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

[JSCh]

Assembly of China's Heavy-lift Long March-5 Rocket Begins
(CRI Online) 08:02, April 26, 2016

A file photo of heavy-lift Long March-5 carrier rocket. [Photo: weibo.com]​

China has started to assemble a new generation of the heavy-lift Long March-5 rocket, which is scheduled for launch later this year.

Using non-toxic and pollution-free propellant, the 60-meter-long rocket with a liftoff weight of over 800 tons will be equipped with 4 thrusters.

Yang Hujun, vice chief engineer, has spoken about the next steps for the Long March-5 project.

"After the assembly is finished in the first half of this year, it will take a little more than a month to test it to ensure that the product is in good shape. The first launch will be made after it is out of the plant in the latter half of the year. "

The new generation of rockets will come in 6 slightly different models - for manned space travel, as well as for the lunar and Martian exploration programs.

Among planned missions, is the Chang'e-5 lunar probe, which will be launched by the high-thrust carrier rocket to collect samples of moon soil by the end of 2017.

China also plans to launch a medium-sized rocket Long March-7 into low Earth orbit this year, in a bid to transport cargo for the planned space station.

The announcement coincided with China's first "Space Day" on April 24th, which marks the date in 1970 when China's first satellite, the "Dongfanghong-1" was put into orbit.

It also comes hard on the heels of China releasing details of a series of ambitious plans for space exploration in the coming years.

They include the country's Mars mission probe set to be launched around 2020, as well as the completion of China's space station in 2022.

 

[JSCh]

China to launch first satellite built by students in 2017
By Gao Yinan (People's Daily Online) 14:06, April 26, 2016

​

(File Photo)​

China plans to launch its first satellite completely designed and built by middle school students in 2017.

With a cubic structure and a weight of 10 kilograms, the low-orbit satellite will be able to facilitate two-way communication with the ground and help students carry out experiments.

Middle school students from several schools, including the Beijing Bayi School, participated in the design, construction and testing of the satellite under the guidance of space scientists.

"The next step is to invite more middle school students to design and build rockets,” said Zhou Xiubin, Deputy Director of the China Aerospace Talent Development Center.

The country marked its first National Space Day on Sunday, an occasion meant to celebrate China’s achievements in space. The day saw a range of events across the country, including tours of launch facilities, research institutes, flight control centers and even tracking ships. There were also a number of space-related lectures.

​

A student hugs an astronaut at Beihang University in Beijing on China's first National Space Day, April 24, 2016. (China Daily/Zou Hong)​

 

[JSCh]

HAIKOU, April 27 (Xinhua) -- Chinese scientists launched a sounding rocket from south China's Hainan Province in the early hours of Wednesday.

Kunpeng-1B was launched from Danzhou City at 2 a.m. by the National Space Science Center (NSSC).

The rocket fulfilled its mission of taking measurements in the upper atmosphere that will help with research of rocket sounding, high-speed flight and space tourism, said the NSSC.

 

[JSCh]

South China city gears up for satellite tourism
Xinhua, April 26, 2016

South China's Wenchang City in Hainan Province is preparing to welcome rocket-watching tourists to the country's fourth space launch center.

The city has completed about 70 percent of tourism preparation work for the Wenchang satellite center's first launch, scheduled for June, including improving the transportation network, and building more parking lots and public toilets, according to a conference on Tuesday.

China currently has three other satellite launch centers in Jiuquan, Xichang and Taiyuan, all with different functions.

Fu Yongfeng, deputy Party Secretary of Wenchang City, said the city has been gearing up to serve and ensure the safety of tourists who come for the center's first launch.

An information center for tourists will also open ahead of Wenchang's first launch, and more job opportunities will be created for locals, according to Fu.

In 2015, Wenchang received about 1.7 million domestic and overseas tourists, which generated about 1.2 billion yuan in revenue (about 185 million U.S. dollars).

 

[JSCh]

Senior officer expects moon visit by 2036
By Zhao Lei (China Daily) 14:59, April 29, 2016

China plans to send astronauts to the moon before 2036, a senior People's Liberation Army officer said in the country's first confirmation of a manned lunar exploration program.

Lieutenant General Zhang Yulin, deputy commander of the China Manned Space Program and deputy head of the Central Military Commission's Equipment Development Department, said it will require 15 to 20 years to land astronauts on the lunar surface using technologies and know-how acquired through the nation's space projects.

Zhang made the remarks on Saturday at a conference that marked the first China Space Day, according to a news release on the program's website on Thursday.

It is the first time a Chinese space official has publicly talked about the nation's aspiration to undertake a manned lunar mission. Many scientists have been calling on the government to launch such a program for years.

