China Space Military：Recon, Satcom, Navi, ASAT/BMD, Orbital Vehicle, SLV, etc.

[JSCh]

Satellite to help with emission reduction
By Zhao Lei (China Daily) Updated: 2015-12-05 08:04
China will launch a satellite in 2016 dedicated to monitoring the global distribution of atmospheric carbon dioxide, which will help reduce the country's greenhouse gas emissions.

The first of its kind in China, the satellite, tentatively called TanSat, is part of a Ministry of Science and Technology's global CO2 observation satellite program and will be assembled before May, according to a statement published by the Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

After TanSat enters a Sun-synchronous orbit, it will detect and generate data on global CO2 emissions that will help China's energy-conservation and emission-reduction efforts and support the nation's stance in international CO2 emission talks, the statement said.

In his speech at the opening ceremony of the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Paris, President Xi Jinping said China has pledged to peak CO2 emissions by around 2030 and reduce CO2 emissions per unit of GDP by 60 to 65 percent from 2005 levels over the same time.

In addition to environmental protection, data provided by the satellite can assist with research in fields ranging from oceanography to meteorology, according to the institute.

The institute has been developing the two major pieces of equipment that will be installed on the satellite - the CO2 detector and the atmospheric particulate matter sensor - the statement added.

It said that the CO2 detector will use optical remote sensing technology to examine the concentration of CO2 and other greenhouse gases in the air, while the atmospheric particulate matter sensor will analyze cloud and particulate matter to support the calculation of CO2 distribution.

Once the equipment is developed, it will be sent to the Shanghai Engineering Center for Microsatellites to be mounted on TanSat.

To test and improve the accuracy of the satellite's apparatus, ground observation stations will be set up in Beijing, Mohe in Heilongjiang province, Guangzhou in Guangdong province, Waliguan in Qinghai province as well as Urumqi and Tazhong in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. They will sample local CO2 concentrations and compare the readings with data generated by TanSat, according to the National Meteorological Center.

Globally, the United States, Japan and the European Space Agency have launched their space-based greenhouse gas observation projects.

Li Jiahong, chief engineer at the National Remote Sensing Center under the Ministry of Science and Technology, previously said that China plans to use TanSat to work with other parties' satellites to form a constellation that can better detect greenhouse gases and handle climate change.

zhaolei@chinadaily.com.cn

Payloads (Image by ZHANG Nan, Xinhua)

Payloads (Image by ZHANG Nan, Xinhua)

Model of payloads (Image by CIOMP)

Experiment of payloads of Tansat (Image by CIOMP)​

 

[Bussard Ramjet]

I found this interesting firm:

http://www.onespacechina.com/

It is the first private space launch company from China, focusing on launch vehicles for small payloads.

 

[qwerrty]

I found this interesting firm:

http://www.onespacechina.com/

It is the first private space launch company from China, focusing on launch vehicles for small payloads.

here's another one

Link Space
21-yr-old man sets up China’s first private rocket firm - People's Daily Online
China's first private rocket firm aims for market

 

[Audio]

mars rover

---

Is this funded? Like, legit mission or "merely" CGI and models proposal?

 

[BoQ77]

South China Sea: Australia steps up air patrols in defiance of Beijing
Date
December 15, 2015 - 10:04PM
South China Sea: Australian air patrol recorded
The BBC record a Royal Australian Air Force surveillance plane conducting an air patrol over the fiercely contested South China Sea.

Australia has stepped up military surveillance flights over the South China Sea in a signal to Beijing that it means to continue operating in the regional flashpoint area despite heightened tensions provoked by territorial disputes.

In a move that is likely to grate with the Chinese government, an RAAF P-3 Orion aircraft carried out patrols in the air space in recent weeks, prompting a demand from Chinese naval forces in the waters below to explain itself.

Defence confirmed the recent flight, though only after the plane's presence happened to be noticed by a BBC journalist in the area, who recorded an Australian crewman telling the Chinese navy that the plane was "exercising international freedom of navigation rights".

Chinese development at Hughes Reef in the disputed Spratly Islands chain in the South China Sea. Photo: Fairfax

While such surveillance flights have been conducted for years in the South China Sea under Operation Gateway, their tempo has been increased in the past 12 to 18 months, it is understood.

This amounts to a calculated signal to Beijing that Australia does not accept the sea territory claims generated by China's building of artificial islands in the area, which is subject to claims by Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and others.

The government played down the patrol, saying it was a routine part of Operation Gateway

A Royal Australian Air Force P-3 Orion aircraft.

But experts said it sent a clear message that Australia would not yield space to China's growing ambition to unilaterally control the strategically important waters.

Crucially, it comes amid heightened tensions after a US destroyer sailed close to one of China's artificial islands in late October in a so-called "freedom of navigation" exercise.

