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

[sweetgrape]

Lunar Mission Expected Next Year For China--The rover with a nuclear-powered battery
Lunar Mission Targeted By China In 2013 - Space News - redOrbit

China is growing up its space industry quickly, as the country’s state-run media outlets announced today that the country is setting its eyes on the Moon again by next year.

China News Service said the Chang’e 3 mission would be launching in 2013, helping to carry out surveys on the surface of the moon.

Ouyang Ziyuan, chief scientist of China’s lunar exploration program, said that the Chang’e 3 mission includes a lander and rover that will carry out exploration activities for the first time in world history.

The rover will also be carrying a nuclear-powered battery that will help it last throughout the cold lunar nights. China media reported that this battery could last for up to 30 years. During the night time, the rover will go into “hibernating,” but when the sun rises the solar energy will “wake” the lander and the rover.

The country launched its first moon orbiter, the Chang’e 1, back in 2007, which took images of the surface and analyzed the distribution of elements.

Xinhua news agency reported that Chang’e 3 will hover about 13 feet above the lunar surface, then the engine will cut out, and it will drop to the surface.

The lunar rover will carry a “radar” with it, and while its operating it can scan several hundred feet under the surface, according to Xinhua.

China’s space agency has kept busy in the last decade, including laying the groundwork for the country’s very own space station.

Xinhua reported on Sunday that a next-generation engine with a 120-ton-thrust using liquid oxygen (LOX) and kerosene was successfully tested.

This engine will enable the Long March 5 carrier rocket to place a 25-ton payload into near-Earth orbit, or place a 14-ton payload in geostationary orbit.

Sunday’s tests included seeing how the engine would respond to rotational speeds of nearly 20,000 revolutions per minute, and temperatures of 5,432 degrees Fahrenheit.

Luan Xiting, deputy head of the institute, told Xinhua that the new engine’s thrust will enable the country to assemble the space station, and would also help the third stage of the lunar exploration program, which includes Chang’e 5. This phase of the lunar explorer program will see that Change’5 returns about 5 pounds of soil back to the Earth.

 

[cirr]

CZ（Long-March）-11 project initiated。

 

[sweetgrape]

Chinese firm to send Spanish rover to moon in 2014
Chinese firm to send Spanish rover to moon in 2014 | China's Great Science and Technology
http://www.chinatechgadget.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/lm-rocket-300x209.jpg


2012-08-18 — China Great Wall Industry Corporation will send a Spanish rover to the moon in June 2014, according to the Galactic Suite company which heads the “Barcelona Moon Team” that is competing in the Google Lunar X Prize contest to the moon.

The rover will be launched by a Long March 2C/CTS-2 rocket from China’s Xichang Satellite Launch Center.

The Barcelona Moon Team is the only team based in Spain to take part in the Google Lunar X Prize, which challenges participants to create a robot that can move over the lunar surface and send live images back to Earth before December 2015.

 

[sweetgrape]

China To Build Space Hard X-Ray Telescope
China To Build Space Hard X-Ray Telescope | China's Great Science and Technology

2012-08-25 — China is preparing to launch its first space telescope between 2014 and 2016, a top Chinese astronomer, Su Dingqiang (苏定&#24378, has stated.

Su made the announcement on Wednesday at the inaugural ceremony of the 28th general assembly of the International Astronomical Union. Su said at the Beijing conference that the hard X-ray telescope will be used to study black holes.

Su, a former president of the Chinese Astronomical Society who is now attached to the Chinese Academy of Sciences, next declared that China will develop a satellite designated as the Dark Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE) to detect high energy electrons as well as another telescope to study the solar magnetic field.

Also on the cards is a joint Sino-French space mission to probe gamma-ray bursts (grb).

In another development, Su announced that Chinese scientists are planning to establish an Antarctic astronomical observatory.

Finally, a Chinese firm will fly a Spanish rover to the moon in June 2014.

The Spanish rover, which belongs to the Barcelona Moon team and is competing for the Google Lunar X Prize contest to the moon, will be launched by a Long March 2C/CTS-2 rocket from China’s Xichang Satellite Launch Center.

 

[cirr]

Physicists Foretell Quantum Internet With Entangled Photon Router

By Cade Metz

08.10.12

When we make the move to quantum computers, we’ll need a quantum internet. And that’s why a team of researchers at Tsinghua University in China have built what they call the world’s first quantum router.

