China's Space Program News Thread
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yuxiaochen
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Had a conversation with a director from the 503 institute this past weekend, he said a crew-following drone is currently being tested and will possibly be send to the space station in the very near future. He said the drone will be in the shape of a sphere, and will feature multiple hi-def cameras, granting a full 360 degrees view of live video footage to both central control on earth and astronauts within the space station. The drone will also be equipped with an AI system that will give astronauts instructions through onboard speaker. The drone's movement will be granted with an onboard populsion system, though he only vaugely said ' it's like an helicopter'.
Science fiction is becoming real life y'all.
Science fiction is becoming real life y'all.
So all these "UFOs" were actually secret government projects? Colour me (not) surprised
yuxiaochen
Junior Member
I do want to clarify that this drone operates within the space station, so no UFO yet.
I thought it was liquid fuel, it would make sense for them to use existing military supply chain to save cost btw Military boosters don't necessarily use the same propellant they use state of the art catalysts and binders so yeah military and "civilian" boosters are very different
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I highly doubt that even in the west there is a separate technology path and supply chain for solid propellant. Correct me if I am wrong, all solid boosters in commercial launches in the world are continuation of missile programs, meaning except the dimension and avionic, the propellant is the same either in a missile or a civilian launcher.
So far in China there is no civilian manufacture making exclusive civilian booster propellant. All of them are producers that solely serve the military until recent, and begin to do civilian business, so there is no separata tech/production chain in China at least.
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That's not necessarily true. Civilian rockets want to minimize launch cost per kilogram, while military missiles want to maximize range and throw weight. To take a specific example, civilian rockets use propellants like APCP and missiles use the higher performing NEPE.
As far as I know MX missile only use NEPE for the 3rd stage. What are the propellant for its 1st and 2nd stages?
NEPE is a newer improvement of solid propellant that civilian rocket does not use. So you are right there is a divergence of the two "markets", but it is still true that both "markets" share a great deal of propellant and are all supplied by the same producers which is my central point "no separate supply chain and producers".
In this regard, DF next gen is the same as MX using a mix of NEPE equivalent and lesser powerful propellant for its 1st and 2nd stages. The suppliers are the same as China's commercial solid launchers such as CZ-11. And I am certain all other rockets such as KZ series and this latest launcher got their propellant from the same producers.
You're kind of on the right track.
Providing the startups with small solid-fuel rockets accelerates their initial development, which saves time and costs
No idea what the MX uses (I'm not terribly interested in American military technology), but if it isn't NEPE then I assume it's APCP.
As I understand it, the DF-41 uses NEPE in all stages, while the DF-31 has a NEPE upper stage and APCP first and second stages (like the MX, supposedly).
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