James Goldrick, a retired naval officer who is now advising the government on its upcoming Defence white paper, said the RAAF's flight could be interpreted as a challenge by China.

"The signal is that we'll continue with our routine operations," he said. "Inherently, it is an element of challenge and what it's saying is we're doing our normal things that we've always done within the requirements of international law."

Benjamin Schreer, a strategic expert with Macquarie University, agreed Australia was making a point.

"Apparently the pilot seems to feel the urge to convince the Chinese navy … that we have every right to be in that airspace … This really takes place in a changing strategic and political context."

Peter Jennings, executive director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said that "nothing is routine in the South China Sea right now because of the heightened state of tension in the region".

"Even the routine takes on a higher profile."

But he said it was "ridiculous" that the latest flight was revealed by a BBC journalist. The government should publicly state what it was doing to send the strongest possible signal to Beijing, he said.

The experts agreed such flights did not pose any major risk to RAAF planes through an escalation.

BBC journalist Rupert Wingfield-Hayes was on another plane close to the disputed Mischief Reef near the Philippines when he recorded the voice of an Australian airman who had been called to account by the Chinese navy. He published a story describing the encounter on Tuesday.

"China navy, China navy," the airman is heard saying. "We are an Australian aircraft exercising international freedom of navigation rights, in international airspace in accordance with the international civil aviation convention, and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Over."

The Chinese did not respond further.

Sam Bateman, a former navy officer now with the University of Wollongong, said that this was a standard call.

"That's the sort of radio call they would make if they were going near a foreign warship. It's purely a safety measure that the ship knows whose aircraft this is, what it's doing."

Read more: South China Sea: Australia steps up air patrols in defiance of Beijing
Follow us: @smh on Twitter | sydneymorningherald on Facebook

 

[cirr]

Not again！

秒拍视频

 

[bobsm]

China launches world’s most sensitive dark matter hunting probe
ANDREW JONES
2015/12/17
A Long March 2D rocket lifting off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in the Gobi Desert on the morning of September 4, 2014, putting the Chuangxin-04 satellite into orbit. (Photo: CNS)

China has launched a satellite designed to shed on light on one of the most intriguing mysteries of the universe – dark matter.

The probe, renamed "Wukong" - or Monkey King - shortly before launch, blasted off on a Long March 2D rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in the Gobi Desert, Inner Mongolia at 00:12 UTC on Thursday, December 17(08:12 Beijing time).

The 1,900 kg satellite was inserted into a sun-synchronous orbit, where it is expected to function for 3 years at an altitude of 500 km.

It will carry out both indirect detection of dark matter and studies into high energy cosmic rays.

The probe, originally known as DAMPE (DArk Matter Particle Explorer), was built in collaboration with the University of Geneva and Italian universities in Bari, Lecce and Perugia. It was then tested at CERN in Switzerland.

Professor Fan Yizhong, a member of the mission team at the Purple Mountain Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Nanjing, explained the thinking behind the mission.

“The nature of dark matter is one of the most fundamental questions for the physicists and astrophysicists. It is known that the total mass of the dark matter particles is about five times that of “normal” matter, but no-one really knows what the dark matter particles are.”

“Dark matter particles may annihilate or decay and then produce high energy gamma-rays or cosmic rays - in particular electron/positron pairs.

“DAMPE will measure the spectra of gamma-rays and cosmic rays with very high energy resolution and then look for possible signal of dark matter annihilation or decay.”

Helpfully, DAMPE has the widest observation spectrum and highest energy resolution of any dark matter probe in the world.

Fan says says that as a high energy gamma-ray and cosmic ray detector, Wukong can measure cosmic ray electrons in the energy range of 10 GeV-10 TeV (1GeV=1 billion electron volts; 1 TeV=1000 billion electron volts) and cosmic ray protons and nuclei in the energy range of 100 GeV-a few 100 TeV.

There are four payloads: a plastic scintillator detector, a silicon-Tungsten Tracker, a BGO calorimeter and a neutron detector.

These instruments will variously measure the energy, charge of cosmic rays, converting gamma-rays into electron/positron pairs and then measuring, and distinguishing between electrons and protons or other heavier particles.

The probe will also seek to address the ‘electron/positron anomaly’ found by the collaborative PAMELA and FERMI-LAT satellites and other experiments, in which more positrons – the antimatter version of electrons – have been detected than expected.

With its ability to look for higher energy electrons and positrons, New Scientist writes that DAMPE may be able to determine which of two suspects - dark matter annihilations or pulsars – is responsible for the anomaly.

The probe was renamed via a public competition, with the winning name taken from the famous protagonist in the Chinese story Journey to the West.