Often called the holy grail of the tech world, a quantum computer uses the seemingly magical principles of quantum mechanics to achieve speeds well beyond today’s machines. At the moment, these counterintuitive contraptions are little more than lab experiments, but eventually, they’ll instantly handle calculations that would take years on today’s machines.

The trick is that whereas the bits of a classical computer can only hold one value at any given time, a quantum bit — or qubit — can hold multiple simultaneous values, thanks to the superposition principle of quantum mechanics.

But if we build a world of quantum computers, we’ll also need a way of transporting quantum data — the multiple values so delicately held in those qubits — from machine to machine. Led by post doctoral researcher Xiuying Chang, the Tsinghua University team seeks to provide such transportation, and though their work is still largely theoretical, they’ve taken an important step in the right direction.

“Their router isn’t practical right now,” says Ari Dyckovsky, a researcher with National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) who specializes in quantum entanglement, “but it adds another reason that people should keep researching in this area.”

Yes, there are already ways of moving quantum data between two places. Thanks to quantum entanglement — another mind-bending principle of quantum mechanics — you can move data between two quantum systems without a physical connection between them. And you can send quantum data across a single fiber-optic cable using individual photons.

But for a true quantum internet, you need a way of routing quantum data between disparate networks — i.e., from one fiber-optic cable to another — and at the moment, that’s not completely possible. The problem is that if you look at a qubit, it’s no longer a qubit.

In a classic computer, a transistor stores a single “bit” of information. If the transistor is “on,” for instance, it holds a “1.” If it’s “off,” it holds a “0.” But with quantum computer, information is represented by a system that can an exist in two states at the same time. Thanks to the superposition principle, such a qubit can store a “0″ and “1″ simultaneously. But if you try to read those values, the qubit “decoheres.” It turns into a classical bit capable of storing only one value. To build a viable quantum computer, researchers must work around this problem — and they must solve similar problems in building a quantum internet.

The internet is all about routing data between disparate networks. A router uses a “control signal” to route a “data signal” from network to network. The trouble with a quantum router is that if you read the control signal, you break it. But in a paper recently published to the net, Xiuying Chang and her team describe an experiment in which they build a quantum router — complete with a quantum control signal — using two entangled photons.

“This leads to more freedom to control the route of quantum data,” Luming Duan, who worked on the paper, tells Wired, “and I believe it is a useful device for future quantum internet.”

As described by Technology Review, the team begins the experiment with a photon that exists in two quantum states at the same time: both a horizontal and a vertical polarization. Then they convert this single photon into two entangled protons — which means they’re linked together even though they’re physically separate — and both of these are also in a superposition of two quantum states. One photon serves as the control signal, and it routes the other photon — the data signal.

The rub is that the method isn’t suited to large-scale quantum routing. You can’t expand it beyond the photons. “It is a nice check that coherence is maintained while converting between polarization and path entanglement, which will be an important operation for a large-scale quantum network,” says Steven Olmschenk, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy at Denison University. “But as the authors are careful to point out, the implementation that they have demonstrated cannot be scaled up, and is missing some of the key — and hard — features that will be necessary in a more general implementation.”

In other words, the experiment only transmits one qubit at a time — and the quantum internet needs a bit more bandwidth than that.

But this will come.

Physicists Foretell Quantum Internet With Entangled Photon Router | Wired Enterprise | Wired.com

 

[sweetgrape]

China to build more telescopes and probes for astronomical observations
China to build more telescopes and probes for astronomical observations | China's Great Science and Technology

2012-09-01 — Chinese scholars have been making astronomical observations for thousands of years, but the country is a relative latecomer to the field’s modern incarnation. That is changing fast, though, as Cui Xiangqun, the president of the Chinese Astronomical Society, explained to Nature at the triennial general assembly of the International Astronomical Union in Beijing, which runs from 20 to 31 August.

China is hosting the general assembly for the first time. How significant is that?

It is a testament to the growing recognition of the achievements and potential of Chinese astronomy. For a long time, Chinese astronomers had no access to sophisticated telescopes and lagged behind countries with better infrastructure. This has changed since the 1990s, when astronomy in China opened up to the outside world and the government started to invest in infrastructure for science and technology.

What has that investment done for astronomy?

Observation is central to astronomy, and China needs world-class telescopes to move forward in the field. In 2008, we completed an optical telescope called the Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST) in Xinglong, Hebei province. It can see deep into space and at the same time offers a wide view, which has shed fresh light on galaxy formation.

