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

China’s potentially reusable Long March-8 makes successful maiden flight
By Deng Xiaoci Source: Global Times Published: 2020/12/22 13:02:30

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Photo: CNSA

China’s new generation medium-sized launch vehicle Long March-8 made a successful maiden flight from the tropical island province of Hainan in South China on Tuesday, sending five satellites into designated orbit at the same time.

According to the model’s designers from the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT), a subordinate to the state aerospace giant China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), Long March-8 is capable of launching a payload of three to four and a half tons to the Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO). As a new member of the Long March carrier rocket family, the development of the Long March-8 aims to fill this gap, and the rocket model will be tasked with meeting surging demand for launch services from commercial satellite companies at home and abroad.

The Long March-8’s successful maiden flight means a lot to China’s efforts to build itself into a space power, as it will strongly push forward the upgrading of China’s medium-sized launch vehicles, and will lead the development of the country’s satellites in medium and low orbits and meet the launch requirements for these spacecrafts, Xiao Geng, the rocket’s commander-in-chief, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

The 50.3-meter-long Long March-8 has a 3.35-meter-diameter core stage and two 2.25-meter-diameter side boosters. Weighing 356 tons at launch, it has a 480-ton take-off thrust and is capable of sending payloads weighing more than 4.5 tons into the SSO 700 kilometers above the ground, CALT said in a statement it sent to the Global Times.

We already had a carrier rocket that is capable of sending payloads of three tons to the SSO, and the Long March-8 will fill in a gap by boosting the country’s SSO launch capability from three to around five tons, which will help advance the development of a more powerful satellite platform, Xiao noted.

The model has been dubbed the “Chinese version of SpaceX Falcon 9” for its potential to be reusable. The first stage of Long March-8 is expected to become reusable 10 times by 2025, and by 2035, the entire rocket is expected to be reusable, the CASC said in early November.

A rocket engine needs to be throttleable to achieve zero velocity at the same time as it reaches the ground, which is a core technological requirement for building a reusable launch vehicle system.

This technology was tested for the first time in the Long March-8 maiden flight, which is also an experimental flight for the new rocket type, paving the way for further study and development for the reusable rocket system, according to the CASC statement.

In the long run, the Long March-8 will also be extremely smart, said the CASC. It will be able to adjust its flight status automatically if it encounters a malfunction, greatly improving the mission results.

Wu Yansheng, a senior official with the CASC, previously revealed in November that China aims to develop the first launch vehicle capable of vertical take-off and vertical landing (VTVL) by 2025.

Long March-8’s enhanced variant in the future could be the first Chinese rocket to become a VTVL launcher, space observers said.
 
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NEWS RELEASE 24-DEC-2020
A new TanSat XCO2 global product for climate studies
INSTITUTE OF ATMOSPHERIC PHYSICS, CHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

Since CO2 has been recognized as the most important anthropogenic greenhouse gas owing to its significant impact on global warming and climate change, there have been a substantial number of studies that have focused on investigating the status of CO2 in the atmosphere in the past and present, and how it will change in the future.

The United Nations Climate Change Conference (24th Conference of the Parties, COP24) will conduct a climate change action global stock-take for each of five years starting in 2023. Therefore, in support of these efforts, we need a new method to verify how much human emissions impact the global carbon cycle and climate change.

The 1st Chinese Carbon Dioxide Monitoring Satellite Mission, known as TanSat, which was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the China Meteorological Administration, launched in December 2016 for the purpose of monitoring CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere over the globe. The 1st TanSat global map of CO2 dry-air mixing ratio (XCO2) measurements over land was released as a version-1 data product with an accuracy of 2.11 ppmv (parts per million by volume).

"Unfortunately, it is not accurate enough to support estimation of anthropogenic CO2 emissions in cities due to it having a 1-1.5 ppm gradient across urban areas, as shown from ground-based measurement in Paris," explains Dongxu Yang, a scientist with the Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IAP/CAS), who is closely involved in TanSat data retrieval. "On TanSat's 4th birthday coming this year, we will introduce a new version [version 2] of the TanSat global XCO2 product."

