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

[JSCh]

OneSpace set to launch nation's first private carrier rocket
By Tan Yingzi in Chongqing | chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2018-05-08 16:28

May 8, 2018, Shu Chang from the OneSpace Technology, China's first private rocket producer, introduces the company's OS-X0 solid-fuel rocket that is set for launch on May 17 in a test field in Northwest China. [Photo by Tan Yingzi/chinadaily.com.cn]

OneSpace Technology, China's first private rocket producer, announced Tuesday in Chongqing the maiden launch of the company's OS-X0 solid-fuel rocket is set to take place on May 17 in a test field in northwest China.

The company calls it the first flight of a carrier rocket designed and made completely by a private company from China.

The rocket has been transported to the test field and the company is busy preparing for the launch. According to a previous report by China Daily, the test field is in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region.

The 9-meter-tall OS-X0, called "Chongqing Liangjiang Star," is capable of placing 100-kilogram payloads into an orbit 800 kilometers above Earth. The rocket can accelerate a new concept craft it's testing to a hypersonic speed of Mach 13, or 4.4 kilometers per second.

Established in 2015 through government endeavors to foster the commercial space sector and encourage participation from private enterprises, OneSpace has become a rising star in the country's space arena.

Last May, OneSpace signed an agreement with Chongqing Liangjiang Aviation Industry Investment Group to build its research and manufacturing base in the Southwest China city.

Chongqing Liangjiang New Area is the third national development and opening zone in China — the first in the inland — approved by the State Council, after Shanghai Pudong New Area and Tianjin Binhai New Area.

The Chongqing base will be put into use by the end of this year, with a research center, a smart manufacturing and assembly center, a test center, an aircraft control and simulation center and specialized labs. Its annual output value is expected to reach 1.5 billion yuan, with the capacity to assemble and test 30 carrier rockets.

OneSpace is developing the OS-M1, a larger rocket, to send small satellites into sun-synchronous or low-Earth orbits. It plans to conduct OS-M1's first flight around year's end.

Liangjiang to be nation's first center for the space internet
Updated: 2018-12-05
english.liangjiang.gov.cn

The launch ceremony of a global low-earth orbit (LEO) mobile satellite communication and space internet project was held in Liangjing New Area of Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality on Nov 30.

The launch coincided with the plaque unveiling ceremony for Dongfanghong Satellite Mobile Communication Co Ltd. The project is expected to develop Liangjiang into China's first global headquarters for the space internet.

With a primary investment of 20 billion yuan ($2.9 billion), the project is the first large-scale national commercial space project.

Upon completion, the project will be able to realize global two-way communication in real time under complicated geological conditions and will operate 24 hours a day thanks to a fully covered 5G internet system supported by hundreds of LEO small satellite constellations and a ground system.

According to Xieyun, general manager of Dongfanghong, 5G networking allows no delay in telephone communication, internet surfing and data processing, and for the 1000-mile height of low-earth orbit satellites shortens the signal velocity.

The unit will be linked with a station on the ground to improve its usability and efficiency. It will also be adapted to include features such as guidance enhancement, aviation and navigation surveillance, and unmanned driving technology.

The project has committed to building a global headquarters, an operation center, a talent training base and supporting industry parks in Liangjiang New Area.

The aerospace industry has become a new development opportunity and a helping force in Liangjiang. Recently, more than 20 projects and 50 billion yuan have been introduced to promote the development of Liangjiang's aerospace industry.

The global low-earth orbit mobile satellite communication and space internet project, as well as the Dongfanghong Satellite Co Ltd, is founded. [Photo/liangjiang.gov.cn]

 

[JSCh]

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

https://twitter.com/x/status/1070988705664565248

pi9cam‏ @PI9CAM
The amateur radio payload on DSLWP-B will be quiet for the next period to make (radio) space for Chang'e 4. The last messages sent on JT4G were 'HI CE4' 'SAFE LANDING'.

