China's Space Program News Thread

[escobar]

Re: Dragon is ready to fly, why is it so cheap?

 

[antiterror13]

Good news - real signs of progress. 45.78 million square km is very impressive.

The news is confusing .... only 9.32 million square km of China's territory ? .. I thought China's territory is 9.6 mill km2

The other thing is, the news didn't mention how good the imagery is ? , just say high resolution, which could mean anything, so means nothing ? .. better than Google Earth ?

 

[escobar]

The other thing is, the news didn't mention how good the imagery is ? , just say high resolution, which could mean anything, so means nothing ? .. better than Google Earth ?

ZY-1-02C's highest resolution is 2.36 m. ZY-1-03C one is 2.1 m.Three more land resources satellites are coming with a resolution reaching 1 meter. GeoEye-1 sat, which provides images to Google Earth and Google Maps have a resolution of 41 cm (for US gov). Google have access to details of 50 cm.

 

[Lion]

Re: Dragon is ready to fly, why is it so cheap?

Answer: Government bloat is the cause of the escalation of price in US space vehicles. When you know you have the deep pockets of Uncle Sugar behind you you do not pay attention to waste and overruns.

Space X keeps costs low by building everything under one roof. That means engines, booster housings and orbital hardware are all built at the Space X factory. Space X is very efficient. Much more efficient than any government operation could ever be.

Space X and other private space ventures will re-establish the American lead in space exploration. No one to date has been able to out innovate the USA in space exploration.

Private space is the salvation of the exploration of space

Then they will start to blame all the pirated parts in the space X because of sub contractors and outsourcing all this mission endangering their lifes. Rather miraclously, with pirated parts, Space X will still works. LOL..

 

[antiterror13]

ZY-1-02C's highest resolution is 2.36 m. ZY-1-03C one is 2.1 m.Three more land resources satellites are coming with a resolution reaching 1 meter. GeoEye-1 sat, which provides images to Google Earth and Google Maps have a resolution of 41 cm (for US gov). Google have access to details of 50 cm.

Escobar, does it mean Google Earth would provide better imagery to the public than Chinasat-2A (for Chinese govt) ?

 

[AssassinsMace]

Re: Dragon is ready to fly, why is it so cheap?

Then they will start to blame all the pirated parts in the space X because of sub contractors and outsourcing all this mission endangering their lifes. Rather miraclously, with pirated parts, Space X will still works. LOL..

Yeah. Government bloat as a result of private interests. Space X might be the exception for now but they won't be the only and last private company. Guarantee most followers will be thinking business first. It's really business as usual. The government contracts private companies which seek profit and that is why military hardware cost so much. What happens when a private company with lobbying power and connections to Washington wants to get into this business for profit? Like there aren't any US politicians that aren't in the pocket of corporations. All Space X is a starting point to see it can be done. Then a couple decades down the line it will end up costing more than ever.

 

[escobar]

Escobar, does it mean Google Earth would provide better imagery to the public than Chinasat-2A (for Chinese govt) ?

I suppose you mean ZY-1-02C and ZY-1-03C.
Yes. They are china's first high-resolution civil sat.

ZY-1-2C a high-resolution remote-sensing satellite:
2 HR cameras: spatial resolution: 2.36m Joint swath: 54 km
Panchromatic multispectral camera: resolution 5m and 10 m, swath 60 km
mass: 2100 kg
lifetime: 3 years


ZY-3 civil high-resolution stereoscopic mapping satellite:
Usage: To satisfy the needs for constructing a database for production of 1:50000 and larger scale maps and provide data for resource mapping, environmental surveying, disaster monitoring, city planning and national security needs.

Platform: Modified ZY-2 satellite platform

Payloads:
1 TDI-CCD nadir-viewing camera with resolution better than 2.5 meters
2 TDI-CCD front/rear-viewing cameras with resolution better than 4 meters
1 multi-spectral front-viewing camera with resolution better than 10 meters

The satellite can cover all areas of the Earth between 84 deg. North and 84 deg. South, with the re-visiting period at 59 days. In special cases, the satellite can re-visit the same area in 5 days.

Specifications:

Orbit: 505.984 km circular orbit, inclination 97.421 degrees, local time at descending node 10:30

Mass: ~2630 kg

Operation life: 4-5 years

Cameras:

2.5m res. high-resolution camera (x1) (sweep area width 52 km)
4m res. medium-resolution cameras (x2) (sweep area width 51 km)
10m res. multi-spectral camera (x1) (sweep area width 52 km)

Data transfer:
Compression ratio: 4:1/2:1 for pan-chromatic images and loss-less compression for multi-spectral images
Number of data transfer channels: 2

 

[escobar]

Launch video:

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more pics

 

[escobar]

TG-1 has now lowered its orbit to prepare for the mid June launch window:

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[escobar]

Looks like the launch of Yaogan-15 might occur on May 30.