China's Space Program News Thread

[by78]

Holiday greetings from the Red Planet.

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A few more images from Tianwen lander and orbiter for the new year.

A panoramic view from the lander's perspective:

The Tianwen orbiter flying over polar ice region of Mars:

 

[by78]

New Year's greetings from the Chinese space station.

 

[Reclaimer]

The Tianwen orbiter flying over polar ice region of Mars:

Why is it so bright? Ice?

 

[anzha]

Why is it so bright? Ice?

Exactly. The north and south poles have ice caps. They are as much or more carbon dioxide than water ice though.

 

[antiterror13]

I'm not sure if this was posted already, but I've done a quick search and it didn't show up.

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The Beijing-3 satellite's a 1-ton satellite with a 50cm per pixel resolution that can take photos of Earth very quickly.

The state of the art was WorldView-4, with a 30cm per pixel resolution but could only take photos much slower and with a narrower scope.

I say "was" because WorldView-4, launched in 2016, failed in 2019.

Of course these are all supposedly for civilian and commercial purposes and we really don't know what either Chinese or US spy satellites can do, but I found it interesting.

CCTV13 report, but on the SCMP youtube channel.

Certainly the military spy satellite can do much better for both Chinese and the US.

My guess is that Chinese spy satellite has reached 0.1m resolution, for the US would be better, but not much

 

[taxiya]

I'm not sure if this was posted already, but I've done a quick search and it didn't show up.

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

The Beijing-3 satellite's a 1-ton satellite with a 50cm per pixel resolution that can take photos of Earth very quickly.

The state of the art was WorldView-4, with a 30cm per pixel resolution but could only take photos much slower and with a narrower scope.

I say "was" because WorldView-4, launched in 2016, failed in 2019.

Of course these are all supposedly for civilian and commercial purposes and we really don't know what either Chinese or US spy satellites can do, but I found it interesting.

CCTV13 report, but on the SCMP youtube channel.

Something interesting that I find.

Beijing-3 is product of DFH (a subsidiary of CASC). The same company also made and has launched GJ-1 constellation (Gao Jing/Super View) since 2016. GJ-1 sats are 570kg each and have 50cm resolution panchromatic at orbit of 530km. GS-1 also can do the multi strip scan in one go covering the whole city, example within 5th ring of Beijing in one pass.

So I am curious what is better in Beijing-3 which is twice the mass of GJ-1 at about the same altitude. If the optics and sensors are the same, what is the other half of the mass? Otherwise if the optics and sensors are much larger than GJ-1, the real resolution could be much higher than said.

Another puzzle is that there is no more known launches of GJ-1 since 2018, and suddenly the same company launched a "difference" series. A wild imagination is that this "Beijing-3" is that "Gaojing 0.3" gaining a little weight (700kg to 1000kg).

Summary of GJ-1 constellation (16+4+4+xxx):
16 0.5m PAN optic sats. 4 in orbit as of 2018. 570kg
4 0.3m PAN optic sats. 700kg
4 0.5m SAR sats.
x 0.3m SAR
x Video sats.
x Hypespectral sats.

 

[antiterror13]

Something interesting that I find.

Beijing-3 is product of DFH (a subsidiary of CASC). The same company also made and has launched GJ-1 constellation (Gao Jing/Super View) since 2016. GJ-1 sats are 570kg each and have 50cm resolution panchromatic at orbit of 530km. GS-1 also can do the multi strip scan in one go covering the whole city, example within 5th ring of Beijing in one pass.

So I am curious what is better in Beijing-3 which is twice the mass of GJ-1 at about the same altitude. If the optics and sensors are the same, what is the other half of the mass? Otherwise if the optics and sensors are much larger than GJ-1, the real resolution could be much higher than said.

Another puzzle is that there is no more known launches of GJ-1 since 2018, and suddenly the same company launched a "difference" series. A wild imagination is that this "Beijing-3" is that "Gaojing 0.3" gaining a little weight (700kg to 1000kg).

Summary of GJ-1 constellation (16+4+4+xxx):
16 0.5m PAN optic sats. 4 in orbit as of 2018. 570kg
4 0.3m PAN optic sats. 700kg
4 0.5m SAR sats.
x 0.3m SAR
x Video sats.
x Hypespectral sats.

Perhaps 50cm resolution is not considered enough, this Beijing-3 could well be doubled the resolution or higher (i.e 25cm)

 

[Andy1974]

Perhaps 50cm resolution is not considered enough, this Beijing-3 could well be doubled the resolution or higher (i.e 25cm)

Or it is more than it appears.

 

[Xizor]

 

[by78]

Nice screen grabs of the HD cam feeds from the Chinese space station.