China's Space Program News Thread

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Quickie

Quickie

Colonel
The spacecraft's lander-ascender separated from its orbiter-returner module about 8 hours ago. Landing anytime soon?

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China's Chang'e-5 probe prepares to land on moon
Source: Xinhua| 2020-11-30 10:37:55|Editor: huaxia


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Technical personnel work at the Beijing Aerospace Control Center (BACC) in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 30, 2020. China's Chang'e-5 probe is preparing for a soft landing on the moon to undertake the country's first collection of samples from an extraterrestrial body. The lander-ascender combination of the spacecraft separated from its orbiter-returner combination at 4:40 a.m. Monday (Beijing Time), according to the China National Space Administration. (BACC/Handout via Xinhua)
BEIJING, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) -- China's Chang'e-5 probe is preparing for a soft landing on the moon to undertake the country's first collection of samples from an extraterrestrial body.
The lander-ascender combination of the spacecraft separated from its orbiter-returner combination at 4:40 a.m. Monday (Beijing Time), according to the China National Space Administration (CNSA).
Launched on Nov. 24, Chang'e-5 is one of the most complicated and challenging missions in China's aerospace history, as well as the world's first moon-sample mission for more than 40 years.
The spacecraft is performing well and communication with ground control is normal, CNSA said.
The lander-ascender combination will execute a soft landing on the moon and carry out automatic sampling. The orbiter-returner will continue orbiting about 200 km above the lunar surface and wait for rendezvous and docking with the ascender. Enditem
 
by78

by78

General
i-Space has successfully concluded aerodynamic tests and verification on the SQX-2 re-usable rocket. Images show a wind tunnel model of the rocket as well as aerodynamic modeling during descent and landing. Note the grid fins.

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SinoSoldier

SinoSoldier

Colonel
taxiya said:
1. It is not about cost or speed or technical maturity of either one. It is determined that a crew rated rocket has much higher safety margin than a pure cargo launcher. Therefor, developing a two-in-one will be too wasteful for the cargo purpose, and too high technical challenge for the crew transport purpose (if scaled up). The bottom line is that China does not want its crew to travel in a much larger cargo rocket.

The TLI payload of 25t is exactly just enough for the crew module and service module to the moon, no more. You can launch 25t carge to the moon as well, that is fine, but the 25t marking for the crew combo clearly demonstrated the Chinese thought, a dedicated crew carrier.

A scale-down cargo carrier does not do the job that China want, TLI of at least 50t is the minimum in the plan. You may think 25+25=50 that can do a job of 30, but in reality 25+25=0 because the smallest single piece is 30.

The two teams are different. One team is experienced with CZ-5 derived tech for 921. The team on CZ-9 has nothing in common with the other team, totally new engine, new tank, new fuselage.

2. That line of thought is based on the assumption that the two are in a relation of "either or", but that was never ever the the case. It was always a "one plus one combo" from the beginning.

By now it is not only CNSA committed to CZ-9, but the state consul as well, it is not totally up to CNSA to change their mind.

And most importantly, 921 does NOT have an official designation yet, CZ-9 has got it more than a year ago. That clearly says a lot.
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This publication has stated the projected work load of CZ-9, around 2030 4 to 5 launches, 2030-2035 10 launches, more frequently after 2050. If as you wanted, replacing CZ-9 with 921 would demand cutting cargo designed for CZ-9 in half, meaning redesign everything, doubling or tripling the launch frequency etc. That will certainly mess up all related space plans from 2030 to 2050 and beyond.

And last but most importantly, it does not matter what we think is better, it is what China want in reality matters.
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That's quite some insight in that post.

How "official" is the 921 in terms of dedication and commitment? Has it been given the official "go-ahead" or is the government still assessing its feasibility and usefulness? There were pictures from late 2019 showing test structures resembling the engine clusters being built but I'm not sure if that's part of official development/R&D or just "concept proofing".

I'll concede that shifting the duty of crewed launches from the CZ-9 to a less ambitious design probably means that they could go for a test flight as soon as the mid-2020s. All of this point towards Chinese ambitions of a manned lunar landing mission, even though such an endeavor has yet to earn official approval from the government.
 
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