by78
General
This is old news from months ago. This time, the lag in foreign press coverage is only four months, so that's a huge improvement.
China's Space Program Thread II
- Thread starter Blitzo
- Start date
This is old news from months ago. This time, the lag in foreign press coverage is only four months, so that's a huge improvement.
New batch of images taken from the Chinese space station.
What's with the purple lights in the third photo? Ion thrusters?
by78
General
I don't know, but likely not ion thrusters, because the color of the plumes is wrong (should be blue) and the location isn't right either.
They might just be a reflection on the porthole window from a source within the space station.
A few days ago, there was a reddit r/space thread on Chinese astronauts performing an experiment as part of an educational live stream from Tiangong. The most common responses were along the lines of "China has a space station!?!? When did this happen?". And this was on a reddit for space enthusiasts. China's advances in space are not well covered in the West at all. Of course, all of the reddit posters knew about the CZ-5 rocket booster falling back to Earth but most had no idea it was for launching CSS modules.
That thread was the best. Besides the usual tiresome response there were some gems. Some guy was like "I knew the news I was getting would have a western bias so I thought I was compensating for it, yet I still fall to it and didn't know this station was in orbit for nearly a year already."
Surprisingly I find that the Zhurong rover is much better known compared to the station and is often the one thing people quote when countering the "China is a backward 3rd world country" claim.
I think in terms of looking for a future "Sputnik moment", besides CNSA potentially beating NASA to a Mars sample return mission the most likely thing would be ISS deorbiting and Tiangong becoming the only human presence for majority of the year. On that day we can all go to r/space and proclaim that tonight we sleep under a Chinese moon.
That or If China sends a real Chang’e to the moon before the Americans. I really hope Wang Yaping is the first since it’ll make her photo with Buzz Aldrin such a great meme.
Maybe few big laser would be the best idea to destroy starlink satellites? it's leo constellation after all.
Speaking of Wang, she's become a representative delegate at the People's Congress now.
I feel her taikonaut days are fast behind her, if they haven't already. I suspect she'll likely serve a more prominent role in policy-making and R&D at CNSA where her contributions would be no less impactful with her wealth of practical experience, much like how Yang Liwei is nowadays.