China's Space Program Thread II

[sunnymaxi]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1710384178389541002

China plans to expand its space station into six modules from the existing three in coming years, a researcher at the China Academy of Space Technology said. It will be at 180 tonnes after expansion, about 40% of the mass of the International Space Station..

A multi-functional expansion module with six docking ports will first be launched in the coming years to allow this expansion. This will dock at the forward port of the Tianhe core module. Full size modules can then be added to Tiangong..

Other improvements planned for Tiangong include 3D printers and developing intelligent robots, upgrading connectivity and robotic arms, and developing a space debris observation, detection and warning system. A digital twin of the station will also be constructed..

 

[gpt]

Scientists in China and Switzerland/Poland/Germany are developing POLAR-2, the most sensitive space telescope of its kind, to monitor the most violent explosions in the universe. The telescope will be mounted on Tiangong station in 2025.

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[by78]

LandSpace is hawking its services at IAC 2023.

 

[by78]

Tianbing Technology has successfully completed the first long-duration full-system test run of a batch-produced TH-12 engine. The test run featured multiple engine starts and shutdowns, with the cumulative test duration being 200 seconds and the single longest run being 100 seconds.

TH-12 is a 110-ton LOX/Kerosene re-usable engine intended for the Tianlong-3 rocket and features a 3D-printed combustion chamber and turbine discs.

Tianbing has completed another full-system test run of a batch-produced TH-12 engine. This time, the engine was randomly chosen from the batch and hoisted onto the rig for the test run. The test included multiple starts and shutdowns, with the cumulative test duration being 450 seconds and the single longest run being 200 seconds.

 

[luminary]

South Africa has joined the Chinese lunar base project:

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Now also Azerbaijan:

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Li Guoping, chief engineer of the China National Space Administration (CNSA) and Samaddin Asadov, chairman of the Board of Azercosmos, Azerbaijan’s space agency, signed a joint statement on cooperation on the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) Oct. 3 during the 74th International Astronautical Congress (IAC), hosted by Azerbaijan, in the capital Baku. CNSA announced the agreement Oct. 8 via a

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on its webpages.

China has now attracted around 15 signatories to its ILRS initiative, according to representatives of the Deep Space Exploration Laboratory (DSEL) under the CNSA. However, a list of these partners is not yet available. The partners are known to consist of organizations and institutions as well as countries.

Russia, Venezuela and

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have signed up. The Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization (APSCO), Swiss firm

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, the Hawaii-based International Lunar Observatory Association (ILOA), and the National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand (

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) have also signed joint statements. Pakistan is also thought to have signed up.

 

[by78]

Construction crew at the Hainan commercial spaceport have successfully

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on the access platform/enclosure of the No. 1 launchpad. The access platform/enclosure is used to protect rockets from the elements and give ground personnel access to the rockets; it's rotated out of the way prior to launch.

The service crane for the launchpad no.1 of the Hainan Commercial Spaceport has been installed atop the launch tower. The crane is used to hoist rockets onto the launchpad.

 

[by78]

More PPT slides on the Xuntian space telescope. It looks like the project will enter final prototyping stage in April of 2024 (1st slide).

 

[by78]

 

[taxiya]

More PPT slides on the Xuntian space telescope. It looks like the project will enter final prototyping stage in April of 2024 (1st slide).

Interesting.

Here is a official clarification of R&D process of CASC

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. It is CASC journal's Zhihu account.

My understanding of 2019 初样阶段 and 2024 April 正样阶段 according to the link above is that in case of spacecraft, 正样 is the final product in the late design/assembly stage and will be launched. It is not really a prototype in common sense (not going to be operational).

“初样”“试样”阶段都是运载火箭等航天型号工程研制必须经历的研制步骤和阶段。这两个阶段的完成标志是按飞行试验方案和飞行试验大纲完成试样飞行试验验证，提出试验结果分析报告，并作出是否达到研制任务书要求的结论。
试样 is the term used for rocket development. The ending of this phase is the maiden flight and report.

关于正样：正样阶段是在完成初样研制的基础上，研制提供正式样机，全面检验航天器性能的阶段。该阶段工作内容包括正样设计、正样生产和正样试验，全面鉴定产品的设计和工艺。这个阶段与火箭研制中提到的“试样”异曲同工。
正样 is the term used for spacecraft (such as the telescope), it is equivlent of "初样" in rocket. Therefor I deduce that a spacecraft from this phase will be put in space like maiden flight of a rocket.

 

[by78]

The Kuafu-1 solar observatory has been operating for exactly one year, during which it has obtained 120TB of observational data.