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

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China aims to explore polar regions of Moon by 2030
Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-25 16:30:57|Editor: Yurou


BEIJING, Sept. 25 (Xinhua) -- China plans to land on and explore the southern and northern polar regions of the Moon by 2030, according to an official of the China National Space Administration (CNSA).

Li Guoping, director of the Department of System Engineering of the CNSA, said at the World Conference on Science Literacy 2018 recently held in Beijing that China is planning four missions for the fourth stage of its lunar exploration program.

China's lunar exploration program, named after the legendary Chang'e, a moon goddess accompanied by a jade rabbit, started in 2003, and the first three stages of the program include orbiting and landing on the Moon, and bringing samples back to Earth.

Li said the fourth stage of the program will include sending the Chang'e-4 lunar probe to the far side of the Moon at the end of 2018, which is expected to become the world's first soft-landing, roving probe on the Moon's far side. A relay satellite, named Queqiao (Magpie Bridge), for Chang'e-4 has entered a Halo orbit around the second Lagrangian (L2) point of the Earth-Moon system, about 65,000 km from the Moon in June.

Three other missions include bringing lunar samples back to Earth for the second time, landing on the South Pole region and the North Pole region, Li said.

The exploration to the South Pole aims to study the age of the lunar soil, and the composition of the solar wind's isotopes of hydrogen, carbon, helium and oxygen; while the exploration to the North Pole aims to find out whether ice exists in the permanent shadow area, according to Li.

After that, China is considering setting up a scientific research station on the Moon and implementing more robot and human lunar exploration missions in the future, Li added.

 

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China's Tiangong-2 to deorbit in July next year
CGTN
2018-09-26 10:20 GMT+8
Updated 2018-09-26 11:07 GMT+8

China's space lab, the Tiangong-2, will deorbit as planned in July 2019. The decision was announced during a press conference called by the China Manned Space Engineering Office on Wednesday.

“Tiangong-2 has fulfilled its mission during the two-year time, and all the loads are now in good condition," said Lin Xiqiang, deputy director of the China Manned Space Engineering Office. “It will be in orbit until July 2019, and then will be controlled to deorbit.”

The space lab, which has been in orbit for two years, was launched in 2016. It performed 14 projects and carried a 600 kg load.

 

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Chinese rocket institute seeks innovative designs for launch vehicle recovery
by Andrew Jones Sep 25, 2018 11:20

An animation showing rocket stage separation above the Earth. CCTV

A Chinese rocket institute hosted a contest in August for launch vehicle recovery designs, which could potentially help inspire future innovative space research and development.

The China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT) held the competition in Beijing in early August, focusing on the cutting-edge technologies in launch vehicle recovery and gathering participants from professional research institutes, universities, organizations and interest groups, according to CCTV.

CALT is a rocket designer and manufacturer and a subsidiary of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), the main contractor for the Chinese space programme. Its team incorporated artificial intelligence technology into its design, according to Gao Shijia, a researcher of a national key laboratory at the academy.

"Our design presents a way of intelligent and controllable recovery of launch vehicle, based on deep reinforcement learning. We used AI technology to make the launch vehicle acquire a set of control strategies through self-learning, and thus the controllable recovery is achieved," Gao said, with the concept seen in the video below.

Launch vehicle recovery design competition in China

Other ideas took inspiration from existing concepts such as four-rotor aircraft, to be combined with rocketry.

"Some ideas may be applicable to engineering practice while others are still in the conceptual design stage, which need to be gradually improved. The ideas provide inspirations in the professional fields of [rocket] recovery in China," said Ma Baohai, a senior launch model designer at CALT.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1025449711292108800

Ongoing Chinese reusability efforts
Both CALT and nominal rival, the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology (SAST), also under CASC, are working towards reusable first stages for new and existing rockets.

The Long March 8, a medium-lift launcher designed to increase payload capabilities to Sun-synchronous orbits, is based on the existing Long March 7 with a similar 3.35-metre diameter core. Slated to debut around 2021, it will be capable of vertical takeoff, vertical landing (VTVL) and partially reusable.

A model of a reusable Long March 6X at the 20th China International Industrial Fair in Shanghai, September 19, 2018. SAST

SAST's Long March 6X will be based on the existing 29m-high Long March 6 small expendable launch vehicle and aim to slash launch costs by 30 percent, with a test flight expected in 2021.

