China Outer Space Science, Technology and Explorations: News & Updates

[JSCh]

https://twitter.com/x/status/948102462774185984

SpaceTech Asia‏ @SpaceTechAsia Jan 2
ESA’s 1st 2018 launch will be on China’s Long March 2D on Feb 2 @esa http://www.spacetechasia.com/esas-1st-2018-launch-will-be-on-chinas-long-march-2d-on-feb-2/ …

ESA’s 1st 2018 launch will be on China’s Long March 2D on Feb 2
By Deyana Goh-
January 2, 2018

Image courtesy of ESA​

The European Space Agency’s (ESA) first launch of 2018 will be of the GomX-4A and GomX-4B CubeSats, which will take place from China’s Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre on February 2, according to ESA.

The two near-identical CubeSats will most likely be launched aboard a Long March 2D, which was last used to launch China’s “Land Survey” No. 1 satellite on 3 December 2017. The primary payload for the launch will be the microsatellite Zhangheng 1, also known as the China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite (CSES-1), an earthquake-measurement satellite that is a collaboration between the China’s space agency CNSA and Italy’s space agency ASI. Along with these, the Long March 2D will carry a number of other CubeSats, including Shaonian Xing, a CubeSat developed by two teenagers from Urumqi, Xinjiang.

ESA’s pair of CubeSats, developed by GOMSpace, the Danish Ministry of Defence, and ESA, will test intersatellite communication links and propulsion while orbiting up to 4500 km apart.

Said Roger Walker, Head of ESA’s CubeSat initiative, “GomX-4B is scheduled to be launched on a Chinese Long March rocket on 2 February, along with GomX-4A, owned by the Danish Ministry of Defence.”

He added, “The two CubeSats will test intersatellite link technology, routing data from one satellite to the other, then down to the ground station. Part of the ground testing ensured they could indeed talk to each other and the actual ground station on an end-to-end basis…Now the testing has been concluded, our main job is to keep the satellites’ batteries topped off, ahead of their transport to China.”

 

[JSCh]

CASC to carry out 35 aerospace launches in 2018
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-03 21:08:37|Editor: Xiang Bo



BEIJING, Jan. 3 (Xinhua) -- China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) said Wednesday that the corporation would conduct 35 launches in 2018, the most missions in its history.

The missions include the launches of the Chang'e-4 lunar probe, Long March-5 carrier rocket and BeiDou navigation satellites, the corporation said.

CASC said 2018 would be its busiest and most important year, as many of its projects would enter key phases, and the numbers of experiments and launches would be the highest in its history.

The company will continue to improve its innovation capability and push forward the commercial development in aerospace industry in 2018, CASC said.

The Chang'e-4 lunar probe will undertake the first ever soft landing on the far side of the moon, conduct in situ and roving detection, and relay communication at the Earth-Moon Lagrangian 2 point, according to China's Lunar and Deep Space Exploration Center.

In 2018, China plans to launch 18 BeiDou-3 satellites to expand navigation services to countries along the Belt and Road routes.

 

[Three_Kingdoms]

All the best for the third mission of CZ-5. and our next moon landing on the dark side.

 

[cirr]

China launches remote sensing satellites SuperView-1 03/04

2018-01-09 12:47 Xinhua Editor: Gu Liping

China launched a pair of 0.5-meter high-resolution remote sensing satellites Tuesday from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in north China's Shanxi Province.

The satellites, SuperView-1 03/04, blasted off at 11:24 a.m. Beijing time on the back of a Long March 2D rocket, according to the center.

The mission aims to promote the country's commercial use of high-resolution remote sensing satellites.

The satellites, which are able to provide commercial images at 0.5-meter resolution, are expected to offer remote sensing data to customers worldwide and provide services to land and resource surveys, mapping, environmental monitoring, finance and insurance as well as the Internet industry.

The satellites were developed by China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.

It is the second launch of the corporation's commercial remote sensing satellites, followed by the launching of SuperView-1 01/02 in December 2016.

http://www.ecns.cn/2018/01-09/287588.shtml

 

[cirr]

Vertical Takeoff and Vertical Landing

Video: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/eXgpX0rMmn1WaYxncnJFzw

 

[Han Patriot]

Vertical Takeoff and Vertical Landing

View attachment 447302

Video: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/eXgpX0rMmn1WaYxncnJFzw

I think after SpaceX, we are the only ones with vertical launching and landing tech. Notice it is hovering, the controls are quite complex for such systems.

