China's Space Program News Thread
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That is big considering that Russia withdrew from NASA's Lunar Gateway in January.
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China's Tianwen-1 probe performs orbital adjustment around Mars
Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-15 18:45:22|Editor: huaxia
Photo taken on Sept. 15, 2020 shows the model of the Mars probe Tianwen-1 at the 22nd China International Industry Fair (CIIF) in east China's Shanghai. (Xinhua/Zhang Jiansong)
BEIJING, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- China's Tianwen-1 probe on Monday performed an orbital maneuver around Mars after it became the country's first spacecraft to explore an extraterrestrial planet.
A 3000N engine was ignited at 5 p.m. (Beijing time) to ensure the probe's trajectory passes the poles of Mars. The periareion, the point in the orbit that is closest to Mars, was adjusted to 265 km, according to the China National Space Administration (CNSA).
The spacecraft will perform several more orbital adjustments to enter a parking orbit, said the CNSA.
The probe, including an orbiter, a lander and a rover, successfully entered the Mars orbit on Feb. 10 after a nearly seven-month voyage from Earth.
The lander carrying the rover is expected to land on Mars in May or June. Chinese space engineers and scientists have chosen a relatively flat region in the southern part of Utopia Planitia, a large plain, as a potential landing zone. The rover will be released after landing to conduct scientific exploration.
I saw this picture. It is interesting that at the stage 4 from left the entry vehicle will deploy "balancing flaps" (配平翼). The Chinese word is wing but I think it should be translated as flap because Chinese language usually call any such surface as wing. Just like in the opposite manner Chinese Dao and Jian are all swords in English.
I remember seeing an research paper talking about an atmospherically entry vehicle having such flaps at the bottom of it. At the time, nobody knows what they are meant for. Now I know. It also teaches me how to treat the papers, that is make connections between the date of paper, its tests and the ongoing and future programs.
I remember seeing an research paper talking about an atmospherically entry vehicle having such flaps at the bottom of it. At the time, nobody knows what they are meant for. Now I know. It also teaches me how to treat the papers, that is make connections between the date of paper, its tests and the ongoing and future programs.
This is the burn at point 4.
China's Tianwen-1 probe performs orbital adjustment around Mars
Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-15 18:45:22|Editor: huaxia
Photo taken on Sept. 15, 2020 shows the model of the Mars probe Tianwen-1 at the 22nd China International Industry Fair (CIIF) in east China's Shanghai. (Xinhua/Zhang Jiansong)
BEIJING, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) -- China's Tianwen-1 probe on Monday performed an orbital maneuver around Mars after it became the country's first spacecraft to explore an extraterrestrial planet.
A 3000N engine was ignited at 5 p.m. (Beijing time) to ensure the probe's trajectory passes the poles of Mars. The periareion, the point in the orbit that is closest to Mars, was adjusted to 265 km, according to the China National Space Administration (CNSA).
The spacecraft will perform several more orbital adjustments to enter a parking orbit, said the CNSA.
The probe, including an orbiter, a lander and a rover, successfully entered the Mars orbit on Feb. 10 after a nearly seven-month voyage from Earth.
The lander carrying the rover is expected to land on Mars in May or June. Chinese space engineers and scientists have chosen a relatively flat region in the southern part of Utopia Planitia, a large plain, as a potential landing zone. The rover will be released after landing to conduct scientific exploration.
How? First is to land a person on the moon surface by 2024 as Trump has demanded.
Seriously though, this kind of article is very low quality, it only serves one purpose and one alone, to stoke up "China Threat". It provided no workable recommendations except recycling phrases such as "China is beating us", "China is going to eat our lunch"(Biden's own words few days ago), "We must be No. 1", "America will not accept to be No. 2" (Obama's own words).
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An interesting comparison between NASA's approach of Mars orbit insertion and China's.
NASA's orbiter decelerate and enter the polar orbit in one burn. CNSA's Tianwen enters a equatorial orbit in one burn, then at the far end of the orbit enters polar orbit by a second burn.
In NASA approach, that first burn consumes much more fuel than China's first burn. NASA then use "aerobreak" to reach the final working orbit. Aerobreak is to have the lower end of the orbit placed just inside the upper atmosphere, using air friction to slow down the orbiter instead of fuel. This way saves about 450kg of fuel compensating the penalty in the first burn. At some point later, there will be some small burns to circulate the orbit so no portion of orbit enters atmosphere. However this "Aerobreak" took 140 days which is much longer than NASA's approach.
In the end, the fuel/DV budget would be the same, but it would be interesting to know why NASA choose to do so, a bit unconventional approach.
NASA's orbiter decelerate and enter the polar orbit in one burn. CNSA's Tianwen enters a equatorial orbit in one burn, then at the far end of the orbit enters polar orbit by a second burn.
In NASA approach, that first burn consumes much more fuel than China's first burn. NASA then use "aerobreak" to reach the final working orbit. Aerobreak is to have the lower end of the orbit placed just inside the upper atmosphere, using air friction to slow down the orbiter instead of fuel. This way saves about 450kg of fuel compensating the penalty in the first burn. At some point later, there will be some small burns to circulate the orbit so no portion of orbit enters atmosphere. However this "Aerobreak" took 140 days which is much longer than NASA's approach.
In the end, the fuel/DV budget would be the same, but it would be interesting to know why NASA choose to do so, a bit unconventional approach.
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