6:29 PM - 7 Dec 2018

 

[JSCh]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1071158225666539521

Here's some cool shots of the Chang'e-4 rover, which remains nameless, despite and whole public contest and voting and whatnot.

5:43 AM - 8 Dec 2018

 

[kuge]

nameless 无名 is its name..

btw, will a direct insertion introduce to the lunar orbit?

 

[JSCh]

Chang’e-4 launch
SciNews
Published on Dec 7, 2018

18:23 UTC (8 December at 02:23 local time). The Chang'e-4 lunar mission (lander and rover) is scheduled to land in the Aitken crater, located in the Aitken Basin, in the South Pole region on the far side of the Moon. According to the China National Space Administration, the scientific tasks of the Chang'e-4 mission include low-frequency radio astronomical observation, surveying the terrain and landforms, detecting the mineral composition and shallow lunar surface structure, and measuring the neutron radiation and neutral atoms to study the environment on the far side of the Moon. Credit: China Central Television (CCTV)

===#####===

 

[JSCh]

Chang'e-4 gets second trajectory correction
CGTN
2018-12-09 21:18 GMT+8

The trajectory of China's Chang'e-4 lunar probe was corrected on Sunday afternoon, the second such maneuver since the vessel blasted off on Saturday towards the Moon.

The task, conducted by several satellite tracking and control stations in China, aims to confirm the latitude and longitude of the probe, check information sent by the probe, and prepare for its third trajectory correction.

"Chang'e-4 has just completed its second trajectory correction, and the third one is designed to ensure Chang'e-4 enters the designated orbit and prepare for its soft landing," Li Peng, assistant engineer at Kashgar Satellite Tracking Station of Xi'an Satellite Control Center (XSCC), told China's national broadcaster CCTV.

The journey of Chang'e-4 to the orbit of the Moon will take two hours less than that of its predecessor, Chang'e-3.

"During the 110-hour Earth-Moon transfer, we will spare no efforts to ensure the precise entry conditions at every time," said Liu Qing, another engineer at Kashgar Satellite Tracking Station.

In the next month, scientists will conduct the third trajectory correction, near-moon braking and other key tasks, which will pave the way for a successful soft landing of the probe on the far side of the Moon.

 

[JSCh]

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

China to launch new-generation retrievable satellite in 2019
chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2018-12-10 10:40

Scientific personnels work at the landing area of the re-entry capsule of China's first retrievable microgravity satellite SJ-10 in Siziwang Banner, North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region, April 18, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

China will launch a reusable retrievable satellite next year, with its recoverable module able to be used 15 times over the next decade, according to the China Aerospace Science & Technology Corp.

The new-generation retrievable satellite, being developed by CAST, is a reusable satellite which allows experiments and other payloads to be sent to space and later recovered. The 3,500-kilogram satellite will be offered in short-term and long-term configurations, with the former running on battery power alone and the later carrying solar arrays. It will be capable of carrying up to 500 to 600 kilograms of recoverable payload.

According to Zhao Huiguang, chief architect of the new satellite, who spoke at a science salon in Beijing on Wednesday, the first satellite has been delivered and is undergoing testing, integration and assembly. It will be launched aboard a Long March 2D rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in April and is expected to be recovered by May. Additional missions are expected to be launched later.

China is now the world's third country to develop retrievable satellite technology. Over the last 40 years, China has worked on three generations of retrievable satellites in six models for multiple uses. By 2016, the country successfully made and launched 25 retrievable satellites, all of which have played key roles in space science.

 

[cirr]

China to launch new-generation retrievable satellite in 2019

2018-12-10 14:11:05

chinadaily.com.cn Editor : Mo Hong'e

Scientific personnels work at the landing area of the re-entry capsule of China's first retrievable microgravity satellite SJ-10 in Siziwang Banner, North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region, April 18, 2016. (Photo/Xinhua)

China will launch a reusable retrievable satellite next year, with its recoverable module able to be used 15 times over the next decade, according to the China Aerospace Science & Technology Corp.