Earlier this month CASC also used a parafoil on the payload fairing for the first time for the launch of the Haiyang-1C satellite, with the aim of improving accuracy of its return to Earth and potentially eventual reusability.

CASC has stated in a 2017 'space transportation roadmap' outlined last year that it is working towards reusability for all its launchers by the mid-2030s, but these efforts are in their infancy.

First footage of China using a parafoil for payload fairing reentry after satellite launch


Chinese rocket institute seeks innovative designs for launch vehicle recovery | GBTimes.com

 

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Long March rockets to see more commercial use
By Chen Ziyan | chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2018-09-27 13:51

The Long March 11 rocket. [Photo/People's Daily]

China's Long March rockets are expected to carry out more commercial launches next year, providing better and comprehensive services in space, according to a senior executive at a subsidiary of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.

The launches aim to offer more commercial services for international users and customized services will be provided to meet varied demands such as commercial ride-sharing, said Shang Zhi, director of CASC’s department of astronautics at the Fourth China International Commercial Aerospace Forum held in Wuhan on Wednesday.

According to Shang, the first sea launch of Long March 11, the sole carrier in the series to use solid propellant, will be carried out as scheduled in the first half of 2019.

Developed by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, Long March-11 successfully lifted six small satellites into orbit in January.

The launches that are carried out at a lower latitude in the vicinity of the equator are more fuel-efficient and can enhance the load capacity of the carrier rocket.

Apart from the 11, another three rockets from the Long March family — Long March 6A, Long March 7A and Long March 8 will carry out their maiden launches by 2020.

To achieve better performance, the new generation vehicles tasked with those services will be improved, non-toxic and pollution-free.

 

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New rocket raring for busy launch schedule
By ZHAO LEI | China Daily | Updated: 2018-09-27 07:27

Models of Kuaizhou carrier rockets are on display at the Fourth China International Commercial Aerospace Forum on Wednesday in Hubei's Wuhan. [Photo by Zhao Lei/China Daily]

China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp, a major space and defense contractor, plans to carry out at least eight commercial launches using its Kuaizhou 1A carrier rocket before the end of 2019, according to a high-ranking executive.

Zhang Di, a senior rocket scientist and chairman of Expace Technology, a CASIC subsidiary that provides commercial launch services, told China Daily in an exclusive interview on Wednesday that two Kuaizhou 1As are scheduled to lift off before the end of this year from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Northwest China.

Next year, six Kuaizhou 1A launches are scheduled, with one to be conducted for a foreign client, he said, noting that in addition to these confirmed launches, Expace Technology is in talks with clients on launch service contracts involving more than 10 new Kuaizhou 1As.

"The rocket is popular in the commercial launch market. We have made production schedules for at least 19 Kuaizhou 1As," Zhang said.

The rocket scientist made the remarks on the sidelines of the Fourth China International Commercial Aerospace Forum, which opened on Wednesday in Wuhan, Hubei province. Co-hosted by the Wuhan city government and a number of space contractors, the three-day forum will see about 400 attendees from 12 nations including the United States, Russia and Germany.

Kuaizhou is the largest solid-propellant rocket family in China, as opposed to the Long March series, which mainly relies on liquid fuel.

The Kuaizhou 1A's first mission was in January 2017, lifting three small satellites from Jiuquan into a sun-synchronous orbit.

The 20-meter rocket has a liftoff weight of about 30 metric tons. It is capable of sending 200 kilograms of payload into a sun-synchronous orbit, or 300 kg of payload into a low-Earth orbit.

Beyond Kuaizhou 1A, Zhang's company is developing the Kuaizhou 11, which will be China's largest and most powerful solid-propellant carrier rocket. The new type will have a length of 25 meters, a diameter of 2.2 meters, and a liftoff weight of 78 tons. It will be able to place a 1-ton payload into a sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 700 km, or a 1.5-ton payload into a low-Earth orbit.

"Kuaizhou 11's research and development has been proceeding well. We hope that it will make its first flight in the near future," Zhang said.

He anticipated that compared with Kuaizhou 1A, Kuaizhou 11 will have even brighter prospects because it will have a stronger launch capacity that will allow it to lift a wider range of satellites.

"It will be able to place six to 10 small satellites into orbit during a single mission, which will be very efficient and economical for our customers," Zhang said. "We have been in talks with several clients on Kuaizhou 11 missions."