Pang Zhihao, a researcher of human space activity at the China Academy of Space Technology in Beijing, said that engineers must develop a super-heavy carrier rocket, a manned lunar spacecraft and a space suit suitable for a lunar mission.

"The United States accomplished its manned lunar missions because it had the powerful Saturn V, while the former Soviet Union failed because its N1 rocket wasn't up to the task," he said. "To send our astronauts to the moon, we will need a mighty rocket capable of lifting a payload of at least 100 metric tons into low Earth orbit. That is why our scientists have begun to develop the Long March 9."

He also said a manned lunar spacecraft will be much different from China's existing satellite-based manned spacecraft. It must be able to conduct in-orbit docking and separation as well as make a soft landing, followed by an ascent from the lunar surface.

Moreover, the astronauts' suits for lunar missions will be lighter but technologically sophisticated compared with those used for extravehicular activities, Pang said.

He said the Chang'e-5 unmanned lunar probe, which is scheduled for launch in 2017, will help test technologies and equipment for the manned lunar mission.

Zhang Bonan, chief designer of China's manned spacecraft at China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp, said China has had the economic and technological ability to send astronauts to the moon, and it won't take long for the nation to achieve its goal once the government approves the mission.

However, he said Chinese engineers should not underestimate the difficulty of such a project.

 

[JSCh]

World's Largest Radio Telescope "FAST" to Be Completed
Published on Apr 28, 2016

The lens installation of the world's biggest single caliber radio telescope "FAST" in southwest China's Guizhou Province has been finished 96.27 percent as of Wednesday.

A total of 4,284 reflector lenses, an equilateral triangle with a side length of 11 meters each, have been installed on the frame. Over 9,000 tight wires were used to hoist those lenses.

"The (hoisting) devices work on an arc-shaped orbit, the first of its kind in China. We complete two pickups airborne and have to adjust them for installing all the 4,450 lenses of 186 varieties," said Zhou Gong, engineer in charge of reflector lens hoisting, FAST project.

The 500-meter aperture spherical radio telescope, known as "a huge eye to watching the sky" is expected to be completed by September 2016.

Upon completion, the telescope will be the world's largest of its kind, overtaking Puerto Rico's Arecibo Observatory, which is 300 meters in diameter.

"Now we can see pulsar, crab-shaped nebula and neutral hydrogen in the Milky Way Galaxy. So the optical path works but it's not agile enough. When the 'eye' opens, the vision will go farther," said Li Di, chief scientist of Radio Telescope Department with the National Astronomical Observatory, Chinese Academy of Science (CAS).

Construction of the FAST began in March 2011 with an investment of 1.2 billion yuan.

 

[JSCh]

Five hundred meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) construction animation.
From FAST project team of National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Science.

 

[cirr]

 

[JSCh]

English version of the above from Cirr.

A simple and practicable communication method is proposed to solve radio blackout problem during space-craft’s re-entry
Apr 13, 2016

(Please note that the scientific part of the news is translated from the excerpt of Chinese news, so it may not be exact. Please refer to http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4939700 for the original manuscript.)

A simple and practicable method is proposed recently by a research team led by Professor LI Xiaoping in the School of Aerospace Science and Technology to solve the radio blackout problem during space-craft’s re-entry. The proposed method is verified in a prototype of an adaptive communication system. It provides new possibility to maintain continuous communication during the reentry of spacecrafts and it could also be applied to the supersonic aircrafts of the speeds exceeding Mach 10.

The new discovery is published in a paper titled Re-entry communication through a plasma sheath using standing wave detection and adaptive data rate control in Journal of Applied Physics.

“The communications blackouts that affect spacecraft re-entering the Earth's atmosphere, which are also known as radio blackouts, ionization blackouts, or reentry blackouts, are caused by an envelope of ionized air around the craft, created by the heat from the compression of the atmosphere by the craft. The ionized air interferes with radio signals. For the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo spacecraft, such communications blackouts lasted for several minutes. Gemini 2, for example, endured such a blackout for four minutes, beginning at 9 minutes 5 seconds into the flight.”(Quoted from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communications_blackout)

YANG Liwei, the first astronaut in China, recorded in his memoir (Tian Di Jiu Chong) the terrifying experience during the reentry of Shenzhou Five when he had to face the unknown and even death by himself because the radio communication with earth was completely cut off.

“Strictly speaking, the radio blackout does not necessarily mean the total cut-off of signals” introduces by one of the authors of the manuscript, Associate Professor XIE Kai. Instead, it is caused because the channel capacity is reduced by the transmission attenuation caused by the plasma sheath. The new method proposes a self-adaptive re-entry telemetry communication system that adjusts the information rate to accommodate the varying channel capacity so that the continuous transfer of small amounts of critical data, such as inertial navigation information is guaranteed. Besides, there is no need to modify the transmitter assembly, and the cache buffer can be shared with the existing retransmission storage system because the adaptive control of the proposed system does not require a feedback channel. Therefore, the system will maintain good compatibility with a traditional retransmission system. The method is thus applicable to data transmission in a single direction, such as that of a one-way telemetry system, without additional costs.

