China's Space Program News Thread

[escobar]

CNSA Space Debris Monitoring and Application Center track almost 20,000 space debris...

 

[escobar]

China will seek to enhance it's aerospace development by carrying out further moon exploration missions following the return of lunar probe Chang'e 5 next year, the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense said in Beijing on Thursday.

The prospective launch of the lunar probe Chang'e 4 will mark China's first human exploration to the far side of the moon and will come after the return of the Chang'e 5, which is expected to carry out its sampling mission in 2017. "We explored the feasibility of four missions last year. Chang'e 4, the first of the subsequent moon exploration tasks, is expected to be launched in 2018.

For the last three, Chang'e 6, the back-up for Chang'e 5, will carry out another sample gathering and return task, while the other two are landings respectively on the north and the south poles [of the moon] for technical validations for the subsequent unmanned scientific research stations," said Liu Tongjie, deputy director of the moon exploration center of the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense.

Meanwhile, China also unveiled its ambitious plans for a first Mars exploration and three further deep-space projects.

"We have four deep-space exploration missions planned besides the moon probe. The first is to be our first Mars exploration mission which is expected to be carried out in 2020 and there will be an asteroid exploration, an exploration on the Jupiter system and the second Mars probe which will return with samples," said Liu.

Currently, China's high-resolution earth observation system has three satellites in orbit with a resolution capability of 0.8 meters. The observational accuracy will be further improved by the continuous development of satellite technology.

"We will launch high-resolution No.3, 5 and 6 satellites over the next year. High-resolution No.7, the last of the observation satellites, will be launched around 2018. So the seven satellites specially for civilian use will form our all-weather and all-day high-resolution earth observation system, which is the symbol of our country's highest civilian earth observation technology," said Zhao Wenbo, deputy chief engineer of the high-resolution project of the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense.

 

[escobar]

China's newly launched high-resolution mapping satellite Ziyuan III 02 has delivered its first batch of images. The satellite images cover an expansive area across northeast China including the Heilongjiang, Inner Mongolia, Tianjin, Hebei and Shandong.

"This satellite took 120 maps for the first batch. The maps are of high quality with good sharpness, which are comparable with those taken by 01. What's more, 02 reached a stereoscopic mapping level of two meters, which means this satellite meets with our expectations," said Tian Yulong, chief engineer of the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense.

Ziyuan III 02 is an upgrade based on its predecessor Ziyuan III 01. Its 3-D imaging has a higher resolution of 2.7 meters compared to the four meters of the 01 satellite. From an orbit of 500 kilometers, the new satellite can not only take images of objects on Earth, but also conduct accurate vertical measurements.

One of the key features of the mapping images produced by Ziyuan III 02 are their stereoscopic properties. With a 3-D glass, the undulations of mountains and rivers are easy to observe from the map.

"Our biggest purpose to do stereoscopic mapping is to reflect the shape of the Earth. How tall is the bay of a reservoir? How are the ups and downs of a road? Is the forest on the mountain or on the plain? With this map, you can detail the geography of the earth, which will help us with various investigations," said Tang Xinming, deputy director of the Satellite Surveying and Mapping Application Center of the National Administration of Surveying, Mapping and Geoinformation of China.

According to preliminary analysis, Ziyuan III 02's first round of maps produced 3-D image mapping to a resolution ratio of two meters, which provides a solid foundation for geographical mapping in scales of 1: 50000 and 1:25000.

In the future, both Ziyuan III 01 and 02 will operate together on tasks such as conducting land resource surveys, natural disaster prevention, agriculture and forestry projects, water conservation, urban planning and transportation.

"The two satellites together can reduce the re-observation time from five days to three days, which will greatly improve our capacity to monitor the same point on Earth. This will be a prominent advantage in cases of emergency. This network is also an important symbol of transferring the satellites into a practical and operational phase," added Tian.

 

[Jeff Head]

MOD COMMENT:

Engineer, you know better than to post these types of insultng comment I removed above. Any more of that will result in a Warning and then a time out.

 

[superdog]

New Jilin-1 Satellite Images Released: USA Philadelphia Shipyard

View attachment 27952 View attachment 27953

The most interesting thing about the Jilin-1 is not that shipyard picture, it is this:

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(click to download the 93MB video, totally worth it)

You can compare it to this:

According to Jilin-1's manufacturer Chang Guang Satellite Tech (CGST), their pair of 95kg microsats (launched together with the Jilin-1 main sat) can each shoot 4k full-color video at a ground resolution of 1.13m, it can also track moving subjects such as a plane, as shown in the first video clip.

In comparison, the only other currently available high resolution video-sat are Terra Bella's Skysat-1/2 (a Google subsidiary), as shown in the second video clip. Skysat-1/2 are 100kg microsats that can shoot 1080p monochrome videos at a resolution of 1.1m.