Three years ago, we started building a 500-metre Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope in Pingtang, Guizhou province. When it is completed in 2016 it will be the largest single-aperture radio telescope in the world.

And since early 2008, we have been building an observatory at the Dome A site in the Antarctic (see ‘Chinese astronomers look to Antarctic&#8217. The first of three Antarctic Survey Telescopes, installed in January, should yield results soon.

What are your plans for the future?

We hope to build LAMOST South at a site [not yet agreed] in the Southern Hemisphere to complement its counterpart in Xinglong, enabling all-sky global observations. There are plans for a 4-metre telescope to study solar activity with high resolution and sensitivity. The Dome A observatory will also have a 2.5-metre survey telescope called the Kunlun Dark Universe Telescope, which will search for Earth-like planets outside the Solar System; and the 5-metre Dome A Terahertz Explorer-5, which will study star formation. These cutting-edge telescopes will have an unprecedented view of the Universe from the best observing site on Earth (see ‘China aims high from the bottom of the world&#8217.

Meanwhile, there will be a significant emphasis on space-based astronomy in the coming years. China will launch its first astronomy satellite, the Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope, by 2016 to study black holes. The Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Purple Mountain Observatory in Nanjing is developing the lead probe for the country’s Dark Matter Detection Programme, and the planned Deep Space Solar Observatory will host a 1-metre telescope to study the Sun’s magnetic field.

How important is international collaboration?

We are all citizens of the global village and scientific endeavours should have no national boundaries. Exchange of ideas and technology with our foreign colleagues has been crucial for China’s scientific achievements in the past few decades. The Antarctic observatory on Dome A, for instance, is the result of a joint effort that includes China, Australia and the United States.

International collaboration will continue to take centre stage. China is now part of the international effort to build a 30-metre optical and infrared telescope in Mauna Kea in Hawaii. It is also collaborating with researchers in Switzerland on a black-hole probe, which will be housed on [the Chinese space-station module] Tiangong-2 when it launches in 2014 to detect γ-ray bursts caused by merging black holes or collapsing stars.

What are the main challenges for Chinese astronomers?

The key challenge is to translate world-class telescopes in to world-class science. There is an urgent need to better coordinate resources and research efforts to make the best use of existing facilities across China [those resources are currently coordinated by the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ National Astronomy Observatories of China]. Researchers at all levels need to have access to the telescopes and to grasp the art of data mining in frontier studies.

There are also institutional and cultural issues that must be resolved before China can become genuinely innovative, in astronomy or in other disciplines. Scientists should have a greater say in funding decisions, and we have to overcome the prevailing culture of seeking quick success and short-term gains. The education system also needs to shift its emphasis from memorization and coping with exams to fostering creativity and critical thinking.

 

[xuxu1457]

China launches another 2 navigation system satellites - Xinhua | English.news.cn

China launches another 2 navigation system satellites
2012-09-19 11:05:00

XICHANG, Sichuan, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- China successfully launched another two satellites into space for its indigenous global navigation and positioning network at 3:10 a.m. Beijing time on Wednesday.

They were the 14th and 15th satellites for the Beidou, or Compass, system. The satellites, launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China's Sichuan Province, were boosted by a Long March-3B carrier rocket.

Since it started to provide services on a trial basis on Dec. 27, 2011, the Beidou system has been stable and its services have been increased and improved, said a spokesman for the China Satellite Navigation Office.

The system has been used in transportation, weather forecasting, marine fisheries, forestry, telecommunications, hydrological monitoring and mapping, according to the spokesman.

China started to build up its own satellite navigation system to break its dependence on the U.S. Global Positioning System in 2000.

Between October 2000 and May 2003, the country set up a regional satellite navigation system after launching three Beidou geostationary satellites.

Beidou-1 can not meet growing demand, so China decided to set up a more functional Beidou-2 regional and global navigation system, Qi Faren, former chief designer for Shenzhou spaceships, said in an interview in 2011.

From April 2007 to April this year, China launched another 13 orbiters to form its Beidou-2 system, which will eventually consist of 35 satellites.

Three Beidou satellites were sent into space early this year. The 11th satellite was boosted by a Long March-3C carrier rocket on Feb. 25, while the 12th and 13th were sent by a Long March-3B carrier on April 30.

The network will provide satellite navigation, time and short message services for Asia-Pacific regions within 2012 and global services by 2020.

