China's Space Program News Thread

[AndrewS]

The key point is that there is a large upfront investment along with initial operating losses, but that it is profitable in the long-term and can repay the loans taken to build such a satellite constellation.

So you could think of it as another infrastructure project like the railways in China. Or the infrastructure that China is building in other countries for One Belt One Road.

The creation of such a satellite constellation would likely drive/require a hi-tech Chinese space industry which would be way larger than anything the world has seen before, along with correspondingly lower costs that anyone else as well.

The strategic benefits would be:

1. A global constellation of communications satellites which would be inherently dual-use. If someone were to destroy those satellites, they would make a lot of enemies as this would be a critical resource for the world.

2. It would presumably crowd out the creation of competing satellite constellations.

3. Higher economic growth, particularly in the developing world. This is good for them, and also for China which happens to be the world's largest trading nation and world's largest economy in terms of actual output. Furthermore China produces the sorts of goods and services which those consumers are likely to demand first. So it would further enmesh China into global trade and investment flows.

4. It would redirect investment from wasteful sunset industries in China to hi-tech ones inside China.

Plus imagine Wechat/Taobao/QQ being *free* to access for the billions of people in the developing world all across the globe. We're talking billions in revenue, which might be able to pay for such a satellite constellation by itself.

 

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China is ready to launch the world's first quantum communications satellite this July, marking another step in its expanding space science missions.Work began on the satellite in 2011 and assembly was completed early this year, with scientists only needing to conduct testing before the launch.

The planned satellite is divided into two sections, the upper section system of platform control, and the lower section for effective loads – instruments and equipment the satellite carries,
the quantum communication key unit, the quantum entanglement emission unit, the quantum entangled source and the quantum experiment control and process unit.

"The most distinctive feature (of this satellite) is that it has to be aligned with two optical ground stations in a considerably wide range of plus-minus 90 degrees to 75 degrees. The other feature is that the optical axes of the satellite and the ground telescope have to be aligned strictly, almost like needle-to-head, or 3.5 micro-radians," said Zhu Zhencai, chief designer of the quantum satellite.

Alignment of the satellite has to be ten times more accurate than usual to ensure that the experiments on it can be processed successfully. The satellite adopts a two-level control system, which significantly improves its accuracy, is made very small in size and weighs only 640 kilograms, thanks to its integrated design.

Pan Jianwei, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and chief scientist of the quantum satellite, listed the three main missions of this satellite, which are quantum encoded communications, quantum entanglement and quantum teleportation.

Quantum encoded communications can be absolutely secure, which is determined by its nature: quantum information can be neither sensed (uncertainty principle) nor copied (the no-cloning theorem). Even the most powerful computer cannot crack the quantum information, said Pan.

"However, it is difficult to prevent the qubit information from going missing through optical fiber (on ground). By far the longest distance we can do is 400 kilometers (through optical fiber) but not any longer. (It is much better) to send qubit information from space, with the thickness of the atmosphere equaling eight to ten kilometers on the ground, which makes it very easy to transfer even for thousands of kilometers, since 80 percent of light can penetrate the atmosphere. Therefore, we have to go to space to achieve international quantum communications," said Pan.

China is planning to launch more quantum satellites in the future, aiming for the first international macro-zonal quantum encoded information network by 2030.

Quantum entanglement occurs when pairs of particles are generated in ways such that the quantum state of each particle cannot be described independently. In other words, the pair of particles can "feel" the behaviors of each other and make mirrored movements.

"Imagine that I was on the satellite, and two other men were at point A and B on the Earth. Then I send a pair of entangled photons to each A and B. You will find that the information that the two photons carries are exactly the same. Such a phenomenon we call the EPR paradox (named after Albert Einstein, Boris Podolsky and Nathan Rosen)," said Pan.

After more than ten years of work, Pan's team found the quantum entanglement under a multi-degree of freedom, being the world's first and a big breakthrough for the fundamental research of quantum information in almost 20 years.

The third area of research, quantum teleportation is a process by which quantum information can be transmitted exactly from one location to another, with the help of classical communication and previously shared quantum entanglement between the sending and receiving location, like a "space travel" of particles. Satellite quantum teleportation has numerous practical significance for quantum calculation and network techniques.