 

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China's scientists observe plant growth in its space lab
CGTN
2018-09-27 20:13 GMT+8

Astronauts need a lot of food during their space expedition that sometimes takes nearly two years. Carrying dried prepackaged food takes up space in their spacecraft.

One solution is to send seeds that occupy less volume to cultivate them in the space. Recently, scientists have successfully grown vegetables and plants in the space shuttles.

However, microgravity makes it difficult to water the plants as they clump together. Space scientists at NASA started using hydroponics and aeroponics to grow plants in space stations.

While hydroponics delivers water to plant roots, aeroponics ensures misty air conditions for plants' growth.

Chinese scientists have taken this experiment to the next level at Tiangong-2, a space laboratory.

They are trying to accomplish full-cycle of plant growth under microgravity. Boxes containing rice and Arabidopsis, a small flowering plant, are on board the space lab.

"After the seeds arrive in space, they will grow and mature there, and finally yield seeds. This kind of long-term experiment is quite rare in the international community," Zheng Huiqiong, director of Tiangong-2's space biotechnology and the plant cell engineering research team said.

"It is of great importance because it can help solve one of the key problems to providing necessary food, water, and oxygen to humans," Zheng explained.

The research found that under the conditions of microgravity, the flowering of Arabidopsis occurs 22 days later than on the ground.

"If we need to eat leaves in the future, it is better to have plants that flower late. But for rice, late flowering will influence the yields, so we have to adapt it to the environment," said Zheng.

The research also found that rice is more active in guttation under the conditions of microgravity, meaning it exudes more and more significant drops of sap on its leaves.

"This phenomenon has advantages and disadvantages. On the one hand, bigger sap drops will influence the growth of the plant because it will increase the humidity. On the other hand, it offers us clues to establish an effective life-support system in the future, so we could provide water to humans via plants," said Zheng.

 

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China invites international cooperation in Chang'e-6 Moon sample return mission
by Andrew Jones Oct 01, 2018 19:06 GERMANY MOON CHINA'S SPACE PROGRAM

The Heads of Agencies plenary session at the the 69th International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Bremen, Germany, on October 1, 2018. Gbtimes/Andrew Jones

China will invite international partners to place a small payload on a planned lunar sample return mission, the head of the country’s space agency said Monday.

Zhang Kejian, head of the China National Space Administration (CNSA), said CNSA’s Chang’e-6 lunar sample return spacecraft would open 10 kilograms of payload capacity to international partners which would allow for a small experiment to join the mission.

Zhang made the announcement at the Heads of Agencies plenary session at the the 69th International Astronautical Congress (IAC) which opened on Monday in Bremen, Germany.

Chang’e-6 is a backup mission to Chang’e-5, which China plans to launch in 2019 to collect 2 kilograms of samples from a site near Mons Rümker in Oceanus Procellarum in the northwest region of the nearside of the Moon.

If Chang’e-5 is successful, Chang’e-6 could target the lunar south poles or the lunar far side, using a relay satellite launched earlier this year to facilitate a first-ever mission to land on the far side of the Moon, Chang’e-4, set to launch in December.

Scientists working on China's Chang'e-5 reentry vehicle, right, with lander and ascent vehicles in the background. Framegrab/CCTV

No launch date was provided for the Chang’e-6 mission but is understood to be scheduled for the early 2020s as part of an expanded Chinese lunar exploration programme that will target the lunar poles.

Citing the IAC motto of ‘involving everyone’, Zhang also announced that the Queqiao relay satellite launched in May to support the Chang’e-4 lander and rover mission would be available to other nations interested in exploring the far side of the Moon.

Zhang became head of the CNSA in May, made his comments through Xu Yansong, Director for International Cooperation for CNSA, who acted as interpreter.

He also stated he had, in recent days, discussed cooperation with the head of Russia’s Roscosmos State Space Corporation Dmitry Rogozin and met with NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine earlier Monday, describing both meetings as very positive.

Chang'e-5 lunar sample return drilling simulation tests, being carried out by the China Academy of Space Technology. Framegrab/CCTV

Chang'e-4 and 5
The 8-metric-tonne Chang’e-5 probe includes a service module, lander, ascent unit, and a return vehicle. After soft-landing on the Moon and collecting around 2 kilograms of samples, the ascent module will blast off into lunar orbit where it will need to dock with the service module, close to 400,000 kilometers away from Earth. It will launch once the Long March heavy-lift launch vehicle completes a successful return-to-flight, following the failure of the second Long March 5 rocket in July 2017.