The new TanSat global XCO2 product is retrieved by IAPCAS (the Institute of Atmospheric Physics Carbon Dioxide Retrieval Algorithm for Satellite Remote Sensing), and the European Space Agency (ESA) Climate Change Initiative plus (CCI+) TanSat XCO2 product is retrieved by the University of Leicester Full Physics (UoL-FP) retrieval algorithm. The new TanSat XCO2 data product is now retrieved by IAP/CAS using the O2 A-band and CO2 weak band together, after a new approach has been developed to improve the retrieval accuracy by optimizing the TanSat measured spectrum. The TanSat v2 XCO2 data product can be obtained from the CASA (the Cooperation on the Analysis of carbon SAtellites data) TanSat data and science service.

Intercomparison of TanSat XCO2 retrieval between the two algorithms shows good agreement for global Total Column Carbon Observing Network (TCCON) overpass measurements with 34,699 individual measurements. The dispersion between the two data products has a standard deviation of 1.28 ppmv, and there is also a -0.35 ppmv overall bias between both. These intercomparison results are introduced in a recently published paper in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences.

In January 2020, a protocol was signed between the National Remote Sensing Center of the China Ministry of Science and Technology of China (MOST/NRSCC) and ESA regarding the intended coordination of their activities in the Remote Sensing of Greenhouse Gases and Related Missions. MOST/NRSCC and ESA intend TanSat to be a third-party mission of ESA, and TanSat data have been included in key ESA programs such as the Climate Change Initiative plus (CCI+) and Earthnet Data Assessment Pilot (EDAP).

The new dataset will be involved in global carbon flux estimations and climate studies in the near future. The TanSat mission will never stop, and developments are required in future generations of TanSat missions to contribute further to global stock-take and carbon-neutral research.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1342307873531994113
 
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China to launch space station cabinet next spring
Chief designer says China ‘completed research and development work for space station core cabinet’
Riyaz Ul Khaliq |25.12.2020

China to launch space station cabinet next spring



ANKARA
Moving a step closer to launch its space station, China Friday announced that it will launch the core cabinet of the ongoing project in 2021 spring.
Zhou Jianping, the chief designer of China's manned space program, said the core cabinet will be launched "as a starter of the construction of China's space station.”
The country “completed the research and development work for the space station core cabinet as well as that of the Long March-5B launch vehicle,” Chinese daily Global Times cited Jianping as saying.
The testing work reached its final stage, he told reporters at Shaoshan city in the central Hunan province.
China’s large modular space station will be placed in low orbit. It will be roughly one-fifth of the mass of the International Space Station and about the size of the decommissioned Russian Mir space station.
“Chinese astronauts will carry out multiple missions outside the space station capsule and explore and experiment on new space technology that enables space missions to be more economic,” said Jianping, who also teaches at the Chinese Academy of Engineering.
To complete the construction of the space station, China is expected to conduct 11 space flight missions in the coming two years – which include four manned flight missions and four cargo spaceship flights.
The space station is expected to be operational by 2022.
Jianping’s announcement came after China’s newly built indigenous rocket made a successful flight to space with five satellites on Tuesday.
Deemed as a major push in China’s space program project, the 356 tons of new rocket from the Long March series is said to become reusable 10 times by 2025 and by 2035.
The designers of the Long March-8 rocket said the new rocket is capable of launching a “payload of three to four and a half tons to the Sun-synchronous orbit.”
Shaoshan is known as the birthplace of late Chinese leader Mao Zedong.
Mao is the founder of the People’s Republic of China, which he ruled as the chairman of the Communist Party of China from its establishment in 1949 until he died in 1976. His birth anniversary is on Saturday and people from across China are coming to pay tribute to him.

www.aa.com.tr

China to launch space station cabinet next spring

Chief designer says China ‘completed research and development work for space station core cabinet’ - Anadolu Ajansı
www.aa.com.tr www.aa.com.tr
 