 

[JSCh]

https://twitter.com/x/status/950783415145570304

Linkspace‏ @Linkspace_China 13 hours ago
We were very excited and accomplished a milestone. The first vertical take-off and landing rocket was a rectangular ballistic flight in China, research & developed by LINKSPACE !

 

[Cybernetics]

Vertical Takeoff and Vertical Landing

View attachment 447302

Video: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/eXgpX0rMmn1WaYxncnJFzw

Good progress, they only started working on this rocket about 2 years ago.

Hu Zhenyu started the company at the age of 21. The team behind this whole project is quite small, only 6 people, mostly other university students, along with a modest funding.

https://twitter.com/x/status/948559375186055175

 

[Dungeness]

https://twitter.com/x/status/950783415145570304

Linkspace‏ @Linkspace_China 13 hours ago
We were very excited and accomplished a milestone. The first vertical take-off and landing rocket was a rectangular ballistic flight in China, research & developed by LINKSPACE !

Great achievement for a private startup space company. Who knows, it may turn out to be something more significant than what it seems.

 

[JSCh]

China's first dark sky reserve aims to curb light pollution
Alok Gupta
2018-01-10 16:17 GMT+8

China is developing one of the world’s largest dark sky reserves to combat light pollution and create an ambient location for astronomical observation.

According to a research paper published in Science Advances, the amount of artificially lit up outdoor area grew worldwide by an annual average of 2.2 percent from 2012 to 2016, increasing light pollution.

The increase in artificial lighting has brightened the skies to the extent that nearly two-thirds of city populations are unable to see constellations and the Milky Way.

According to the study, areas where the Milky Way was completely obscured include the London to Leeds/Liverpool region of England and the areas surrounding Beijing, Hong Kong and Taiwan in China.

Last year, China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF) started a project to create a dark sky reserve in a bid to preserve the visibility of starry nights. The initiative is aimed at curbing light pollution while also raising awareness about it.

The reserve spreads over 2,500 square kilometers in area at Ngari, Tibet Autonomous Region, which borders India and Nepal.

A NASA image shows a brightly lit Italy. /NASA

“We are raising awareness with 20,000 residents from the area about controlling the use of artificial lighting and trying to avoid the extremely bright lights in the town,” Xiao Tongren, chief of the Dark and Starry Sky Committee of the CBCGDF told CGTN.

The organization has also collaborated with the local administration in Tibet to implement the dark sky reserve rules. Ren pointed out that their aim is to ensure there are no neon lights, light emitting diode (LED) screens, floodlights or horizontally focused lights within Ngari.

There are only 12 dark sky reserves that have been accredited by the International Dark-Sky Association. It includes Aoraki Mackenzie (New Zealand), Brecon Beacons National Park (Wales), Central Idaho (US), Exmoor National Park (England), Kerry (Ireland), Mont-Mégantic (Québec), Moore's Reserve (England), NamibRand Nature Reserve (Namibia), Pic du Midi (France), Rhön (Germany), Snowdonia National Park (Wales) and Westhavelland (Germany).

China’s dark sky reserve would be the first one in Asia. However, the International Dark-Sky Association has named Yeongyang Firefly Eco Park as a Silver-tier International Dark Sky Park, the first such designation in Asia.

Zhou Jinfeng, secretary general of the CBCGDF Party committee, pointed out that light pollution has a significant impact on migratory birds and wildlife. “Bright lights impact the visibility of nocturnal birds and disrupts their habitat and also migration pattern,” he said.

“Light pollution also has a major effect on human health like circadian rhythms too,” he added. Circadian rhythms are important in determining the sleeping and feeding patterns of all animals, including human beings.

Rapid urbanization in most of the developed and developing countries has led to increasing light pollution. China, despite massive growth of cities, has managed to contain its annual increase in the area lit artificially below 2.1 percent and its brightness below 1.9 percent.

“It’s surprising that China has been able to control light pollution to a large extent,” Christopher Kyba, one of the lead authors of the study on light pollution, told CGTN.

Top Image: The Dark Sky Park is located in the core areas of Ngari's Dark Sky Reserve. /Xiaohua Wang Photo

 

[JSCh]

Regulator gives go-ahead to major Xinjiang telescope
By Zhang Zhihao | China Daily | Updated: 2018-01-12 08:51

Plans to build one of the world's largest moving single-dish radio telescopes in northwestern China have been given the green light, it was announced on Thursday.