The Chang'e-6 spacecraft would have been manufactured at the same time as Chang'e-5, but likely adapted to the later mission profile.

The 10-kilogram allocation for Chang’e-6 would allow at least one instrument or experiment to fly to the Moon. The Chang’e-4 mission is hosting a 3-kg cylindrical container designed and developed with the involvement of 28 Chinese universities and is being described as the first lunar biosphere experiment.

Meanwhile a small camera developed by KACST of Saudi Arabia is on a microsatellite in lunar orbit, launched along with a relay satellite.

The Earth and Moon imaged by a Saudi camera on the Chinese Longjiang-2/DSLWP-B microsatellite. Harbin Institute of Technology

The Chang’e-4 Queqiao relay satellite was launched to provide communications for a lander and rover on the lunar far side, which never faces the Earth due to tidal locking.

Queqiao currently orbits around the Earth-Moon Lagrange point 2, one of five libration points in the Earth-Moon system, some 65,000-80,000 kilometres beyond the Moon, from which it can maintain line-of-sight with both the spacecraft on the Moon and tracking stations on the Earth. It also carries the Netherlands-China Low-Frequency Explorer (NCLE) was developed by Radboud University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON) and Dutch company Innovative Solutions In Space (ISIS), which will attempt to receive a signal from the cosmic ‘dark ages’.

With a minimum three-year design life, it could facilitate future landings on the lunar far side from China or other nations.

A demonstration of the lissajous/halo orbit orbit to be used by the Queqiao Chang'e-4 relay satellite mission. CASC


China invites international cooperation in Chang'e-6 Moon sample return mission | GBTimes.com

 

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China to launch commercial new generation retrievable satellite in 2019
by Andrew Jones Oct 05, 2018 12:28 GERMANY CHINA'S SPACE PROGRAM CAST

The Shijian-10 recoverable microgravity space science satellite, recovered in April 2016. Xinhua

China will launch a commercial new generation retrievable satellite next year which will allow experiments and other payloads to be sent to space and later recovered.

Li Ming, vice president of the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST), a satellite and spacecraft maker, presented the spacecraft and its potential uses at a forum at the International Astronautical Congress in Bremen, Germany on Thursday.

Described as an advanced platform for space environment utilisation, the satellite could play an important role in space biology, pharmaceuticals and materials, as well as space science experiments.

The satellite is based on earlier Chinese recoverable satellites named Fanhui Shi Weixing (FSW). The satellites, equipped with cameras, were used for climate, geographical and agricultural ends, including irradiating seeds as part of experiments to increase yield.

The new 3,500 kilogramme satellite can be used in a short-term configuration running on battery power and a long-term version with additional solar arrays. It will be capable of carrying 500-600 kg of recoverable payload. Pricing was stated only as, "affordable and reasonable, according to the present international markets".

CAST is considering around 15 missions with the satellite from 2019 to 2025. The structures, equipment and cables of the return capsule will be reusable, helping to assist with cost and launch cadence. The heat shielding will be replaced for each flight.

The CAST recoverable satellite will, excluding heat shielding, be reusable around 15 times. Gbtimes/Andrew Jones

The first spacecraft is currently in phase D of its development, which involves the testing of systems, integration and assembly ahead of a flight to space in 2019.

The satellite will be launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre via Long March 2D launch vehicles, putting the satellite into a near 43 degree inclination orbit of around 340 kilometres. The satellites will likely return near Siziwang Banner in Inner Mongolia, where China's Shenzhou human spaceflight missions land.

John Horack, professor and Neil Armstrong Chair at Ohio State University, described the development as exciting, placing it in the broader context of space commercialisation efforts.

"It's a great opportunity to explore business value propositions around how do we make money sending things into space, leaving them there, powering them up...the sky's the limit on your imagination on how you use the facility.

"We'll see how it goes. A true business is nothing more than a falsifiable hypothesis in a scientific sense," Horack said, adding that, "we'll see many, many innovations; this just happens to be one".

CAST belongs to the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), the main contractor for the Chinese space programme.