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【新跨越！我国首个3.35米直径铝锂合金火箭贮箱在火箭院诞生】近日，我国首个3.35米直径铝锂合金火箭贮箱在火箭院诞生，经各环节试验检测合格且性能良好，初步具备工程应用条件。该贮箱采用了第三代高性能铝锂合金，与当前国际主流铝铜合金贮箱相比，强度提升30%左右，同等条件下结构减重15%以上。这标志着我国已打通国际一流贮箱研制链路，运载火箭研制水平实现新跨越。
第三代铝锂合金贮箱的问世，是我国运载火箭结构效率和运载能力进一步提升的重要标志。胡正根说，目前仅美国航天飞机、法尔肯和前苏联能源号等运载火箭，在贮箱结构上大面积使用了铝锂合金，这使其结构效率和运载能力达到国际领先水平，代表了运载火箭贮箱的发展方向。
火箭院总体设计部结构室主任刘观日介绍，我国3.35米铝锂合金贮箱将主要应用在新一代运载火箭末级，提升长征五号、长征七号、长征八号等火箭结构效率和运载能力，大幅增强我国深空探测能力和水平，同时为更大直径的重型火箭和新一代载人火箭研制奠定基础。​

China Aerospace
Today at 19:47

[New Leap! China’s first 3.35m diameter aluminum-lithium alloy rocket storage tank was born in China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT) ]

Recently, China’s first 3.35-meter-diameter aluminum-lithium alloy rocket storage tank was born in the CALT. It has been tested in various stages and found to have good performance and has reach preliminary engineering application conditions. The storage tank uses the third-generation high-performance aluminum-lithium alloy. Compared with the current international mainstream aluminum-copper alloy storage tank, the strength is increased by about 30%, and the structural weight is reduced by more than 15% under the same conditions. This indicates that China has achieve international first-class storage tank development level, and launch vehicle technological development has achieved a new leap.

The advent of the third-generation aluminum-lithium alloy storage tank is an important symbol of the further improvement of the structural efficiency and carrying capacity of China's launch vehicle. Hu Zhenggen said that currently only the US Space Shuttle, Falcon, and the former Soviet Union Energia have used aluminum-lithium alloy on a large area in the tank structure, which makes the structural efficiency and carrying capacity reach the international leading level, demonstrate the development direction of rocket tank.

Liu Guanri, Director of the Structural Department of the General Design Department of the CALT, introduced that the 3.35-meter aluminum-lithium alloy storage tank will be mainly used in the final stage of the new generation of launch vehicles to improve the structural efficiency and carrying capacity of Long March 5, Long March 7, and Long March 8 rockets. Will be able to greatly enhance China's deep space exploration capabilities and level, while laying the foundation for further development of larger-diameter heavy rockets and new generation of manned rockets.

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Rice seeds carried to the moon and back sprout
chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2020-12-29 16:31

Some of the 40 grams of rice seeds that made a round trip to the moon have sprouted and are ready for follow-up studies, according to Science Daily on Monday.

The rice seeds traveled to the moon and returned to Earth after 23 days of flight aboard China's Chang'e 5 lunar probe. This marks the first time China conducted a deep space induced mutation breeding experiment on rice.

The seeds were handed over to their provider, the National Engineering Research Center of Plant Space Breeding of South China Agricultural University, on Dec 23.

China was the first country to use space technology to induce mutation breeding of crops. "Mutations are the basis of species evolution, as well as the basis of breeding of new variety," said Guo Tao, deputy director of the space breeding center.

Rice is a model organism in genetic research. Using rice as a deep space payload to study the evolution of species helps to understand hereditary effects in deep space. It may also produce beneficial mutations that could be applied to rice seed selection and breeding and boost agricultural production, Guo added.

Guo said next they will conduct a series of selfing and outcrossing experiments on the seed to cultivate new rice varieties that satisfy future requirements in terms of resistance to diseases and pests, stress tolerance and adaptation to mechanized production.

To ensure national food security, China's total yield of rice needs to grow about 10 percent by 2030.

As a leading scientific research and innovation platform in space breeding, the National Engineering Research Center of Plant Space Breeding has conducted 24 space-induced mutation experiments on plants since 1996.

The experiment on the Chang'e 5 probe is different from previous ones. It was the first such experiment conducted in a deep space environment, the space flight time was longer and the probe encountered radiation in the Van Allen Belts and fromsunspot activity, said Guo.

