei, first Chinese astronaut and nine other astronauts, all performing the country's space missions, made a solemn vow in front of the Chinese national flag.According to Yang Liwei, astronauts who will go to the space aboard the Shenzhou-11 spacecraft are stepping up their training. And all preparations are in progress as planned.

"The preliminary selection of astronauts has been finished. The next step will decided on the short list and provide them with intensive training in preparation for the future missions," said Yang Liwei.
Scientists at the Xi'an Satellite Control Center stayed in their posts at weekends to keep traces of the 100-plus satellites in orbit as a part of the celebration of the "Space Day".

As this year marks the 46th anniversary of the successful launch of China's first man-made space satellite – Dongfanghong-1, nine scientists, who participated in the process, attended the commemoration ceremony, with military officials and other researchers at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center.

The Nanping Space Showroom in southeast Fujian Province displayed objects related to China's space industry such as the re-entry capsule of the Shenzhou-10 manned spacecraft and space suits. The exhibition will last for 70 days.In Beijing, there was a drive of monograph featuring Qian Xuesen, a rocket scientist known as the father of China's space program.

 

[escobar]

China will launch its Mars mission probe around 2020, aiming to reach the planet when the Communist Party of China marks its centenary in 2021, the country's National Space Administration announced on Friday. China approved its Mars exploring mission in January 2016.

The exploration of Mars has significance for understanding the evolution of the universe, the structure of matter, and the origin of life, according to Zhang Rongqiao, chief designer of the first Mars exploration mission. But he also stressed the difficulties to achieve the goal.

"A total of 43 Mars missions have been launched throughout the world so far. The most recent one happened on March 14. It is a joint mission collaborated by the European Space Agency and the Russian Federal Space Agency. It's just been launched and it is still on its way to the Mars. There were only 22 successful launches. So the rate of success and failure was about 50-50," said Zhang.

"We need to slow down from over 20,000 kilometers per hour to zero in only seven minutes, which will be implemented autonomously by the probe. All the failure of the previous cases occurred during this phase," said Zheng Yongchun, associate researcher with the National Astronomical Observatories under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Meanwhile, the distance of more than 55 million kilometers between Mars and the earth also brings more difficulties to the communication between the probe and the ground.

"The rover needs to move on the surface of Mars to launch surveys, so we can only achieve it through intelligent operations. Only with these challenges, can we make breakthroughs in the technologies and promote the technological development," said Yu Dengyun, deputy director of the Science and Technology Committee under the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.

China had set plans in 2007 and 2010 to launch Mars missions in 2011 and 2015, respectively, but both goals were never achieved for various reasons. For now, China is planning to launch its Mars probe in the launch window of 2020, said Zhang, adding that the favorable alignment of Earth and Mars occurs for only a few weeks every 26 months and 2020 will be a window for the launch.

The spacecraft ,which will be put into space by the new-generation Long March-5 heavy-lift rocket, is being developed by the China Academy of Space Technology. It is expected to orbit the Mars, land and deploy a rover all in one mission, the first of its kind in aerospace history if achieved.

"Such a big plan to achieve orbiting, landing and rover deploying in one mission will make a legend. Only by completing this Mars probe mission can China say it has embarked on the exploration of deep space in the true sense," said Zhang.

In the second step of China's Mars probe mission, the spacecraft will carry back samples of Mars surface, an action that never has been achieved by any country. Zhang said this will help people gain fresh and deeper insight into Mars.