"The three missions (of the quantum satellite) are first-time attempts for China, the world, and the entire human race. Therefore, it draws global expectation," said Pan.

 

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According to Cao Haiyi, chief designer of the Ziyuan III satellites, The 2.7-tonne Ziyuan III-2 satellite is able to collect 3-D images of objects 2.5 meters or longer, and reduce deviation of vertical positioning to one meter using an onboard laser range finder. Previously, Ziyuan III-1 could only resolve to four meters in 3-D imaging and five meters in vertical measurement. "Technical indicators of the Ziyuan III satellites are on par with their most advanced peers anywhere in the world," Cao said.

Together, the two Ziyuan III satellites form a network and capture high-definition, 3-D images and multispectral data; boast a "revisit time," the time elapsed between observations of the same point on Earth, of around three days, down from five to six days when only Ziyuan III 01 was operating.

 

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Ziyuan III-2 first images...

 

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China will put into space five new satellites within about five years as part of the country's fast-expanding space science program, a national science chief said on Wednesday.

The five satellites, including a Sino-European joint mission known as SMILE, will focus on observation of solar activities and their impact on Earth's environment and space weather, analysis of water recycling and probing of black holes, according to Wu Ji, director of the National Space Science Center under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). They should make major breakthroughs in these fields, Wu said.

Of the five satellites, SMILE, or "Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer," is set to blast off in 2021. The satellite is designed to study the effects of the sun on Earth's environment and space weather by creating images of the interactions between solar winds and Earth's magnetosphere with X-ray and ultraviolet technology.

MIT, the Magnetosphere-Ionosphere-Thermosphere Coupling Exploration, aims at investigating the origin of upflow ions and their acceleration mechanism and discovering the key mechanism for the magnetosphere, ionosphere and thermosphere coupling.

And WCOM, the Water Cycle Observation Mission, is a bid to better understand Earth's water cycle by simultaneous and fast measurement of key parameters such as soil moisture, ocean salinity and ocean surface evaporation.

The other two satellites are the Advanced Space-borne Solar Observatory (ASO-S) and the Einstein-Probe. The former will help scientists understand the causality among magnetic fields, flares and coronal mass ejections, while the latter is tasked with discovering quiescent black holes over all astrophysical mass ranges and other compact objects via high-energy transients.

The ASO-S is China's first solar exploration satellite, ending the nation's history of depending on foreign solar observation data. Although the missions sound remote from ordinary people, Wu Ji insisted they are of imperative importance for space science and improving lives.

"All these projects were selected according to their scientific significance by judging committees led by scientists in an effort to give a vent for their innovation potential," Wu said.

Up to this point, previous projects, including the manned missions and lunar probes, have tended to be application-oriented or task-based, and have not focused on expanding knowledge of space sciences, spurring reforms in cutting-edge technology and driving the development of important emerging industries, said Wu Ji.

China sends more than 20 practical satellites into the space every year but it was not until 2015 that it launched satellites for pure scientific research. This does not befit China's international status, Wu said.

Hopefully, the curtain of change might have just begun to roll up. China has been ambitious about becoming a leading power in science and technology (S&T) which are seen as the driving force for modern economic and social development.

At a national S&T conference that commenced on Monday, President Xi Jinping said China should establish itself as one of the most innovative countries by 2020 and a leading innovator by 2030, and become a leading global S&T power by the 100th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China in 2049. According to Wu, space science should serve as a source for S&T innovation.

He said aside from the five new satellites announced on Wednesday, the CAS is also preparing for future space exploration attempts in the next decade. Scientists are mulling four new satellite projects, including the Solar Polar Orbit Telescope (SPORT), Search for Terrestrial Exo-Planets (STEP), X-ray timing and Polarization Mission (XTP) and a Space Millimeter-wavelength VLBI Array (S-VLBI) probe.

In the meantime, Wu voiced concerns as the research satellite programs have not been included in China's national major scientific plan, which catalogues the nation's key S&T projects and provides funds from the central treasury. Nor did Wu entertain the idea that China's satellite programs are pre-planned on a five-year basis. "Sometimes it takes 10 years or even decades to turn an idea to a concrete space project."