Stronger hereditary effects are expected to be produced in this experiment, as a deep space environment is more similar to a real space extreme environment. It will help researchers learn how hereditary effects induced in deep space and a low-Earth orbit environment differ, and provide important experiment samples and data for further research on mutation rules in space breeding, he said.

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JSCh said:
近日，北京天兵科技有限公司（以下简称天兵科技）首台“天火三号”（TH-3）液体火箭发动机在北京天兵总装基地完成全系统总装工作。通过一年多的研制，天兵科技独立研制、拥有自主知识产权的30吨HCP液体发动机日前破壳露出真容。​
天火三号发动机主要由头部装置、燃烧室、喷管、点火装置组成，作为国内首台大吨位HCP液体火箭发动机，具有高性能、无毒无污染、常温贮存、多次重复点火和深度变推能力，大幅降低了发动机零组件数量和成本的同时，也同步提升了发动机产品的可靠性。​

Missile hit_Aerospace
57 minutes ago from Honor 30 5G

Recently, Beijing Tianbing Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Tianbing Technology)'s first "Tianhuo-3" (TH-3) liquid rocket engine completed the system-wide assembly work at the Beijing Tianbing Assembly Base. After more than a year of research and development, the 30-ton HCP liquid engine independently developed by Tianbing Technology and with independent intellectual property rights has recently broken its veil to show its true appearance.

Tianhuo No. 3 engine is mainly composed of head unit, combustion chamber, nozzle, and ignition device. As the first large-tonnage HCP liquid rocket engine in China, it has high performance, non-toxic and pollution-free, normal temperature storage, multiple repeated ignitions and deep variable thrust Ability, which greatly reduces the number and cost of engine components, while simultaneously improving the reliability of engine products.

Click to expand...

今天 10:00 来自 微博视频 已编辑​
【天火三号试车成功，建议公司下次换个好点的摄像头】北京天兵科技自主研制的国内首台30吨推力HCP火箭发动机天火三号（TH-3）全系统热试车取得成功。​
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12月以来，TH-3发动机共进行了6次稳态程序的考核，发动机启动、关机平稳，稳态工作参数正常，发动机各项性能指标均达到了设计要求，全面通过热试车考核。​
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天火三号30吨级发动机是继天火一号（1000N）全系统热试车、天火二号（10000N）全系统热试车成功研制的基础上，由天兵科技独立自主研发生产的，是目前世界上HCP推进剂体系中推力量级最大的发动机，从设计到生产、再至试验点火成功，历时一年，发动机主要零组件采用3D打印方案，发动机研制过程中借鉴了液体火箭发动机和固体火箭发动机交叉融合的设计经验，进行了大量首创性的精密结构、新材料、新工艺的工程应用，提高产品可靠性的同时，大幅降低了发动机生产成本。​
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天兵科技称，HCP推进剂是航天领域内公认的先进液体推进剂体系，具有绿色无毒、常温贮存、高性能（公司未公开TH3的比冲水平，但以NOFBX相关论文称，比冲可以高到325s，远在单组元发动机之上，甚至超过传统肼基推进剂）、低成本、系统简洁可靠性高的特点。天火三号发动机的试车成功，标志着该推进剂体系的研究已进入工程化应用阶段。采用HCP推进剂的天火三号发动机具备了传统低温双组元推进剂的高性能，同时具备了单组元发动机的可靠性和使用便捷性。这意味着，装备天火三号发动机的液体运载火箭较同等运力规模的火箭，起飞重量降低50%、零部件数量减少60%，大幅降低了运载火箭的制造和发射成本，同时显著提升了运载火箭的可靠性，是未来低成本、高频次进入太空的优质解决方案。此外，得益于天火发动机先进的设计理念和HCP推进剂体系的特点，天火系列发动机还具备连续深度变推力能力，能够让火箭更容易实现回收复用功能。​
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现在是点评时间，这个HCP应该是一种预混合的推进剂，国外叫NOFBX。绿色无毒比冲相对高，听起来很美，但国内外不大力推进是有原因的，有一定危险性。此类发动机国内外试车时都炸过台子，这种发动机在关闭时控制不好容易回火，沿着燃烧室往上烧，因为推进剂本身就是混合好的。航天爱好者网超话 #中国航天# L航天爱好者网的微博视频​

Space Enthusiast Network
Today at 10:00 from Weibo video

Beijing Tianbing Technology independently developed the first domestic 30-ton thrust HCP rocket engine Tianhuo III (TH-3) full system hot test successfully.

