China's Space Program News Thread
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I really didn't want to quote aspi, but I found this article on Wikipedia about Long March 3B cost. Do you think it may be true? It's pretty close data to data given by this contract of 40 m$.
Thats an impressively low figure. I always thought that China's rocket launches were like the old NASA, non-innovative, and very costly.
40 million dollars is an excellent low cost figure for a rocket. Hopefully these new space companies can also deliver similar results quickly
I don't quite understand the question. What is true? The 50m usd by this article's claim? 40m usd is the contract statement in 2021. The 50m figure is in 2019 by the author's claim. It is only natural that the cost went further down over two years.
The low cost of CZ-3B is because the rocket development cost have been absorbed by over 300 times of CZ launches, now it is only cost of manufacturing. All the CZ-2,3,4 use the same engines and fuselage.
Falcon 9 so far has launched just over 100 times. If it was not because of its re-usability, its price would have been much higher now to pay back the development cost. This applies to any new space companies (China or else).
So if any of these companies want to compete with similar price/payload/orbit, they have to be reusable to similar level as SpaceX. So far, I don't see anyone in the world coming close. The new companies in China are working on rockets primarily on smaller rockets.
P.S. the reusable CZ-8R is up to the task for competition, but it is not a new company though.
Initial plan is 3 modules in a T shape. Each module is 20 to 22 tonnes at launch. Later launches by space craft will further add equipment and supply mass. There will also be cargo space craft and crew space craft docked to the station. At any time there will be a crew space craft docked. So the total mass is more than 80 tonnes.
Afterwards, there will be a space telescope on the same orbit in close range. It is about 14 tonnes. The module was planned to be part of the station, but later decided to not to be physically connected but flying on the same orbit in very close range for maintenance and refueling. The reason was the to avoid disturbance to the telescope. So if it is counted as part of the station, the total mass would be close to 100 tonnes.
The above are decided elements. There is provision of the design that more modules can be mounted if there is demand in the future. The total mass can be anywhere from 180 tonnes.
Here is the source, interview of Zhou Jianping, the chief designer of manned space program in 2019.
The basic configuration around 2022. Three modules, one core and two laboratories.
The extended configuration, first extend the T shape to a cross (another core), then add more modules to the new core.
The dimension around 2022 is >20 meters by >30 meters.
by78
General
A small image of the actual Mars rover. Note that the Chinese character for fire (火) in the ancient is printed on the rover's camera mast. Apparently, this particular rendition of the seal script character came from an from the Song dynasty.
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