CAST has made and launched 25 recoverable satellites, 11 spacecraft for human spaceflight, and one lunar return capsule - the latter, Chang'e-5, being a 2014 test for a full lunar sample return mission, which is scheduled to launch in 2019.

Chang'e-5 T1 test vehicle "Xiaofei" lands successfully in 2014. Xinhua


China to launch commercial new generation retrievable satellite in 2019 | GBTimes.com

 

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CCTV report on CZ-5 Y3 (Third of Long March 5 rocket). It is currently undergoing assembly and test. Would be shipped to Wenchang, Hainan soon after.

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【国家建设者】雒云云：我为祖国铸利箭_新闻频道_央视网(cctv.com)

 

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Micro-satellite ready for blastoff
By Yin Han Source:Global Times Published: 2018/10/8 23:13:40

China's first "software defined" micro-satellite will be launched by the end of November, its development team leader told the Global Times on Monday.

Chen Hongyu's team at the Shanghai-based Chinese Academy of Sciences' Innovation Academy for micro-satellites has so far produced a total of at least eight micro- or nano-satellites for communication, navigation and scientific exploration.

The launch will take place "by the end of November this year," said Chen, the academy's director.

The industry buzzword "software defined" in this case relates to being able to use a private computer or even a smartphone to program the tiny satellite's functions.

A micro-satellite weighs less than 100 kilograms, and nano-satellites are under 10 kilograms, according to Science and Technology Daily.

"The function of a single micro- or nano-satellite is limited compared to a normal satellite or space station, while a network of such satellites can have advantages that outweigh the big satellites in certain aspects such as global coverage," Chen said.

More than 300 micro- and nano-satellites weighing less than 50 kilograms blasted off last year including 140 produced by India, Science and Technology Daily reported, referring to data from aerospace engineering firm SpaceWorks.

"Among all micro- and nano- satellites worldwide as of April 8, 2018, 58.7 percent were from the United States and 24.6 percent from European countries, while China occupied only 2.6 percent," Wu Shufan, professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University was quoted as saying by the official newspaper of the Ministry of Science and Technology.

Micro- and nano-satellites will grow to occupy more than 10 percent of all satellites in the next five years as the industry enters a "golden period for development," Wu said.

The academy successfully launched an SF-1 micro-satellite on September 29, according to a document sent by the academy to Global Times on Monday.

SF-1 is the first of a 120 communication and navigation micro-satellite constellation which would cover the Earth.

The comparatively low cost of micro-satellites makes them a feasible business for private Chinese companies.

Beijing-based company Commsat plans to launch seven 100 kilograms satellites by the end of 2018.

The company also plans to send four more in 2019 and another 72 in 2021, according to a document sent by Commsat to Global Times on Monday.

Small satellites also have drawbacks.

"Unlike big spacecraft, smaller satellites are quantity-driven, especially some mini- satellites, and can quickly run out of power and become space trash," Jiao Weixin, a space science professor at Peking University told the Global Times on Monday.

The research institutes and companies should "take the space environment into consideration while developing smaller satellites," Jiao said.

 

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European astronauts learning Chinese for China cooperation: ESA chief
Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-08 21:01:04|Editor: xuxin


BERLIN, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) -- Jan Woerner, director general of the European Space Agency (ESA), has said that ESA welcomes more cooperation with China's space program, and several European astronauts are now learning Chinese for preparation.

"I am very much in favor of international collaboration, and China is part of this world," Woerner told Xinhua, who added that Europe and China have a lot of cooperation in space science, and astronauts from both sides have done some training together in China.

Matthias Maurer, an ESA astronaut with German nationality, told Xinhua earlier that he had learnt Chinese for over six years, and said that he hoped to fly work with astronauts from China and other countries in the Chinese manned space station, which was planned to be completed around 2022.

"Besides Matthias, several of our astronauts are learning Chinese, It's a kind of preparation," said Woerner.

China and EU signed an agreement in 2015 concerning the cooperation in manned space program, stipulating that the period from 2015 to 2017 was the stage of technological exchanges, and the two sides take part in each other's astronauts' training programs.

Woerner said ESA is also discussing about using Chinese manned spacecraft Shenzhou to send European astronauts into space in the future.

"Although it is not on the agenda, it's a possibility," said Woerner.

Zhang Kejian, deputy minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China, and head of the China National Space Administration, said at the International Astronautical Congress in Bremen that China is willing to cooperate with other countries in space program.

