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China to launch Tianzhou-2 cargo spacecraft
Source: Xinhua | 2021-05-19 22:11:29 | Editor: huaxia

WENCHANG, Hainan, May 19 (Xinhua) -- China plans to launch the Tianzhou-2 cargo spacecraft at around 1:00 a.m. (Beijing Time) Thursday, according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) on Wednesday.

The Long March-7 Y3 carrier rocket, carrying the Tianzhou-2 cargo spacecraft, is filled with propellant and ready for launch, said the CMSA.
 
China postpones launch of Tianzhou-2 cargo spacecraft
Source: Xinhua | 2021-05-20 01:32:05 | Editor: huaxia

WENCHANG, Hainan, May 20 (Xinhua) -- The launch of the Tianzhou-2 cargo spacecraft has been postponed due to technical reasons, and the launch time will be determined later, according to the China Manned Space Agency on Thursday.
 
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New NASA Administrator Bill Nelson holds up a photo taken by China's Zhurong Mars lander, telling lawmakers the agency needs sustained funding in the face of increased competition in space. / Credit: NASA TV
 
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New NASA Administrator Bill Nelson holds up a photo taken by China's Zhurong Mars lander, telling lawmakers the agency needs sustained funding in the face of increased competition in space. / Credit: NASA TV
Nelson uses Chinese Mars landing as a warning to Congress (19 May 2021)

WASHINGTON — NASA Administrator Bill Nelson congratulated China for successfully landing a rover on Mars, but also used the milestone to warn Congress of China’s competitive threat to American leadership in human spaceflight.

NASA distributed the press release at the same time that Nelson was testifying before the House Appropriations Committee’s commerce, justice and science subcommittee. During that hearing, he used the Zhurong landing as a warning against American complacency in space exploration.

“I want you to see this photograph,” he said, brandishing one of the Zhurong images. He argued that the landing was evidence that China was serious about sending spacecraft to both the Moon and Mars, including, eventually, human missions. “I think that’s now adding a new element as to whether or not we want to get serious and get a lot of activity going in landing humans back on the surface of the moon.”

Nelson revisited the issue near the end of the two-hour hearing, again showing the Zhurong image. “It is a very aggressive competitor,” he said of China. They’re going to be landing humans on the moon. That should tell us something about our need to get off our duff and get our Human Landing System program going vigorously.”

In a presentation during a Royal Aeronautical Society conference May 19, Yao Jianting, deputy general secretary of CNSA, said China was planning a second lunar sample return mission, Chang’e-6, in 2024 or 2025. Two other lander missions to the lunar poles, Chang’e-7 and 8, are scheduled for between 2024 and 2028. That would be followed by an international lunar research station between 2030 and 2035, in cooperation with nations such as Russia.


“This needs to be taken note of by the committee,” Nelson said of the Chinese lunar exploration plans he outlined at the hearing. He called on Congress to provide funding for the HLS program through a proposed $2.3 trillion infrastructure and jobs bill.

(…)

 
These people paranoid
That one is more understandable, that new administrator may just be trying to ask more money for his institution & space programs....

but this hawkish senator is multiple times worse!

U.S. senator: China landing on Mars a reminder ‘we don’t own space anymore’ (15 May 2021)

Senator Angus King: There should be no doubt that China is a strong competitor to the United States

WASHINGTON — Just hours after a Chinese rover successfully touched down on the surface of Mars Friday evening (USA time), Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) said the achievement puts to rest any doubt that China is a rising space power that will challenge the United States.

“This landing reinforces the point that we don’t own space any more,” King told reporters May 15 hours after returning from a two-day visit to U.S. Space Command and other military installations in Colorado.

Angus King, an independent who caucuses with the Senate’s Democratic majority, is the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee’s subcommittee on strategic forces, which oversees the Pentagon’s space, nuclear and strategic deterrence programs.

China is now the second nation, after the United States, to achieve a soft landing on Mars. King said he wouldn’t necessarily call it a Sputnik moment but it is a reminder to the United States that a strong competitor is emerging in space. “We had unimpeded access” for many years and that is changing, King said.

China’s Tianwen-1 mission is the country’s first independent interplanetary expedition which launched in July 2020. China previously landed on the near and far sides of the moon, in 2013 and 2019 respectively, before completing a complex lunar sample return late last year.

Reflecting on his visit to U.S. Space Command, King said the news that China had landed on the red planet dispels any doubts about the need for a U.S. Space Force.

“To me that sort of sums up the question of our posture in space, of why we have a Space Force,” said King.

The Mars landing shows a “tremendous level of technological sophistication and ability,” he said. It also raises national security concerns for the United States, he added. “If they can land a rover on Mars, there’s a lot of other things they can do that might not be so benevolent.”

