China's Space Program News Thread
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Hendrik_2000
Lieutenant General
They complete the space walk task congratulation first time for female astronaut in newly designed Feitian space suit
Taikonauts Zhai Zhigang and Wang Yaping have completed their extravehicular activities (EVAs) and returned to the space station core module Tianhe in the early hours of Monday. |
Taikonauts Zhai Zhigang and Wang Yaping have completed their extravehicular activities (EVAs) and returned to the space station core module Tianhe in the early hours of Monday. |
The robotic arm on Tiangong
CASC:
Orbiter of the Tianwen-1 Mars probe manoeuvred to a new 265 x 10700km, period 7.08h orbit in Nov. 8, 2021. Thereafter it will start the next phase surveillance and exploring of the Mars surface while relaying the communications of the lander.
The Tianwen-1 orbiter was equipped with middle resolution camera, high resolution camera, subsurface detection radar, mineral spectrum analyzer, magnetometer, ion and neutral particle analyzer, high-energy particle analyzer. It will plot and record the Mars topography and geological structure, collect the surface material composition and soil type distribution, atmosphere, ionosphere, Martian space environment data.
The orbiter will focus on typical landforms and geological units such as craters, volcanoes, canyons and dry riverbeds, and implements high-resolution detection.
World's first LOX / methane electric pump-fed engine by LinkSpace. Full system fire test on Nov. 2nd.
This is one of the more interesting developments coming from civi aerospace companies, I remember there is another Chinese company also tested electric pump rocket and even tested it on a vtol test.
Electric pump system inherently has lower TWR compared to say staged combustion cycles (due to mass of battery). However they have ridiculously good throttling range and response they make for ideal vertical landing engines.
My prediction is future Chinese reusable rocket will still use traditional pump cycle to provide main thrust but rely on electric pump systems for landing, honestly this seems to be the ideal setup.
Electric pump engines' thrust may be too low for any practical landing. The best is 25kN (Rutherford). Compared to YF-100's 1200kN or Merlin's 854kN. For a size of Falcon 9 (the only successful VTVL so far), the lowest thrust is 482kN (one engine throttled to min) at 16% of total takeoff thrust. The prefered thrust is about 13% depending on the dry mass. So let's say the right thrust is about 450kN. This is 18 times of 25kN, 18 such engines with their battery pack is a huge dead weight. Ironically dead weight is good for landing because of less throttling, but then what is the point of having a rocket?
I think with today's battery and electrical motor technology level, electric pump rocket engine does not have a role in 1st stage of main stream launchers (CZ-2,3,6,7,8, Falcon 9 etc.), not even as a landing engine.
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