Since December, the TH-3 engine has undergone a total of 6 steady-state program assessments. The engine starts and shuts down smoothly, and the steady-state working parameters are normal. The engine's performance indicators have reached the design requirements and fully passed the hot test.

The 30-ton engine of Tianhuo-3 is developed and produced by Tianbing Technology independently following the successful development of Tianhuo-1 (1000N) full-system hot test run and Tianhuo-2 (10000N) full-system hot test run. It is currently the largest thrust HCP propellant engine system in the world. From design to production, and then to the successful test ignition, it took one year. The main components of the engine used 3D printing. The design experience of the cross-fusion of liquid rocket motors and solid rocket motors was used for reference in the engine development process. A large number of pioneering engineering applications of precision structures, new materials, and new processes have been carried out to improve product reliability and greatly reduce engine production costs.

Tianbing Technology claims that HCP propellant is a recognized advanced liquid propellant system in the aerospace field. It has green, non-toxic, room temperature storage, and high performance (The company has not disclosed the specific impulse level of TH3, but according to NOFBX related papers, the specific impulse can be as high as 325s, which is far higher than that of other mono-propellant engine and even more than traditional hydrazine-based propellants), low cost, simple system and high reliability. The successful test run of the Tianhuo-3 engine indicates that the research on the propellant system has entered the engineering application stage. The Tianhuo-3 engine with HCP propellant has the high performance of traditional cryogenic bi-propellant, and at the same time has the reliability and convenience of mono-propellant engine. This means that the liquid launch vehicle equipped with the Tianhuo-3 engine has a 50% lower take-off weight and a 60% reduction in the number of parts than a rocket of the same capacity, which greatly reduces the manufacturing and launch costs of the launch vehicle, and at the same time significantly improves the reliability of the launch vehicle. It is a high-quality solution for low-cost, high-frequency entry into space in the future. In addition, thanks to the advanced design concept of the Tianhuo engine and the characteristics of the HCP propellant system, the Tianhuo series of engines also have the ability for continuous throttleability, which can make it easier for the rocket to realize the recovery and reuse function.

Here is the time for comment (Note: from editor of Space Enthusiast Network).
This so-called HCP should be a pre-mixed propellant, called NOFBX abroad. Green and non-toxic, the specific impulse is also relatively high, sounds wonderful. But there are reasons why domestic and foreign efforts are not vigorously pursue. There is a certain risk. This type of engine has a history of explosion during test runs at home and abroad. This kind of engine is not easy to control during turn off, when it could backfire and burn up along the combustion chamber because at that time the propellant is already well mixed.

Video link of the test -> L航天爱好者网的微博视频

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【目标：日地拉格朗日L1点！#嫦娥五号#轨道器开展拓展试验】12月17日，嫦娥五号任务轨道器与返回器实施分离，并顺利执行规避机动。在完成既定主任务后，轨道器启程飞往距离地球约150万公里的日地拉格朗日L1点，进行环绕飞行并开展探测试验。日地L1点探测试验后，将根据轨道器状态和约束条件等情况，视情开展其他拓展任务。（来源：中国探月工程）​

China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation
Today at 09:39 from 360 Safe Browser

[Target: Sun and Earth Lagrange L1 point! Chang'e-5 orbiter launches extended test]

On December 17, the Chang'e-5 mission orbiter and the returner were separated and the evasion maneuver was successfully executed. After completing the established main mission, the orbiter set off for the Sun Earth Lagrange L1 point, about 1.5 million kilometers away from the earth, to carry out a circumnavigation flight and conduct exploration tests. After the sun-earth L1 exploration test, other extended tasks will be carried out according to the status of the orbiter and the constraints. (Source: China Lunar Exploration Project)

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