The latest finding is one the accomplishment achieved by the research team. Over 30 papers have been published in related journals such as Physic of Plasmas、IEEE Trans. on Plasma Science, etc. and about 20 patents have been granted.

A simple and practicable communication method is proposed to solve radio blackout problem during space-craft’s re-entry | Xidian University

 

[Bussard Ramjet]

English version of the above from Cirr.

A simple and practicable communication method is proposed to solve radio blackout problem during space-craft’s re-entry
Apr 13, 2016

(Please note that the scientific part of the news is translated from the excerpt of Chinese news, so it may not be exact. Please refer to http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4939700 for the original manuscript.)

A simple and practicable method is proposed recently by a research team led by Professor LI Xiaoping in the School of Aerospace Science and Technology to solve the radio blackout problem during space-craft’s re-entry. The proposed method is verified in a prototype of an adaptive communication system. It provides new possibility to maintain continuous communication during the reentry of spacecrafts and it could also be applied to the supersonic aircrafts of the speeds exceeding Mach 10.

The new discovery is published in a paper titled Re-entry communication through a plasma sheath using standing wave detection and adaptive data rate control in Journal of Applied Physics.

“The communications blackouts that affect spacecraft re-entering the Earth's atmosphere, which are also known as radio blackouts, ionization blackouts, or reentry blackouts, are caused by an envelope of ionized air around the craft, created by the heat from the compression of the atmosphere by the craft. The ionized air interferes with radio signals. For the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo spacecraft, such communications blackouts lasted for several minutes. Gemini 2, for example, endured such a blackout for four minutes, beginning at 9 minutes 5 seconds into the flight.”(Quoted from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communications_blackout)

YANG Liwei, the first astronaut in China, recorded in his memoir (Tian Di Jiu Chong) the terrifying experience during the reentry of Shenzhou Five when he had to face the unknown and even death by himself because the radio communication with earth was completely cut off.

“Strictly speaking, the radio blackout does not necessarily mean the total cut-off of signals” introduces by one of the authors of the manuscript, Associate Professor XIE Kai. Instead, it is caused because the channel capacity is reduced by the transmission attenuation caused by the plasma sheath. The new method proposes a self-adaptive re-entry telemetry communication system that adjusts the information rate to accommodate the varying channel capacity so that the continuous transfer of small amounts of critical data, such as inertial navigation information is guaranteed. Besides, there is no need to modify the transmitter assembly, and the cache buffer can be shared with the existing retransmission storage system because the adaptive control of the proposed system does not require a feedback channel. Therefore, the system will maintain good compatibility with a traditional retransmission system. The method is thus applicable to data transmission in a single direction, such as that of a one-way telemetry system, without additional costs.

The latest finding is one the accomplishment achieved by the research team. Over 30 papers have been published in related journals such as Physic of Plasmas、IEEE Trans. on Plasma Science, etc. and about 20 patents have been granted.

A simple and practicable communication method is proposed to solve radio blackout problem during space-craft’s re-entry | Xidian University

This has already been posted before. (Not now, around 3-4 months back)

Cirr, why don't you make a special thread where you can post all the stuff that is happening in the industrial and scientific domain in China, taken from the Chinese media.

 

[JSCh]

This has already been posted before. (Not now, around 3-4 months back)

There are many ideas on overcoming blackout, maybe it is not the same research?

 

[Bussard Ramjet]

There are many ideas on overcoming blackout, maybe it is not the same research?

It is the same thread. The same idea, maybe a further study on that idea.

 

[JSCh]

It is the same thread. The same idea, maybe a further study on that idea.

There is a different previous design from China with special antenna. This one claim to be better,

Besides, there is no need to modify the transmitter assembly, and the cache buffer can be shared with the existing retransmission storage system because the adaptive control of the proposed system does not require a feedback channel.

Source: https://defence.pk/threads/chinese-space-capabilities.84216/page-83#ixzz47YHChBWp

 

[果壳军事]

Industrial production of CL-20, the most powerful explosive, was achieved in China. BIT was rewarded the Defense Science and Technology Progress special-class Award in early 2016. The fielding of CL-20 in solid propellants has made a significant improvement in the rocket thrust.

 

[Beast]

Industrial production of CL-20, the most powerful explosive, was achieved in China. BIT was rewarded the Defense Science and Technology Progress special-class Award in early 2016. The fielding of CL-20 in soild propellants has made a significant improvement in the rocket thrust.

This means DF-31A or DF-41 can fly further in upgraded version