The National Development and Reform Commission approved the Qitai Radio Telescope on Dec 26 and a timeline for construction is expected soon, said Jiang Chenfeng, a spokeswoman for the Xinjiang Astronomical Observatory.

The observatory and the Chinese Academy of Sciences will build the facility in Qitai county, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, which is seen as an ideal spot due to its high altitude, arid climate and lack of human activity.

Once completed, it will be one of the world's largest fully rotatable radio telescopes－at a diameter of 110 meters it will be slightly larger than the Green Bank Telescope in the United States and the Effelsberg Radio Telescope in Germany－as well as the largest movable radio telescope in Asia and a platform for international science cooperation.

Wang Na, head of the observatory, told Science and Technology Daily that the Qitai Radio Telescope will improve Xinjiang's fundamental research and innovation capabilities, be a centerpiece of the region's first world-class observatory, and attract more science talent to western China.

The main goals of the telescope will be detecting and studying pulsars, black holes, dark matter, gravitational waves and other stellar objects. It will also play a role in collecting orbit trajectory, space signals and key data for China's future manned space missions.

China houses the world's largest single-dish telescope－the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope, known as FAST－in a natural basin in Pingtang county, Guizhou province.

The Qitai facility will be much smaller than FAST, but it will cover more than 75 percent of the sky and be able to track star positions due to its ability to move its dish, according to the observatory. Stationary telescopes can only detect the swath of the universe that passes directly overhead.

However, designing a large rotatable telescope is no easy task. Engineers must figure out how to steadily balance a telescope dish weighing thousands of tons and full of sensitive equipment at awkward angles, according to NASA data.

One hundred meters is about the maximum size for safely and accurately controlling a moving radio dish, the US space agency said. It added that operating a rotatable telescope can also be extremely expensive. The Green Bank Telescope costs about $10 million a year.

 

[onebyone]

Chang'e-5T1 is alive in lunar orbit and can easily be received on 2 s-band frequencies (sometimes one, sometimes both) as soon as the moon is visible and the orbiter is not behind the moon. At least one of the beacons is always on. Of course nobody knows if the thing is doing anything except beaconing. Here is a spectrogram from Dec. 1st, 2017 showing a full pass in front of the moon. The vertical lines are receiver artifacts.

 

[cirr]

China's third space launch in five days carries land survey satellite to orbit

by Andrew Jones Jan 13, 2018 01:43 JIUQUAN CASC REMOTE SENSING

The LKW-2 satellite launched by a Long March 2D rocket from the Jiuquan launch site in December 2017. CGWIC

China completed its third space launch within five days on Saturday, with the LKW-3 remote sensing satellite being lofted by a Long March 2D rocket from Jiuquan.

Launch of the Long March 2D carrier rocket took place at 07:10 UTC (15:10 local time) on January 13 at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in the Gobi Desert.

China's major space contractor confirmed launch success within the hour, with the LKW-3 satellite, a third 'land survey satellite', sent towards a Sun-synchronous orbit.

The mission completes a successful first week of space activity in what is expected to be an unprecedentedly busy year for China, with more than 40 launches possible.

Jiuquan was the third of China's launch sites to be in action in recent days, following the launch of a pair of SuperView-1 (Gaojing-1) optical Earth observations satellites from Taiyuan on Tuesday, and Friday's dual Beidou-3 GNSS satellite launch, which saw a used booster drop perilously close to a townin Guangxi.

LKW satellites

Little is known about the LKW-3 satellite, which follows the launches of LKW-1 and LKW-2 in December. Chinese media tersely state that the craft will be used for 'remote sensing exploration of land resources'.

Some observers understand the satellite to be a Yaogan series remote sensing satellite, and thus designed for reconnaissance purposes for the country's military.

The satellites were developed by the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST), which researches, development, and manufactures satellites and spacecraft and is a subsidiary of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), the main contractor for the Chinese space programme.

The Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology (SAST), another CASC owned entity, developed the Long March 2D launch vehicle.