Zhang also noted that Chang'e-6, China's second sample return lunar mission, will provide 10 kg of payloads on the orbiter and lander for international partners, an invitation for cooperation.

 

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Gravitational wave satellite launch plans
China Plus Published: 2018-10-09 13:39:40

China's domestic gravitational wave research project, "Tianqin," is likely to launch high-orbit satellites to detect gravitational waves by 2030, reports the Guangzhou Daily.

The collision of two black holes detected for the first time by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory, is seen in the still image from a computer simulation released in Washington, February 11, 2016. [Photo: VCG]

The plan has been unveiled at a symposium connected to the "Tianqin" program at the Xiangshan Science Conference in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province. More than 20 scientific research institutions and 40 experts from home and abroad attended the symposium.

The "Tianqin" program was launched by Guangzhou-based Sun Yat-sen University in 2015. With an estimated cost of 15 billion yuan (2.2 billion U.S. dollars), Chinese experts say "Tianqin" will be carried out in four stages over the next 15 to 20 years, including the last step of launching three high-orbit satellites to detect gravitational waves.

The U.S.-based Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) announced its ground-breaking discovery of gravitational waves in February 2016, which verified the predictions in Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity a century ago. "Tianqin", however, is set to study the gravitational waves in the space, which is different from research made by the U.S. ground-based observatory.

 

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https://twitter.com/x/status/1028566732351397888

Andrew Jones‏ @AJ_FI 60m 60 minutes ago
The Moon's Mare Nubium imaged by a student-developed camera (not the Saudi KACST imager) aboard the 47 kg Longjiang-2/DSLWP-B lunar microsatellite launched along with China's Chang'e-4 relay satellite in May.

BG2BHC

https://twitter.com/x/status/1050045271265153024

Cees Bassa‏ @cgbassa
Replying to @cgbassa @tammojan and
Our precious Earth and the lunar farside as seen with the #DSLWP-B lunar orbiter! This is the full color adjusted image received by radio amateurs, including @radiotelescoop (operated by @tammojan and myself). Commands were created by @bg2bhc and uplinked by Reinhard DK5LA.

11:27 PM - 10 Oct 2018

 

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China to launch unmanned test flight of next-generation crewed spacecraft in 2019
by Andrew Jones — October 12, 2018

A scale re-entry module for a next-generation Chinese crewed spacecraft that launched in 2016. Launch of a full-scale model is on tap for 2019. Credit: CASC

HELSINKI — China will perform a first test flight of a full-scale 20-metric ton model of a successor to its Shenzhou spacecraft for human spaceflight next year, a senior official at the craft’s designer said last week.

The next-generation crewed spacecraft will be the payload for the first flight of the Long March 5B launch vehicle, a variant of the Long March 5 and designed for lofting large modules of the planned Chinese Space Station (CSS) into low Earth orbit.

In 2016, China use the first flight of the Long March 7 medium-lift rocket to launch a scale model of a new return module to test re-entry and landing profile for new spacecraft.

“The full model will be tested next year,” Li Ming, vice president of the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST), told SpaceNews, and confirmed the mission would include the full spacecraft including re-entry and orbital modules.

“The key issue is to test the new shape and reusable technologies. This capsule will be reused after recovery from space,” Li Ming said at the International Astronautical Congress, held Oct. 1-5 in Bremen, Germany.

The test of the spacecraft will not include environmental controls or systems required to support astronauts, but focus on testing avionics, separation events, heat shielding, parachutes and recovery operations, similar to the mission profile NASA’s Orion flew in 2014 when a Delta 4 heavy rocket sent the unmanned capsule 5,800 kilometers above the Earth to test re-entry systems.

CAST, a major spacecraft and satellite maker under the main contractor for the Chinese space program, is developing the Shenzhou successor to allow astronauts to move out of low Earth orbit and into deep space, including missions to the moon and Mars.

China currently uses 7.8-ton Shenzhou spacecraft, based on the Soyuz, for trips to low Earth orbit.To go beyond, the next-generation craft will need to handlethe harsher radiation environment of deep space and deal with reentering the Earth’s atmosphere at greater velocities.

Two versions of the new spacecraft are planned, with one having a mass of 14-metric tons and another of 20 tons. They will be capable of carrying four to six astronauts, according to earlier reports.