Wu said he hoped that the space satellite program will be soon listed in the national scientific development outline and gain continuous financial support in order to transform China from a "pursuer" to a "frontrunner" in this field.

 

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SASTIND revealed that China will follow CLEP with more unprecedented missions which involve sending probes to land at the lunar polar regions...

 

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China will promulgate its first space law during the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-2020) to fill up the legal gap and guarantee an orderly and healthy development of the country's space industry.The law will be drafted by the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (SASTIND) and is expected to be completed by the end of 2016.

The SASTIND started investigation and research concerning the law on space in 2012."If we have a space law, all the departmental rules and regulations and documents will have something to go by and fall into good order and the policies will be better coordinated. With a general objective, the legal system would display its due functions and efficiency," said Tian Yulong, chief engineer of the SASTIND.

It was learned that China will release another white paper on the industry in the latter half of 2016.

 

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Sweden may not be a country that is readily associated with exploration of the Moon, but the Nordic nation has played an interesting role. If you’ve seen still images of Nasa's Apollo Moon landings then you’ve witnessed the work of modified Swedish Hasselblad cameras.


And Sweden’s presence is soon to be felt on the Moon once again, this time on another unprecedented journey - China’s Chang’e-4 mission to the untouched lunar far side, which is never visible from Earth due to gravitational or tidal locking.

Following an agreement signed with the National Space Science Centre (NSSC) in Beijing, the Swedish Institute of Space Physics (IRF) in Kiruna in the country’s remote far north will provide one of the scientific payloads on the mission that will further our understanding of our celestial neighbour.

The instrument, developed by Martin Wieser and colleagues in Kiruna, is the Advanced Small Analyzer for Neutrals (ASAN), a detector for energetic neutral atoms. It will reveal how solar wind interacts with the lunar surface and perhaps even the process behind the formation of lunar water. An earlier version of the instrument flew on India’s Chandrayaan I orbiter which launched in 2008.

“In the mission with India we discovered that about 20 percent of this solar wind which hits the lunar surface is reflected back to space as the so-called energetic neutral atoms. That was completely unexpected: The lunar surface is very porous, so it was thought everything would be absorbed," Wieser explains.

"The physics of the reflection process at the surface are still a bit of a mystery...And that's where our interest comes from for trying to put a detector for such energetic neutral atoms directly onto the lunar surface."This time, the detector will be on the mobile rover which take its instruments away from the contaminated blast area of touchdown and will explore an area of the fascinating South Pole-Aitken Basin.

Wieser says the sensor will allow scientists to see how solar winds interact with lunar regolith, as the material on lunar surface is called. And it could give insights into the presence of one of the most interesting and useful compounds on the Moon, which could be harnessed by In-situ resource utilisation (IRSU) techniques for fuel for missions into deep space – water.

“[Solar wind] is one of the proposed mechanisms to produce water on the Moon,” Wieser says. “You have heard the stories that various missions discovered water on the lunar poles, and it's completely unclear so far which mechanism makes it”.

The lunar water present in the permanently shadowed craters at the Moon's poles is attracting a lot of attention, and is crucial to the viability of concepts for a lunar base, such as the Moon Village vision proposed by European Space Agency Director-General

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Carrying out this detection on the far side is especially interesting for Wieser as it is far more exposed to solar winds than the near side. For a large part of the Moon's orbit around the Earth, the near side is either facing away from the Sun or within the Earth’s protective magnetosphere.
So for us, the lunar far side is a very interesting place because that's where the action is,” Wieser explains.

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Another instrument confirmed for Chang’e-4 is the Lunar Lander Neutron Dosimetry (LND) project developed by Kiel University in Germany. The experiment will measure radiation on the Moon in preparation for future manned missions and could also measure the water content of the ground beneath the landing unit.

This, together with the choice of Kiruna’s ASAN detector, suggests that water on the Moon is of great interest to China, hinting that the Chang’e-4 mission has an eye on future human exploration and utilisation of the Moon...

 

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Interesting article from Skywatcher.

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