China's Space Program News Thread

[H2O]

There is a chance that the launch might be in August so everything boils down to weather.

Sigh...that's what they said about the UAE and then I find out that they've launched earlier today.

Just wondering with NASA and UAE ( didn't know that UAE has such capability! ) planning to go on a MARS mission in the same time frame, would that put pressure on China to launch before them?

The only pressure would be the closing launch window. If they can't launch due to whatever reason then they won't launch. Besides, there have been previous missions to Mars so there is no pressure to other participants. The only competition left is a manned mission BUT we're decades away from such reality. Late 21st Century would be my guess for manned missions.

The Chinese program needs to be done ASAP because the learning process needs to begin ASAP. It's not about getting it right and not doing it quick.

Blindly rushing head first isn't very economical. You're going to learn what your mistake was regardless of launch rate. I highly doubt the Chinese would follow the Soviet style of doing things.

 

[anzha]

Just wondering with NASA and UAE ( didn't know that UAE has such capability! )

The UAE has been working on building an aerospace industry. They built the orbiter, but not the rocket itself. They bought their ride from the Japanese.

planning to go on a MARS mission in the same time frame, would that put pressure on China to launch before them? Anyway, LM5 is a new rocket, I hope China will do it right, not do it quick.

There's little pressure to launch first. The Chinese want to get this right. The delays from the LM5 and China not rushing the fixes are sign enough of that. After all, if they are successful this will be the first non American landing on Mars since the 1970s and the first nonAmerican rover. And China's first standalone Mars mission. Doing it right is a big deal.

Nevertheless I am happy to see friendly competition among nations towards this MARS exploration endeavors.

Agreed. More the better. This will force others to do a better job and improve their missions: the American program was starting to flag. With China involved, its likely to revive.

 

[taxiya]

Just wondering with NASA and UAE ( didn't know that UAE has such capability! ) planning to go on a MARS mission in the same time frame, would that put pressure on China to launch before them? Anyway, LM5 is a new rocket, I hope China will do it right, not do it quick.
Nevertheless I am happy to see friendly competition among nations towards this MARS exploration endeavors.

Regarding UAE, I don't want to upset or offend anybody, but I think it is really USA and Japan going to Mars. If we can trust this article (no reason not to),

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The UAE is not doing Hope entirely on its own. Besides purchasing the H-2A launch from Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, MBRSC partnered with several universities in the United States, such as Arizona State University, the University of California Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory and the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado. Those universities collaborated on the spacecraft and its instruments.

That partnership included building and testing Hope at LASP’s facilities in Colorado. “Our partners at LASP have been key to ensuring the success of the mission, delivering an extraordinary spacecraft in almost half the time of conventional missions but also in providing the resources and knowledge we need to drive our own development of space systems engineering and planetary science,” Sharaf said.

NASA is also supporting the mission by providing Hope access to the Deep Space Network for communications.

There are nothing left to do really.

 

[Quickie]

The Chinese program needs to be done ASAP because the learning process needs to begin ASAP. It's not about getting it right and not doing it quick. Chances are the first Mars mission is a failure just going by history and landing attempts, of which only the Americans are undisputed superstars at building successful landers. The sooner you start, the sooner you can work out where and what went wrong. Now I'm not saying things must and will go wrong but that's a core part of the program consideration and how the engineers specifically designed this mission.

The UAE mission has already launched I think. It's an orbiter and launched using a Japanese rocket. Still a very ambitious and impressive feat from a collection of Emirate collaborators. The American and Chinese missions are orbiter scouting for suitable landing zone and what to study, lander, and rover. China's never done this on Mars before and the lunar missions were done in smaller steps. This is a totally new endeavor and using an relatively still unproven rocket. One that's also never held such a complex, large, and heavy payload before. But every journey starts with a step and the first ones usually send you to the ground so if they got all the payload material all working, they may as well test everything together.

The Long March 5 rocket is not that really new. The article posted on twitter was wrong in saying that all the previous Long March 5 launches were just testing without payload. The fact of the matter is that all the previous four Long March 5 launches are full mission with payloads with 3 of them successfully delivered to the desired orbit.

Same goes for the Mars Lander and its rover, which is not without precedent and unproven since they are based off the lander and rover of the successful Chang'e 4 and 5 missions.

Imo, the Chinese space agency has made enough preparation for this mission.

 

[Xizor]

Just wondering with NASA and UAE ( didn't know that UAE has such capability! ) planning to go on a MARS mission in the same time frame, would that put pressure on China to launch before them? Anyway, LM5 is a new rocket, I hope China will do it right, not do it quick.
Nevertheless I am happy to see friendly competition among nations towards this MARS exploration endeavors.

UAE actually doesn't have the "capability". What they have is Money. And Money buys capability.

What that means is - The satellite bus design, individual scientific instruments and hell, even the solar panels are going to be sourced from European and American private companies and universities
.
Edit : somebody answered this.
Having to build these from scratch is a big deal. So China isn't in a competition with UAE.
But it's a start for them. They'll soon build up the know how.

 

[SoupDumplings]

UAE actually doesn't have the "capability". What they have is Money. And Money buys capability.

What that means is - The satellite bus design, individual scientific instruments and hell, even the solar panels are going to be sourced from European and American private companies and universities
.
Edit : somebody answered this.
Having to build these from scratch is a big deal. So China isn't in a competition with UAE.
But it's a start for them. They'll soon build up the know how.

I thought UAE's rocket was from Japan? I think China and other countries with their own space agencies also offer services to launch satellites. China helped some African country a while back, can't remember the country or satellite type though.

 

[siegecrossbow]

The fact that Hainan’s traffic police are limiting traffic on the 23rd indicates that it will be the launch date.

 

[hullopilllw]

The fact that Hainan’s traffic police are limiting traffic on the 23rd indicates that it will be the launch date.

Yes, I read somewhere on JinReTouTiao that the launch will be on Thursday if all the internal testing is done.

 

[anzha]

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Also mentions the 23rd.

 

[Jono]

23rd is tomorrow!!
wow, looking forward to a successful launch and a grand Mars mission.