(…)
 
China's first Mars rover drives onto red planet's surface
Source: Xinhua | 2021-05-22 14:10:43 | Editor: huaxia

BEIJING, May 22 (Xinhua) -- China's first Mars rover, Zhurong, has driven down from its landing platform to the Martian surface, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) announced on Saturday.

Zhurong's first successful drive made China the second country after the United States to land and operate a rover on Mars.

According to the telemetry data, Zhurong set its wheels on Martian soil at 10:40 a.m. (Beijing Time) on Saturday, the CNSA said.

China's Tianwen-1 mission, consisting of an orbiter, a lander and a rover, was launched on July 23, 2020. The lander carrying the rover touched down in the southern part of Utopia Planitia, a vast plain on the northern hemisphere of Mars, on May 15.

The six-wheeled solar-powered rover, resembling a blue butterfly and with a mass of 240 kg, is named after the god of fire in ancient Chinese mythology. The name echoes with the Chinese name for the red planet, Huoxing (the planet of fire), while the name of the mission, Tianwen, means Questions to Heaven, the title of a poem by the ancient Chinese poet Qu Yuan (circa 340-278 BC).

With an expected lifespan of at least 90 Martian days (about three months on Earth), Zhurong will record the Martian landscape with high-resolution three-dimensional images, analyze the material composition of the planet's surface, detect its sub-surface structure and magnetic field, search for traces of water ice and observe the surrounding meteorological environment.

It carries various scientific instruments, including terrain camera, multi-spectral camera, sub-surface exploration radar, surface-composition detector, magnetic-field detector and meteorology monitor.

The orbiter, with a design life of one Martian year (about 687 days on Earth), will relay communications for the rover while conducting its own scientific detection operations.
 
China's first Mars rover starts exploring red planet
Source: Xinhua | 2021-05-22 14:27:17 | Editor: huaxia

BEIJING, May 22 (Xinhua) -- China's first Mars rover, Zhurong, drove down from its landing platform to the Martian surface Saturday, leaving the country's first "footprints" on the red planet.

Zhurong's first successful drive made China the second country after the United States to land and operate a rover on Mars.

The six-wheeled solar-powered rover, resembling a blue butterfly and with a mass of 240 kg, slowly trundled off a ramp on the lander to hit the red, sandy soil of Mars, starting its journey to explore the fourth planet from the sun.

According to the telemetry data, Zhurong set its wheels on Martian soil at 10:40 a.m. (Beijing Time) on Saturday, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) said.

China's Tianwen-1 mission, consisting of an orbiter, a lander, and a rover, was launched on July 23, 2020. The lander carrying the rover touched down in the southern part of Utopia Planitia, a vast plain on the northern hemisphere of Mars, on May 15.

The rover Zhurong is named after the god of fire in ancient Chinese mythology. The name echoes with the Chinese name for the red planet, Huoxing (the planet of fire), while the name of the mission, Tianwen, means Questions to Heaven, the title of a poem by the ancient Chinese poet Qu Yuan (circa 340-278 BC).

With an expected lifespan of at least 90 Martian days (about three months on Earth), Zhurong will record the Martian landscape with high-resolution three-dimensional images, analyze the material composition of the planet's surface, detect its sub-surface structure and magnetic field, search for traces of water ice and observe the surrounding meteorological environment.

It carries various scientific instruments, including terrain camera, multi-spectral camera, sub-surface exploration radar, surface-composition detector, magnetic-field detector, and meteorology monitor.

The orbiter, with a design life of one Martian year (about 687 days on Earth), will relay communications for the rover while conducting its own scientific detection operations.

Compared with China's lunar rover Yutu (Jade Rabbit), Zhurong has a similar speed of about 200 meters per hour, but the height of the obstacles it can surmount increased from 20 cm to 30 cm. It can climb slopes up to 20 degrees. Zhurong's six wheels are independently driven, according to its designers.

The United States has deployed five rovers on Mars. As a latecomer, Zhurong has unique characteristics.

It is the first Mars rover with an active suspension system. It could help the rover get out of trouble by moving like an inchworm on the complicated Martian surface with both loose sandy soil and densely distributed rocks, said Jia Yang, deputy chief designer of the Tianwen-1 probe, from the China Academy of Space Technology.

Zhurong can also walk sideways like a crab. Each of its six wheels can turn in any direction, which could be used for avoiding obstacles and climbing slopes.

Mars is farther away from the sun than Earth and the moon, and the Martian atmosphere also reduces sunlight, so the solar panels of the Mars rover are about twice that of the lunar rover. They need to be rotatable to follow the sun, said Geng Yan, an official at the Lunar Exploration and Space Program Center of the CNSA.

Zhurong's solar panels were specially designed to adapt to the sunlight on Mars, which has a spectrum different from that on the Earth's orbit, Geng said.

Mars is notorious for its sand storms, and the dust could reduce the efficiency of power generation. The specially processed solar panels make it difficult for dust to accumulate, just like the water drops on the lotus leaf, which can be blown away by the wind, Geng said.