More @ China launches world’s most sensitive dark matter hunting probe | gbtimes.com

 

[cirr]

Time for the “Beacon” of the “Free World” to get busy

 

[JSCh]

A Long March 2-D rocket carrying the Dark Matter Particle Explorer Satellite blasts off at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Jiuquan, northwest China's Gansu Province, Dec. 17, 2015. The satellite, nicknamed "Wukong" after the Monkey King with penetrating eyes in the Chinese classical fiction "Pilgrimage to the West", is the country's first space telescope in a fresh search for smoking-gun signals of dark matter, invisible material that scientists say makes up most of the universe's mass. (Xinhua/Jin Liwang)


Photo taken on Dec. 16, 2015 shows the assembly site of the single-aperture spherical telescope "FAST" in Pingtang County, southwest China's Guizhou Province. A total of 2,059 reflector panels have been installed. Each panel is an equilateral triangle with a side length of 11 meters, and has cables fixed to the back of it so that it could adjust angles and positions in synchronization with the source cabin, which is driven by cables, servomechanisms in additional to a parallel robot as a secondary adjustable system. (Photo: Xinhua/Ou Dongqu)

​

 

[bobsm]

China receives message from dark matter probe

Xinhua, December 21, 2015

Ground stations in China have received data sent by "Wukong" -- the country's first dark matter probe satellite, scientists announced Monday.

A station in Kashgar in northwest China's Xinjiang successfully tracked and received data from the Dark Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE) Satellite at 8:45 a.m. on Sunday. It took about seven minutes to receive and record the information, and the data was transferred to the National Space Science Center, according to a Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) statement.

The communication marks the establishment of a transmission link between the satellite and ground-based stations.

Stations in Beijing's Miyun and Sanya in south China's Hainan Province also tracked and received data from the satellite later on Sunday.

Scientists examined the data and believe it to be in the "correct format and of good quality," CAS said.

China on Thursday sent the country's first space telescope into space in a fresh search for signals of dark matter, invisible material that scientists say makes up most of the universe's mass.

The satellite was given the moniker "Wukong" after the Monkey King from the Chinese classical fiction "Journey to the West."

The satellite is designed to undertake a three-year space mission, but scientists hope it could last five.


China receives message from dark matter probe - China.org.cn

 

[bobsm]

China builds ground service center for satnav system

by Staff WritersZhengzhou (XNA) Dec 21, 2015

​

The data center was developed by the Information Engineering University of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) in cooperation with various domestic companies and research institutes. The university also headed the original development of Beidou.

A ground data center that will support China's independent satellite navigation system was given the go-ahead Friday to offer location based services (LBS).

Located in central China's Henan Province, the center features 63 data stations that are able to increase the resolution of images downloaded from the Beidou Navigation Satellite System from ten meters to mere millimeters.

"From chips, receivers to servers, all of the center's components are 'Made-in-China,' which makes it the first independent data system under total control of our country. It's of crucial significance to our country's infrastructure and information security," said Beidou expert Li Guangyun.

China began developing the satellite system in 1994 as an alternative to the U.S.-operated GPS. It plans to complete a constellation of 35 satellites, achieving global coverage, by 2020.X

The data center was developed by the Information Engineering University of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) in cooperation with various domestic companies and research institutes. The university also headed the original development of Beidou.

With myriad functions that include satellite navigation, precision time synchronization and speed measuring, the center's services will first be applied in traffic, water resources, agriculture and police affairs, with a project to monitor the province's freeway network soon to go live.

According to Li, a professor with the university, the Henan center, the first of its kind at the provincial level, has laid the technical foundation for the navigation system to share data with more users in the future.

China builds ground service center for satnav system

 

[cirr]

A3706/15 - THE FLW SEGMENTS OF ATS RTE CLSD ABOVE 10100M(INCLUSIVE): 1.B330: YABRAI VOR 'YBL'-MORIT. 2.W66: NUKTI- EJINAQI VOR'JNQ'. FL331 - FL999, 22 DEC 07:30 2015 UNTIL 22 DEC 09:30 2015. CREATED: 21 DEC 14:05 2015

A3705/15 - THE SEGMENT NUKTI-N4027.9E9724.1 OF ATS RTE B215 CLSD. 22 DEC 08:20 2015 UNTIL 22 DEC 09:10 2015. CREATED: 21 DEC 14:03 2015

 

[cirr]

China to launch Tianyun-1 in 2017.

The upper stage is capable of placing 10 satellites in different orbits at a time。

天运一号上面级：计划2017年下半年发射 - China Spaceflight

 

[JSCh]

Satellite network is going global

• Updated: 2015-12-23 07:56
• By Zhao Lei(China Daily)

China plans to establish a remote-sensing satellite network with global coverage by setting up more ground stations overseas, a move that will facilitate public services in China and other nations, an industry insider said on Tuesday.