It was also remarked by CGST that they plan to deploy 14 similar sats during 2016, which will allow them to obtain similar visuals anywhere on the planet with a 3-4 hour reaction/refresh time.

By 2020, they plan to deploy 60 of these things so they could see anywhere on the planet with a 30 minute reaction/refresh time.

By 2030, they plan to deploy 138 sats to form an extensive constellation, which will give them 24/7, all-weather, full-spectrum and global observation capability with a staggering 10 minute reaction/refresh time.

 

[AndrewS]

Looks like China is on the way to having a real-time imaging capability over any point on the globe.

The implications are very interesting

 

[antiterror13]

Looks like China is on the way to having a real-time imaging capability over any point on the globe.

The implications are very interesting

so what is interesting? ... would be able to track CBG in real time? and could be the end of CBG era of what we know it?

 

[AndrewS]

Real-time tracking of ANY surface vessel in ANYWHERE in the world.

With reference to CBGs, it solves the targeting problem.
Along with submarine tenders and underway resupply ships in the Pacific Ocean.

However, that doesn't necessarily mean the end of the carrier.

 

[antiterror13]

Real-time tracking of ANY surface vessel in ANYWHERE in the world.

With reference to CBGs, it solves the targeting problem.
Along with submarine tenders and underway resupply ships in the Pacific Ocean.

However, that doesn't necessarily mean the end of the carrier.

It is .. I did say "The end of CBG of we know it" ... at the moment nobody (apart from US navy, of course) knows where is the exact location of any Carriers, thats a huge advantage of the US Navy ... once the exact location of the carriers known by China or Russia ... the advantages would be gone ... Carriers wiould be still extremely powerful and useful, especially to 2nd o 3rd rate countries ... but no longer become a ghost

 

[superdog]

Real-time tracking of ANY surface vessel in ANYWHERE in the world.

With reference to CBGs, it solves the targeting problem.
Along with submarine tenders and underway resupply ships in the Pacific Ocean.

However, that doesn't necessarily mean the end of the carrier.

One should know that these sats belongs to a new generation of Agile Earth Observing Satellites (AEOS). The characteristic of AEOS is that they stay small and light (from a few dozen to a few hundred kgs), which means:
1. They will be cheaper to make and cheaper to launch (can deploy multiple sats with one launch, or can use cheap small rockets to quickly launch one sat)
2. They can be more agile in pointing to different directions using magnetorquer and reaction flywheels, versus the traditional method of mirror adjustment motor.

While due to their small size they will not achieve the extreme resolution of newer WorldView or Keyhole satellites (0.3~0.1meters), they can still achieve sub-meter resolution (Jilin-1 is 0.72m multispectrum, skysat-1/2 is 0.9m panchromatic) and this could be further improved in the future by advancements in optics, sensor, or by lowering orbit. Other than identifying smaller planes or subtle features like tire tracks, such a resolution should be sufficient for most strategic targets and for civilian uses.

The true advantage of AEOS lies in its time resolution (how soon you can get image/video of a specific location at a specific time) and it's coverage. Time resolution is better because you can launch more of them (for the cost of one larger sat) to achieve very high reaction/refresh time. Coverage is better because they can turn more agilely and at bigger angles. To make an analogy, a traditional sat is like an (almost) fixed camera, you either use a wide-angle lens to see a lot of things but can't see far away object very clearly, or you use a telephoto lens to see the object more clearly but you won't see a lot of surrounding things. An agile sat is like the same camera with a slightly smaller telephoto lens, but mounted on a movable tripod head so you can scout a lot of area while still seeing far away things relatively clearly.

See here for more details on how AEOS differ from tradition EOS:

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It should be noted that there are still limitations on continuous video tracking. These sats run on relatively low sun-sync orbits (~650km for Jilin-1 and its videosat sisters Lingqiao-A/B). The satellite period is around 90-100 minutes which means they cannot stay on top of one earth location for very long. The longest video time on a fixed location for skysat-1/2 is 90 seconds, the number for Lingqiao is unknown but should be similar. For larger and easier to distinguish targets (e.g. major surface combatants on clear ocean), this tracking time may be longer because the target can be seen at a greater angle off-nadir, but it should still be a few minutes at most. Given Lingqiao's vision field of 4.6 x 3.4 km, and an estimated 1-2 minutes of visual contact, and the agility(speed/acceleration/turn rate) of the target, one should be able to roughly calculate what is the minimum refresh time required (how soon the next sat passes through) to continuously track the location of a target.

I'm too lazy to do calculations but my gut tells me 1.1m is not the optimal resolution for carrier searching and tracking. A lower resolution and larger field of view coupled with radar detection should be better at this job. They will most likely deploy future sats in varying field-of-view/resolution to satisfy different mission requirements. But nevertheless, I think it is clear that AEOS constellation will be the way to go in the future.