Editor: Chen Zhi


XICHANG, Sichuan, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- China successfully launched another two satellites into space for its indigenous global navigation and positioning network at 3:10 a.m. Beijing Time Wednesday, the launch center said.

They were the 14th and 15th satellites for the Beidou system, or Compass system. The satellites, launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in the southwestern Sichuan Province, were boosted by a Long March-3B carrier rocket.

 

[Donation]

http://www.defence.pk/forums/chinese-defence/187540-change-2-has-left-l2-probe-asteroid-toutatis.html

 

[KRAIT]

Congrats to Chinese Space Agency. We need more research in space.

Can someone list down future Space programs ? Also about Chinese Space Station and the progress that will be made.

 

[Donation]

本网讯（高艺明）2012年8月17日，随着101所试验区传来震撼人心的轰鸣声，我院北京11所设计的大推力氢氧发动机500秒长程热试车取得圆满成功。
大推力氢氧发动机具有“高能、零污染”的优点，集超低温、超高温、高压、高转速、高功率密度于一体，代表着运载火箭先进动力发展方向。新一代大运载CZ-5火箭芯一级采用大推力氢氧发动机作为主动力装置，发动机于2002年立项研制，历经十年艰苦攻关，目前，发动机关键技术全部突破，累计试车22000秒。此次试车成功标志着2014年CZ-5火箭首飞发动技术状态已经确定，为后续投产交付奠定了坚实基础。
随着空间技术和空间应用的发展，国家开始着手论证新一代运载火箭方案，我院抓住机遇密切配合，随着论证工作的深入，具有“一个系列，两种发动机，三个模块”特点的新一代运载火箭方案逐步确立，大推力氢氧发动机便是两种发动机中的一种。
2001年12月是个值得永久纪念的日子，大推力氢氧发动机研制立项获得批复，发动机关键技术攻关全面展开。
涡轮泵是发动机的心脏，是研制难度最大的组件之一，北京11所组织召开了一个跨行业的由国内一流知名转子动力学专家和发动机专家组成的技术研讨会，确定了工作方案。
发动机零部件结构复杂，设计人员齐心协力，集智攻关突破了氢/氧变螺距泵诱导轮、氢/氧高扬程多级泵等10多项关键技术，首次在发动机大尺寸、高低温、高压管路中应用热推制管路成形工艺，解决了发动机总体布局和管路设计难题，大大推进了研制进程。
为了在有限的经费条件下尽快突破关键技术，设计人员借鉴国内外已有型号研制经验，对发动机研制进行了多因素权衡优化，发挥“一机多试”的优势，用一台发动机成功进行了15次累计5346秒试车，探索了快、好、省的研制新途径，跨越式推进了研制工作。
大推力氢氧发动机试验在101所进行，该所改建了4#试验台，采用组件试验、缩比试验和发动机分系统、全系统试验相结合的方法，使发动机主要组件得到逐步考验。伴随着试车的一次次轰鸣声，研制队伍也经历了严寒酷暑的考验。第一台发动机热试车就碰到了北京一年中最冷的天，露天的试验台上零下20℃，设计人员和试验人员顶着呼啸的北风在试验台工作，手脚都红肿麻木了，没有一个人叫苦叫累。
大推力氢氧发动机在大家心目中是百分之百成功的型号，但是2007年却遭遇了国内外罕见的重大技术障碍，先后四次试车结果不理想，直接影响到整个研制进展。
严峻的形势面前，北京11所从源头做起，细究每一个可能存在的问题，从故障现象来看，设计人员初步认为是推力室面板连接强度不足导致，对发动机推力室从强度分析、振动分析，以及产品结构设计等方面上进行了改进，但是随后的试车又出现了故障，归零工作再次陷入困境。
随后一年时间里，大量分析改进工作的深入和新的测量手段的应用，研制队伍最终把目光定位在不稳定燃烧因素上，提出了“一大四小”的改进方案，“一大改进”是采用隔板喷嘴，“四小改进”是通过改进推力室结构，进一步提高面板连接强度。在国内首次开展了氢氧发动机推力室隔板稳定装置的研制及应用，在后续试车中得到了完美验证。
如歌岁月里，风雨兼程一路颠簸。2009年12月，发动机转入试样研制阶段，标志着我国氢氧发动机的设计、生产、试验技术步入了新台阶。
发动机研制工作由北京11所技术抓总，参与研制和配套的单位涉及到科学院等全国30余家研制机构。通过开展研制工作，不但实现了我国氢氧发动机推力由8吨到70吨的跨越，而且有力推动了材料工艺、低温工程、氢能利用等相关领域的科技创新和技术进步。
大推力氢氧发动机研制工作凝结着各级领导的殷切希望，凝结着研制队伍的辛勤汗水，是创造机遇、抓住机遇的成功范例，是自强不息、开拓创新结出的硕果。随着液体火箭发动机技术的不断发展，更大推力的重型运载火箭220吨氢氧发动机研制已经提上了日程，北京11所将向着更高更远的目标，以新热情，新干劲，铸就新辉煌。邹 昕/摄