Yin Liming, president of China Great Wall Industry, the country's sole provider of commercial satellite launch services, told the Third Aerospace Internationalization Forum in Beijing that China is willing to work with foreign space agencies and international organizations to establish the network, which will mainly depend on Chinese-made satellites.

"By now, we have several ground stations in South America and Africa. We also installed a data applications station on the icebreaker Xuelong," Yin said. "Next, we want to set up more stations globally, namely on every continent as well as one in the Arctic, to promote the use of Chinese remote-sensing satellites and to speed up the transmission of satellite data."

The move will enable China to provide diversified data to foreign users in a timely manner and to better serve social and economic development, he said.

"A wide range of activities including harvest forecast, disaster relief, environmental protection and maritime services will benefit from the data provided by the network," he said.

In addition, China will establish ground application centers for its Beidou Navigation Satellite System in more foreign countries to further share navigation and positioning information, Yin said.

"Having such a center will give our foreign users convenient access to Beidou's data and functions. The center will also help them train their own space professionals and develop businesses related to space technologies," he added.

Asad Farooqi, minister of scientific affairs at the Pakistani embassy in Beijing, told China Daily on the sidelines of the forum that Pakistan and China are partnering in a host of satellite data application programs in his country and that the efforts have been helping with telemedicine, agricultural forecasting, an early warning system for disaster and other public welfare services.

He said the two nations are also cooperating to train space professionals for Pakistan, adding that Pakistan is willing to take part in China's future manned space activities.

Mariano Imbert, executive director of the Bolivarian Agency for Space Activities of Venezuela's Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, said that Venezuela regards its cooperation with China in the space field as the country's most important scientific program. He also said that Venezuela hopes Chinese space contractors will share their knowhow on satellite design, testing and components.

The two countries will also deepen their collaboration in ground station operations, data applications and space debris management, he added.

zhaolei@chinadaily.com.cn

 

[JSCh]

China's dark matter probe satellite sends data home
Xinhua, December 24, 2015

China's first telescope tasked with searching for signs of the elusive dark matter formally began its quest Thursday when it sent home its first set of observation data.

A Long March 2-D rocket carrying the Dark Matter Particle Explorer Satellite blasts off at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Jiuquan, northwest China's Gansu Province, Dec. 17, 2015.[Photo/Xinhua]​

The Dark Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE) Satellite, launched exactly a week earlier, ran a power-on test before uploading its first count of high-energy electrons and cosmic rays at around 6 p.m. to the National Space Science Center under the Chinese Academy of Sciences in the Beijing suburb of Huairou.

"Everything seems perfect now... The pointing accuracy and the stability of the craft are actually several times higher than we anticipated when designing the satellite," said Chang Jin, chief scientist on the project.

He said data sent back by DAMPE was in line with experts' initial calculations, suggesting the space telescope is functioning properly, adding that the satellite will still need to undergo two months of tests and calibrations.

Nicknamed "Wukong" after the Monkey King from a 16th century Chinese classic, DAMPE was launched into sun-synchronous orbit 500 kilometers above the earth's surface last week from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. It has already circled the Earth more than 100 times.

Scientists hope it can help lift the "invisible cloak" from dark matter and shed light on the material that is said to constitute most of the mass in the universe.

Dark matter, which does not emit or reflect enough electromagnetic radiation to be observed directly, is one of the huge mysteries of modern science.

Theorized by scientists unable to understand the missing mass and strangely bent light in faraway galaxies, dark matter has become widely accepted in the physics community, even though its existence has never been concretely proven.

Scientists now believe that only around five percent of the total mass-energy of the known universe is made up of ordinary matter, while dark matter and dark energy make up the rest.

Exploration of dark matter could give scientists a clearer idea about the past and future of galaxies and the universe, and would be revolutionary for the world of physics and space science.

Wukong is designed to undertake a three-year space mission, but scientists hope it can last five years. Wukong will scan space nonstop in all directions in the first two years and then focus on areas where dark matter is most likely to be observed afterward.

Earlier reports said Wukong has the widest observation spectrum and highest energy resolution of any dark matter probe in the world.

According to Chang Jin, about 100 high-energy particles can be captured by Wukong each second while in space. Scientists will look for high-energy electrons and gamma rays among them, which could be residuals of dark matter's annihilation or decay.

Initial findings will be published as early as in the second half of 2016.

Personnels of the National Space Science Center under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), work with the Dark Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE) Satellite, "Wukong", at the science mission hall of the center in Beijing, capital of China, on Dec. 24, 2015. The satellite "Wukong", which has been given the moniker "Wukong" after the Monkey King from the Chinese classical fiction "Journey to the West," has given back the first data at 17:55 Beijing time on Thursday after it was launched 7 days ago. (Xinhua/Jin Liwang)​