The new-generation retrievable satellite, being developed by CAST, is a reusable satellite which allows experiments and other payloads to be sent to space and later recovered. The 3,500-kilogram satellite will be offered in short-term and long-term configurations, with the former running on battery power alone and the later carrying solar arrays. It will be capable of carrying up to 500 to 600 kilograms of recoverable payload.

According to Zhao Huiguang, chief architect of the new satellite, who spoke at a science salon in Beijing on Wednesday, the first satellite has been delivered and is undergoing testing, integration and assembly. It will be launched aboard a Long March 2D rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in April and is expected to be recovered by May. Additional missions are expected to be launched later.

China is now the world's third country to develop retrievable satellite technology. Over the last 40 years, China has worked on three generations of retrievable satellites in six models for multiple uses. By 2016, the country successfully made and launched 25 retrievable satellites, all of which have played key roles in space science.

http://www.ecns.cn/news/sci-tech/2018-12-10/detail-ifzanuxq9377412.shtml

 

[JSCh]

 

[JSCh]

Chang'e 4 lunar probe has entered the moon's orbit
chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2018-12-12 18:09

China's Chang'e 4 lunar probe has entered the moon's orbit in preparation for a soft-landing on the far side of the moon in early January.

 

[JSCh]

China’s dark matter space probe detects tantalizing signal
By Dennis Normile
Nov. 29, 2017 , 1:10 PM

A long-standing challenge in physics has been finding evidence for dark matter, the stuff presumed to make up a substantial chunk of the mass of the universe. Its existence seems to be responsible for the structure of the universe and the formation and evolution of galaxies. But physicists have yet to observe this mysterious material.

Results reported today by a China-led space science mission provide a tantalizing hint—but not firm evidence—for dark matter. Perhaps more significantly, the first observational data produced by China’s first mission dedicated to astrophysics shows that the country is set to become a force in space science, says David Spergel, an astrophysicist at Princeton University. China is now "making significant contributions to astrophysics and space science," he says.

Physicists have inferred the existence of dark matter from its gravitational effect on visible matter. But it has never been observed.

China’s Dark Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE) was designed to try to fill that gap, by looking for an indirect decay signal of a hypothetical dark matter candidate called weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs). Researchers launched the spacecraft from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert, about 1600 kilometers west of Beijing, in December 2015. Its primary instrument—a stack of thin, crisscrossed detector strips—is tuned to observe the incoming direction, energy, and electric charge of the particles that make up cosmic rays, particularly electrons and positrons, the antimatter counterparts of electrons. Cosmic rays emanate from conventional astrophysical objects, like exploding supernovae in the galaxy. But if dark matter consists of WIMPs, these would occasionally annihilate each other and create electron-positron pairs, which might be detected as an excess over the expected abundance of particles from conventional objects.

In its first 530 days of scientific observations, DAMPE detected 1.5 million cosmic ray electrons and positrons above a certain energy threshold. When researchers plot of the number of particles against their energy, they’d expect to see a smooth curve. But previous experiments have hinted at an anomalous break in the curve. Now, DAMPE has confirmed that deviation. “It may be evidence of dark matter,” but the break in the curve “may be from some other cosmic ray source,” says astrophysicist Chang Jin, who leads the collaboration at the Chinese Academy of Science’s (CAS’s) Purple Mountain Observatory (PMO) in Nanjing. The DAMPE results appear online today in Nature.

More data will be needed to confirm what DAMPE is possibly seeing. But there is good news on that front. "We expected a 3-year life for the satellite," Chang says. But given the smooth functioning of the spacecraft and its instruments, "we now expect it to last 5 years," he says. That will allow the satellite to record more than 10 billion cosmic ray events. Fan Yizhong, a mission astrophysicist also at PMO, adds that DAMPE's observations will complement those of other space- and ground-based instruments to ultimately clarify whether there is a connection between the anomalous signals and dark matter annihilation.