文章来源：航天六院

 

[applesauce]

^^ in english its about the engine test for the next generation rockets

 

[XName]

Congrats to Chinese Space Agency. We need more research in space.

Can someone list down future Space programs ? Also about Chinese Space Station and the progress that will be made.

As far as I know,
shenzhou spacecraft program:1992~(test live-support,space walk,docking,etc.shenzhou-1~9 launched in 1999~2012)
tiangong program:?~2016:(test-bed module for space station,tiangong-1~3 launched in 2011,2013,2015)
space station:2016~2020(60t.one Core Modul,two Experiment Modules,one shenzhou spacecraft and one cargo spacecraft )
chang'e program:2003~2017(Lunar Exploration Program,chang'e-1~5 launched in 2007,2010,2013,?,2017.chang'e 3~4 deploy moon rovers and chang'e-5 with up to two kilograms of lunar samples being returned to Earth)
moon landing and moon base:2017?~(don't sure,heard the news on TV)
and mars mission no timetable(YINGHUO-1 failed in 2011)
Shenzhou program - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tiangong program - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Chinese Lunar Exploration Program - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

supporting systems:
tianlian data tracking and relay communications satellite system (3 sats, launched in 2008,2011,2012)
longmarch launch vehicles(longmarch-2F,3,5,9)
and robotic arm(assemble space station)
Tianlian I - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

other systems:
beidou navigation system(or compass finished by 2020,35 sats)
global high-resolution earth observing system(finished by 2020,I think it's spy sats)
Beidou navigation system - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
China to build high-resolution earth observing system - People's Daily Online

this is a website about chinese space station and space program
Chinese Space Station - DragonInSpace.com

 

[XName]

Mars experiment crew return to 'earth'
The six crew members of the Mars500 experiment - a 520-day simulation of space travel to the red planet - ended their voluntary isolation on Friday, greeting eager family members and the press in Moscow.

six crew from Russia,France,Italy and China.
Mars experiment crew return to 'earth' - RUSSIA - FRANCE 24

 

[shuttler]

six crew from Russia,France,Italy and China.
Mars experiment crew return to 'earth' - RUSSIA - FRANCE 24

excellent! we have broken the nasa jinx faster than expected!

 

[cirr]

YFX，China's X-series Flight Vehicles：

http://210.82.31.84:9000/rp/fs/cp/98/36/20120929/3/content_1.htm

wow。。。。

航天事业是一项复杂的系统工程，研发中心作为一院预研创新的总体，在技术能力突破、领域拓展的前瞻性、全局性探索中，践行“往前走一步，往后走一步”的策略。

“往前走一步”，就是要不断探索新技术，开拓新领域。在这一过程之中，研发中心提倡进行多种技术途径的对比。在新概念飞行器、量子通信、新型动力技术等方面开展关键技术攻关，通过多学科优化、精细化新技术指标等方式，为预研探索项目最终走向工程实践打好基础。

“往后走一步”，就是要推动背景型号走向演示验证，利用仿真实验，让设计指标更加细化和尽可能准确。研发中心推行“样机战略”，以YFX为中国的X系列飞行器，通过演示验证让纸面论证的技术方案得到验证，找出设计方案的薄弱环节，不断提升技术能力，以技术能力的不断突破、新领域的不断拓展，为航天事业持续向前发展提供不竭的动力。

美国研制的X-37B可重复使用空天飞行器、X-51A高超技术验证器，引发了人们对其X系列试验飞行器的关注。凭借这些科研“排头兵”，美国在航空航天领域的研究长期处于世界领先地位，不断抢占着高科技的“制高点”。面对如此严峻形势，研发中心就如何实施“样机战略”进行了探索和尝试，并形成了系列化样机的基本规划，以YFX为关键技术验证器，将预研探索的关键技术通过研发验证平台加以验证。目前，部分样机系列大型试验项目已取得圆满成功。