Land Survey Satellite-1 after separation from the Long March 2D second stage and prior to deployment of solar panels. CCTV/Youtube

Saturday's launch was 263rd for China's Long March rocket families, with the first taking place on April 24, 1970. Of these, 249 have been successful, with eight failures and six partial failures, with an overall success rate of 94.7 percent.

40 Chinese launches in 2018

CASC is aiming to launch around 35 times in 2018, with further missions from sister enterprise and defence contractor CASIC (through subsidiary EXPACE) and launch debuts from commercial companies Landspace and One Space.

This means that China could launch more than 40 times and, if so, would almost double its record for space launches in a year, which stands at 22 set in 2016.

The major missions include return to flight of the heavy-lift Long March 5rocket, the Chang'e-4 lunar far side mission and multiple launches of Beidounavigation satellites. A first sea launch will also be attempted.

China's next launch is also expected to take place at Jiuquan around January 19, with a solid-propellant Long March 11 to loft two Jilin-1 commercial Earth observation satellites, with one becoming the satellite to be named after a county (Deqing-1), Xiaoxing CubeSats for another commercial company, SpaceTY, a navigation communication integration technology test satellite named Quantutong-1 (QTT-1) developed by Tianji Research Institute, and possibly a Canadian passenger.

Xiaoxiang-1, named for Hunan Province, which hosts the satellite developer. Courtesy of SPACETY

The ambitious target reflects multiple expanding space programmes, a growing commercial space sector and a backlog from 2017.

China aimed for around 30 launches in 2017, but two launch issues - notably the failure of the second Long March 5 rocket - halted activities for 89 days.

Long March 5 Y2 after transfer from vertical assembly building to launch area. CNS

https://gbtimes.com/chinas-third-space-launch-in-five-days-carries-land-survey-satellite-to-orbit

 

[JSCh]

China to build deep-space lab in Luxembourg
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-16 23:08:32|Editor: Lifang



BEIJING, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- A leading Chinese science-technology institution announced Tuesday that it was going to establish a deep-space lab in Luxembourg.

The lab will focus on the coordinated design and analysis of deep-space probes, as well as the development of key technologies in exploring and utilizing space resources in the solar system, according to a press release from the National Space Science Center (NSSC) with the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

A memorandum of the cooperation was signed by the NSSC and the Luxembourg Ministry of the Economy Tuesday.

The memorandum also made arrangements on the operation of the lab and intellectual property rights.

Luxembourg launched a government initiative in 2016 to support the utilization of space resources.

 

[JSCh]

China to launch first student satellite for scientific education
Source: Xinhua| 2018-01-17 15:47:17|Editor: pengying



NANJING, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- China's first nano-satellite with primary and middle school students involved in the development and building process will be launched into space Friday.

The satellite, named after late Premier Zhou Enlai, was sent from its production base in Huai'an Youth Comprehensive Development Base in east China's Jiangsu Province to Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China's Gansu Province Monday, where a CZ-11 solid fuel rocket is scheduled to put it into orbit Friday.

Twenty teenagers who participated in the development project accompanied the transport group to the launch center and will witness the lift-off.

Zhang Xiang, chief designer of the satellite, said that the nano-satellite, weighing 2 kilograms, is set to run in sun-synchronous orbit. Equipped with a HD optical camera, it can capture space photos with the highest resolution among those shot by other Chinese satellites for scientific education purpose.

Zhang said that the students had taken their spare time to join the development and groundbased simulation performance of the satellite, and had learnt to assemble and practice voice data transfer and telecommunication applications.

"A scientific satellite like this is like a teacher in space, carrying cameras or spectroscopes to study the upper atmosphere or to shoot space pictures of the stars. Students can grasp the mystery of the universe through the messages transmitted by the teacher," said Zhang, a professor with Nanjing University of Science and Engineering.

The satellite project was approved in 2016. The administration office of Huai'an Youth Comprehensive Development Base is the main organizer of the project. It is aiming to become the largest and most advanced youth aerospace science museum in China.

"The satellite not only offers an opportunity for local teenagers to engage in such an aerospace project, but stimulates enthusiasm in space science among all students in the schools," said Wang Qiming, director of the administration office.

"It is so much fun to know the secrets of a scientific satellite. I am proud of being part of the development," said Lu Ke, a member of the young team.

The student from the Huai'an Zhou Enlai Red Army Middle School is looking forward to watching the whole launch process Friday.

"Watching our satellite lifting off will be so cool that I will probably be moved into tears," he said.