The DAMPE collaboration comprises four institutes under CAS, including the National Space Science Center in Beijing; also involved are the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei, the University of Geneva, and Italian universities in Bari, Lecce, and Perugia. The satellite has been named Wukong, after the Monkey King character in the 16th century Chinese novel Journey to the West. DAMPE was also China's first mission dedicated to astronomy and astrophysics, though it was joined in space in June by the Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope, intended to observe x-ray and gamma ray emissions from black holes, neutron stars, active galactic nuclei, and other phenomena.

Even if DAMPE's data don't resolve the dark matter riddle, Spergel says, "These measurements will inform our understanding of cosmic ray acceleration [and] will tell us about the physical processes in shocks around supernova and the physics of pulsars."


China’s dark matter space probe detects tantalizing signal | Science | AAAS

China's dark matter explorer Wukong to extend space service
Source: Xinhua| 2018-12-17 16:21:07|Editor: ZX


NANJING, Dec. 17 (Xinhua) -- China's Dark Matter Particle Explorer, nicknamed "Wukong" or "Monkey King," will extend its service in space by two years, as it is still in good condition and collecting key scientific data.

The research team operating the satellite said Monday that Wukong's key performance indicators have barely changed compared with three years ago when it was launched as China's first dark matter probe satellite.

As of Monday, the satellite has reached its expected service life of three years, having orbited the earth 16,597 times in a sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 500 kilometers, detecting around 5.5 billion cosmic particles.

"We hope that Wukong's 'sharp eyes' will detect 300 electrons that are obviously different from the normal energy spectrum by the end of 2019, which will provide theorists with sufficient data to study the nature of the electrons," said Chang Jin, chief scientist of the team.

Chang said the research team is quite confident about the satellite working another two years in space.

China launched Wukong at the end of 2015 to detect the high-energy electrons and gamma rays in space, which might be generated in the process of annihilation or decay of dark matter.

The satellite's original objectives have been completed with some results exceeding expectations, according to the team.

In 2017, the British scientific journal Nature published the high-energy electronic data collected by Wukong in the 18 months after its launch. In the study, Chang found an unexpected surplus of high-energy electrons that might be caused by the annihilation of dark matter, attracting close attention from domestic and foreign scientific communities.

"Key data is still being accumulated. The extension of Wukong's service is the basis of all our research," said Guo Jianhua, deputy chief designer of the satellite payload.

Compared with the existing dark matter detection equipment in the world, Wukong boasts advantages in its range of energy observation and its energy resolution.

Dark matter is a hypothetical form of matter that is thought to account for around 80 percent of the matter in the universe and about a quarter of its total energy density. It has not been observed directly.

 

[kuge]

China's dark matter explorer Wukong to extend space service
Source: Xinhua| 2018-12-17 16:21:07|Editor: ZX


NANJING, Dec. 17 (Xinhua) --
Dark matter is a hypothetical form of matter that is thought to account for around 80 percent of the matter in the universe and about a quarter of its total energy density. It has not been observed directly.

perhaps there exist no dark matters...

 

[JSCh]

From CAST,
【今日看嫦娥 | 嫦娥四号的绕月之旅】今天，我已经在太空飞行12天了。在12月12日，成功进行了“刹车”后，我被月球引力捕获，开始围绕着月球君转圈圈。这几天，我也没闲着，除了绕月飞行之外，我还和早已等候的中继星“鹊桥”打了好几次电话，信号良好，能在遥远的太空保持联系，心里感觉十分踏实。

[ Today's Chang'e-4 | Chang'e-4 circumlunar journey ] Today, I have been flying in space for 12 days. On December 12th, after the successful "brake", I was captured by the moon's gravity and began to circle around the moon. In the past few days, I have not been idle. In addition to flying around the moon, I also made several phone calls with the relay satellite "鹊桥"QueQiao that have been eagerly awaiting. The signal is good, and being able to keep in touch in distant space, make me feel at ease.