Part of the power generated by the solar panels during the daytime will be used for work, and the rest will be stored in batteries for night use.

In addition, the designers creatively installed heat collection windows on the rover, which could absorb solar energy in the daytime and release heat at night to help the rover survive the freezing temperatures which could plunge to over 100 degrees Celsius below zero before dawn.
 
TO WIN COMPETITION BY ANY MEANS

Authored by JENNY LEE
20 May 2021

I think the United States was disappointed that the reentry parts of the Chinese Long March-5B rocket did not crash into Earth and killed someone instead fell into Indian Ocean. China is narrowing the gaps with the US in not just economic and technology but in military and space technologies as well.

From banning China from the International Space Station (ISS), to claiming Huawei stole US’s 5G technology to saying that “China’s rockets are uncontrolled and falling from the sky”, we can come to only one conclusion –- China is narrowing the gaps fast and it is getting on the US’s nerve.

See what US Senator Angus King said about China’s successful Mars landing. “This landing reinforces the point that we don’t own space anymore,”. The Mars landing shows a “tremendous level of technological sophistication and ability,” he said. It also raises national security concerns for the United States, he added. “If they can land a rover on Mars, there’s a lot of other things they can do that might not be so benevolent.”

The US has been described as a DELUSIONAL HYPOCRITE that thinks that it is “Leader of the Free World”, a “Soldier of Liberty” and a “Prophet of the New Age”. Everyone else are Sinners and Satan. It will start a jihad against all non-believers (in US supremacy) so as to cleanse the Earth of them.

1) The US Senate even set aside USD 300 million in 2021 under “Countering Chinese Influence program to malign the CPC i.e., to MANUFACTURE LIES about China. E.g., would be “Huawei stole 5G technology from the US”, “uncontrolled China rockets falling from the sky”, “Xinjiang Genocide”, “Xinjiang forced labour”, “China Space Station is used for military purpose”, “China cannot be trusted with AI”, “China vaccines cannot be trusted”, “China is developing bio-weapons”, etc.

See https://www.axios.com/senate-china-bill-474f96f1-467b-4c02-ab6e-1084ca73b158.html

2) The US Senate also authorized USD 100 million in 2021 for the United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM) the psychological warfare arm of the CIA to put out propaganda to journalists and media that are funded by the CIA or their proxies such as Voice of America, Radio Free Europe (RFE), Radio Free Asia (RFA), Middle-East Broadcasting network, Office of Cuba Broadcasting; US friendly media in allied countries in Canada, UK and Australia and many dissident news network that operate on the internet outside their own countries but funded by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) or USAID -- non-profit organizations that are CIA proxies -- in order to serve CIA objectives of shaping opinions and narratives that are favourable to US Foreign Policy and national interests such emphasizing the negative aspects of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and discrediting China’s advance technology as untrustworthy.

USAGM claimed that they are a “Gift to the World” as they export US’s First Amendments rights to everyone regardless of whether they believe in it or want to hear it! So, America used the SAME ARGUMENT as the early European privateers in the 18TH CENTURY who went to Africa to “civilized the savages and get them to know the one true Christian God”. Of course, slavery, pillage and colonization were only secondary reasons.

Take note that as the USAGM is a CIA outfit and under US law it cannot operate on American soil as it wields the tools of psychological warfare and can influence US election or can be used to overthrow a legitimately elected government like what Trump tried to do in January 2021 with his tweets and speeches that caused the Capitol Hill riot and the death of four people.

USAGM supervises VOA, RFE/Radio Liberty, Radio y Televisión Martí, Radio Free Asia (RFA), and Alhurra. This organization is funded with ANNUAL BUDGET of USD 800 MILLION to do all the propaganda works.

Congressional Hearing Reveals US Govt’s Invisible Hand In Protests Around The World


In other words, the soft power of the US is used to kill and to overthrow governments overseas as it cost the US government very little and no American soldier’s blood were spilled. Of course, the collateral damage is that hate crimes against Asian Americans and Asians in allied countries such as Canada, the UK and Australia will rise because of the psychological warfare that the USAGM is using to create hate for China.

As most Westerners are unable to differentiate a Chinese from a Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese or Thai they end up just attacking anyone with yellow skin, but that is of no concern to the US Senate. It does not come as a surprise that a recent poll reported by the Guardian found that the US is the biggest threat to democracy compared to China or Russia.

To the US, maintaining the position as the world’s No. 1 Superpower is almost a religion and an entitlement. No US President can tell its electorate that China will be the No. 1 superpower by the end of the decade and be able to survive politically.

So, the US will lie and cheat to stay in power. So from geo-political competition on Earth we will also have astro-competition in space, both commercial and with the US announcing the formation of their Space Force -- military as well. I believe the competition between the US and China in space can be healthy as long as we focus more on commercial opportunities and place less emphasis on military competition.

As posted by Jenny Lee at:
 

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