Li did not offer a timeline for the first crewed flight but stated the craft could also quickly be available for use to for missions to low Earth orbit, including the CSS.

“Once it has finished the demonstrations I think it will be very quick [sic] to use the new generation [spacecraft], because the new generation has reusable abilities…so the government can reduce the cost to fly to the space station,” Li explained.

Li presented at the International Astronautical Congress on the prospects for a next-generation recoverable satellite for commercial use, which will, apart from heat shielding, also be largely reusable. Li told SpaceNews that China’s Tianzhou spacecraft—designed to refuel and deliver cargo to the CSS—will also feature reusable aspects from Tianzhou-3 onwards.

Long March 5 success required

The planned 2019 mission will be a valuable test of both the 20-ton spacecraft and the Long March 5B, being developed by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT).

If the flight is successful, the new launch vehicle could be cleared to launch the first module of the CSS in 2020.

The Long March 5B will also be human rated and is currently part of the early planning for potential crewed missions to the moon in the 2030s.

The third Long March 5 components at a facility in Tianjin, north China, in October 2018. Credit: CCTV/frame grab

The tentative mission concept would involve launch of a spacecraft on a Long March 9 super heavy-lift launcher — currently in its early phases of development with a first flight planned for 2028-2030 — followed by astronauts launching on the next-generation crew spacecraft atop a Long March 5B. The lunar stack and crewed craft would then rendezvous and dock in low Earth orbit ahead of translunar injection.

The all-clear to proceed with launch of the Long March 5B and crewed spacecraft test mission is dependent on a successful return to flight of the 5-meter-diameter, 57-meter-tall Long March 5.

The Long March 5 suffered a failure in July 2017 traced to a damaged turbo-pump, prompting a redesign of the YF-77 cryogenic first-stage engines.

Footage aired Oct. 6 by China Central Television showed the components of the third Long March 5 undergoing final tests at a facility in Tianjin, north China. The rocket is expected to be shipped out of Tianjin around the end of the month for delivery to the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on Hainan island, making launch of the rocket and its near-8-ton Shijian-20 communications satellite payload likely to take place in January.

Progress on China’s plans for a space station, lunar exploration with the Chang’e-5 lunar sample return, and a first independent interplanetary mission—to Mars in 2020—is reliant on a smooth flight.


China to launch unmanned test flight of next-generation crewed spacecraft in 2019 - SpaceNews.com

 

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China to launch first satellite for space-based gravitational wave detection next year
Source: Xinhua| 2018-10-14 19:40:22|Editor: Yang Yi


BEIJING, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) -- China plans to launch its first satellite to test the technologies of the space-based gravitational wave detection program "Tianqin" by the end of 2019.

The program Tianqin, meaning "harp in sky," was initiated by Sun Yat-sen University in south China's Guangdong Province in 2015. It will consist of three satellites forming an equilateral triangle around the earth.

"It's like a harp in space. If the gravitational waves come, the 'harp's strings" will be plucked," said Luo Jun, president of the Sun Yat-sen University and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, at a conference held recently in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province.

The detection will be based on high-precision laser interferometry technology to measure the changes of the distances and locations of the three satellites, according to Luo.

Gravitational waves are "ripples" in the fabric of space-time caused by some of the most violent and energetic processes in the universe. Albert Einstein predicted the existence of gravitational waves in 1916 in his general theory of relativity.

The first-ever discovery of gravitational waves by the American Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), announced in February 2016, has encouraged scientists worldwide to accelerate their research.

Different from LIGO, the space-based probes will be used to detect gravitational waves at much lower frequencies, which are generated by the merging of massive or supermassive black holes, scientists say.

The European Space Agency has also launched a space-based gravitational wave detection program, the "Laser Interferometer Space Antenna" project.

Luo admitted that although China had achieved some breakthrough results in the detection technology, there was still a huge gap to realize the space-based detection of gravitational waves.

Laser-ranging is one of the necessary technologies for detection. China accomplished its first successful laser-ranging between earth and the moon in January this year.

The relay satellite of China's Chang'e-4 lunar probe, launched in May this year, carries a reflector developed by the Sun Yat-sen University, and is expected to extend laser-ranging to a record distance of 460,000 km in 2019.

Scientists from Germany, Italy and Russia have expressed their willingness to cooperate with China in gravitational wave detection.