【嫦娥四号为何要绕月飞行很多天？】
嫦娥四号不远万里来到月球后却并不着急着陆，它的绕月飞行时间要比“嫦娥三号”多出十几天，这是为什么呢？
原来，月球自转的周期是28天，也就是说月球的昼夜交替一次约等于地球一个月的时间。为了让探测器落到月球上就能得到充分的太阳光开展工作，因此就必须要让它在月球着陆区的白天着陆。而嫦娥四号近月制动之后，运行的轨道面到着陆区上方的时候正好是着陆区的晚上，因此嫦娥四号要持续绕月飞行大半个月，才能赶在月背的白天实施着陆。

[Why do Chang'e-4 fly around the moon for many days? ]
Chang'e-4 has traveled all this way to the moon, but it is not anxious to land. It's time spend on flying around the moon is ten days longer that Chang'e-3, why is that so? It turns out that the period/cycle of the moon's rotation is 28 days, which means that the moon's day and night alternates about one month's time. In order for Chang'e-4 to land on the moon to get enough sunlight to work, it is necessary to let it land during the day in the lunar landing zone. After the brakes of Chang'e-4, the orbit plane to the top of the landing zone coincided with the night of the landing zone. Therefore, Chang'e-4 continued to fly around the moon for half a month to land in the daytime.

 

[JSCh]

From CASC (China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation) weibo,

Super 2018!!

 

[JSCh]

Nation's 1st private rocket factory begins operation
By ZHAO LEI | China Daily | Updated: 2018-12-21 09:33

Construction for LandSpace got underway earlier this month. [Photo provided to China Daily]​

The first privately owned carrier rocket factory in China, and the largest of its kind in Asia, recently began operations and is set to build what is expected to be the country's biggest privately designed rocket.

Zhang Changwu, founder and CEO of LandSpace, a rocket-maker in Beijing, said on Thursday that the factory in Huzhou, Zhejiang province, is currently being used to conduct technical tests of the company's newly developed TQ-12 rocket engine.

He said production of the engine and the ZQ 2 liquid-propellant carrier rocket will begin in 2019 at the factory, adding that the ZQ 2, which will be propelled by the TQ-12, is scheduled to carry out its first flight in 2020. Except for the Huzhou facility, all carrier rocket factories in China belong to State-owned space entities such as China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp.

According to publicly available information, before LandSpace there was only one private rocket-maker with its own production facility in Asia－Japan's Interstellar Technologies. The Japanese company's plant is in Taiki, Hokkaido, and is much smaller than the Huzhou factory.

Zhang said his factory now occupies about 4.7 hectares and will be expanded to 8 hectares. The facility will be able to produce about 15 ZQ 2 rockets and 200 TQ-12 engines starting in 2022, he said.

Zhang Chen, a senior manager at LandSpace, said the reasons behind the company setting up a factory in Huzhou include the fact that the city has been a testing base for State-owned space contractors for a long time. The local government is supportive of private businesses and is eager to upgrade local industries, and it is easy to find component suppliers in neighboring regions.

LandSpace launched its first carrier rocket－the 19-meter, solid-fuel ZQ 1－in late October at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China, planning to place a mini-satellite into orbit. The mission failed because of technical malfunctions in flight.

Zhang Changwu said the company now focuses on the development of the ZQ 2, calling it "the largest and most powerful carrier rocket designed and built by a private Chinese rocket company".

The 48.8-m ZQ 2 will have a diameter of 3.35 m, the same as those in most of China's Long March rocket series, and a liftoff weight of 216 metric tons. It will be capable of placing a 1.8-ton payload into sun-synchronous orbit 500 kilometers above the earth or a 4-ton spacecraft into a low-Earth orbit with an altitude of 200 km, LandSpace said.

President Xi Jinping has personally requested that the nation's long-insulated space industry open its doors to private participants and take advantage of their participation to boost sustainable growth.

Meanwhile, several government departments have published policies and guidelines that encourage private enterprises to take part in space-related businesses.

There are nearly 10 private rocket firms in China and all of them were founded over the past three years. Of those, LandSpace, OneSpace and i-Space, all based in Beijing, are the leaders when it comes to research and production capabilities and funding. The three companies have all conducted launch missions.