China's Space Program News Thread

[Engineer]

Re: Chinese Satellites

Dont be so certain that there will be a chinese manned lunar program. Keep in mind the astronomical amount of resources such a enterprise will take.

AFAIK, CZ-5 is the largest rocket that can be built, and be commercially profitable. No way a 100t to LEO can be economically viable. Technically it will be a huge jump: CZ-5 is twice the capacity of CZ-4. The super-heavy rocket will require 4 times the capacity of CZ-5, at least.

And finally what will be the PR gain? IMO, it will take almost 2 decades for them to put a man on the moon. (it wont happen in 10 years, thats for sure). Thats around 60 years after the US did the same. Far more than the 40 years betwen the 1st US astronaut and the 1st chinese taikonaut. There wont be that much to take pride for. Does it merit the costs and risks of such an adventure?

Not to mention the fact that such program doesnt have much of a military value (unless china uses the super-heavy rocket to launch something like polyus...). The lack of military importance is an important factor because PLA runs the chinese space program. And IMO they wont like to support something that wont have much use for them.

The larger the rocket you have, the bigger the satellite you can launch. It is also possible to launch numerous regular sized satellites in one go, reducing the launch cost.

A bigger satellite means more space for propellent, which means the satellite is going to have longer lifespan. More importantly, more space allows larger solar panels and batteries, enabling transmitters with higher power output to be used. This will be important when the transmitters need to burn through jamming attempts. Alternatively, the extra power and storage allows the satellite to operate in Earth's eclipse for longer duration.

 

[delft]

Re: Chinese Satellites

Spacecraft traditionally use rocket motors to change their trajectory. Alternatives are solar sails and, similar to that, push by micro waves. See

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. Imagine a power plant on the Moon delivering power to a field of antennae that pushes a spacecraft from Earth orbit to Mars without having to provide a huge amount of rocket fuel.

 

[antiterror13]

Re: Chinese Satellites

It is not because they 're doing initial research that the politburo will give his agreement to the manned lunar program.
Frankly Apart prideness i don't know the usefulness of of a manned lunar program for china.

Have you heard Helium-3 and the importance of it ?

Read this

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[siegecrossbow]

Re: Chinese Satellites

Spacecraft traditionally use rocket motors to change their trajectory. Alternatives are solar sails and, similar to that, push by micro waves. See

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. Imagine a power plant on the Moon delivering power to a field of antennae that pushes a spacecraft from Earth orbit to Mars without having to provide a huge amount of rocket fuel.

You could also push them using giant lasers.

 

[escobar]

Re: Chinese Satellites

Chinese Mars mission

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[Quickie]

Re: Chinese Satellites

It is not because they 're doing initial research that the politburo will give his agreement to the manned lunar program.
Frankly Apart prideness i don't know the usefulness of of a manned lunar program for china.

There are people who believe the U.S. never did land a man on the moon. A second moon landing could settle the conspiracy theory once and for all.

 

[siegecrossbow]

Re: Chinese Satellites

There are people who believe the U.S. never did land a man on the moon. A second moon landing could settle the conspiracy theory once and for all.

There are people who believe that the Earth is flat...

 

[escobar]

Re: Chinese Satellites

According to

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The launch vehicle of Compass-G5 was stacked on the launch pad yesterday.

 

[IronsightSniper]

Re: Chinese Satellites

The larger the rocket you have, the bigger the satellite you can launch. It is also possible to launch numerous regular sized satellites in one go, reducing the launch cost.

A bigger satellite means more space for propellent, which means the satellite is going to have longer lifespan. More importantly, more space allows larger solar panels and batteries, enabling transmitters with higher power output to be used. This will be important when the transmitters need to burn through jamming attempts. Alternatively, the extra power and storage allows the satellite to operate in Earth's eclipse for longer duration.

Bigger in what way? A larger rocket definitely means more payload mass, that's for sure, but if you want to launch 'larger' rockets, as in physical dimensions, or even multiple 'regular' rockets, you'd have to change the geometry of the rocket itself, which is a very precise thing to start with.

If anything, 'conquering' the moon is a fallacy that people should stop fantasizing about. Conquer the atmosphere instead, construct an orbital elevator to even more cheaply import civilization into the void. Conquer what's closer before you conquer something that is worthless.

 

[Blitzo]

Re: Chinese Satellites

Posted by xyz via CDF

This will have to be approved quite fast if CAST wants to get it working.