China's Space Program, News & Views

Resource extraction on the moon might some day be of value in the development of longer range space travel. Most unlikely for export to Earth and certainly not soon after 2020. The story is meant to enable Mr. Bigelow to pump money from some pockets or, more probably, the US Treasury. His description of the legalities is also plainly wrong.

That is an article written by an idiot for other, bigger idiots. Freedom of expression be screwed, we (as in humanity) desperately need to set a bottom limit for what can be published to stop this kind of trash poisoning people's minds.

Agree, free speech and democracy would be great if most people weren't idiots

Well the primary purpose of that article was to scare Americans into supporting the US space program. Same boogeyman tactic used to get military funding.

Catching up with whats planed for Change2 A New deep space Mission?

New deep space mission for China probe - Technology & science - Space - Space.com - msnbc.com

China's second moon probe is parked at a stable spot in deep space, called a Lagrangian point, as part of a new mission to study the sun and Earth's magnetic field.

The multi-tasking spacecraft, called the Chang'e 2, completed its moon mapping mission earlier this year. Its new mission may be a signal of China's expanding prowess in space — not only for scientific purposes, but perhaps for showcasing strategic intentions, experts say.

The route from the moon to L2 — Lagrange point 2, a stable point on the side of the Earth opposite the sun — took Chang'e 2 all of 77 days. The spacecraft departed the moon in early June and parked at its new address in late August. At L2, Chang'e 2 is about 932,056 miles (1.5 million kilometers) from Earth.

Deep space exploration
China's State Administration for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense has heralded the repurposed probe, which has made China's space agency the third ever to visit a Lagrangian point. Missions launched by the European Space Agency and NASA also visited Lagrangian points.
CSLEP
A China Lunar Exploration Program graphic shows the progress of China's Chang'e 2 moon probe from its lunar orbit out to the L2 Lagrange point 1.5 million km from Earth.

Liu Tongjie, the deputy director for the second-phase project of the China Lunar Exploration Program, said Chang'e 2 new position allows it to tackle two scientific tasks: observing the Earth's magnetic field and charting solar storms, according to a China Daily report.

Yet another assignment for October is for Chang'e 2 to help assess the capability of two large deep space communications antennas in China, Liu said.

One antenna, 115 feet (35 meters) in diameter, is being built at Kashgar in the northwest. The second antenna is nearly twice the size, with a diameter of nearly 210 feet (64 meters), and is being built at Jiamusi in the northeast.
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These antennas will be part of China's deep space network, reportedly to take shape in 2016 and built to handle possible future exploration of Jupiter and the poles of the sun.

Clever maneuvers
"It doesn’t take much energy for Chang'e to get to Earth-sun L2, and once you're there, it takes very little energy to go to other Lagrange points," said Dan Lester of the Department of Astronomy at the University of Texas. "So it actually makes a lot of sense for China to exercise its abilities in doing this."

Lester told Space that getting this kind of experience under your belt is really handy if you want to do clever maneuvers in the general vicinity of the Earth-moon system with little energy.
China Lunar Exploration Program
This photo, taken by China's Chang'e 2 lunar probe in October 2010, shows a crater in the moon's Bay of Rainbows. The image is one of the first released to the public by China's space agency.

"It would be interesting to hear the plot here, but just the decision to do this comes as no big surprise," Lester added. "I wouldn’t interpret it as any more than an exercise in navigational ability and station-keeping. Not real easy to do … so it's a good test."

L2 is where many Western science spacecraft are stationed, Lester noted, and after spending some time there, Chang'e 2 could flip out to other Lagrange points.

Orbital mechanics
"It can be retargeted to some interesting bodies, using lunar gravity-assist maneuvers," said Robert Farquhar, a leading U.S. expert on orbital mechanics and author of the new book: "Fifty Years on the Space Frontier: Halo Orbits, Comets, Asteroids, and More."

"I have some ideas where Chang'e 2 could go, and I'm hoping to present my plan to the Chinese in the near future," Farquhar said.

Edward Belbruno of Princeton said the movement of Chang'e 2 "illustrates that China is mastering some subtle orbit dynamics and capabilities to have a spacecraft maneuver away from the moon for little fuel to go to Earth-sun L1." Belbruno masterminded a new approach to space travel by finding low-energy pathways using unstable chaos and dynamical systems, called weak stability boundary theory.

Chang'e 2's movement also involves capabilities for deep space tracking and communication out to 1.5 million kilometers from the Earth, Belbruno pointed out, where L2 and another Lagrange point, L1, are located.

China's mastery of reaching L2 is important for several reasons, Belbruno said. These points are far from the Earth, he said, and spacecraft located there can perform scientific measurements and observations in a benign environment.

"Perhaps more significantly, low-energy pathways lead away from L1 and L2, which can be exploited to send spacecraft to Jupiter, Mars, asteroids, for less fuel. They make an excellent staging point," Belbruno said. "Placing spacecraft at these points gives one a high ground, so to speak." Not only would they be interesting places to position a space station, but from there China could perform planetary exploration, both in piloted and automated mode.

"The fact China has sent their lunar spacecraft to (L2) shows a long-term commitment to space exploration," Belbruno said.
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Space military implications?
Dean Cheng, a research fellow on Chinese political and security affairs at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative public policy think tank, sees Chang'e 2's orbital gymnastics as part national pride, part scientific curiosity and part political move: doing things at a First World level.

"Space, with its high visibility and obvious high-tech aura, is a major opportunity to do this," he said.

But to what extent could Lagrange points also fortify military space operations for China ?

In terms of strategic military use of L-points, "there are some interesting ideas (though from our side) about the utility of L-points as parking spots for reserve in-orbit spares and possibly for anti-satellites coming in from outer orbits, taking out GEOsats (geostationary satellites) and the like from unexpected angles," Cheng said.

He said the possibility of in-orbit spares probably merits further investigation.

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"If you think that there could be a conflict, and you had the initiative on when it might start, you might want to deploy systems farther out, where they’d be harder to monitor, in anticipation that your in-orbit systems may be attrited through a variety of means, and it'll be hard to replace them," Cheng said.

Given any worry that launch sites, production sites or other infrastructure might be targeted — and not just physically, but through cyber and other means — then you definitely might want to pre-deploy systems into orbit or farther out, Cheng said.

"This is speculation, however, and not necessarily based upon specific Chinese claims or writings," Cheng emphasized.

I never get why pieces on CNSA's space developments has a paragraph or so linked with the PLA... I mean it's hardly something unique given USAF/NASA relationship >_>

Originally Posted by Bltizo

I never get why pieces on CNSA's space developments has a paragraph or so linked with the PLA... I mean it's hardly something unique given USAF/NASA relationship >_>

Become western media has an irrational fear of china. The latest posts on how china plans to "own" the moon are laughable.what are they supposed to do, launch an army there too to massacre everyone else who tries to land? I mean, seriously. A lot of sources call tiangong a military space station...really, just because it has earth observation telescopes? Sure the telescope could aid in military reconaissance, but that is not it's only use, there are dozens of things it can be used for. Besides, the ussr proved that military space stations were impractical.

Yeh THe reason why China has her own spacelab is to find out whether mung beans will sprout in space.

WEll one needs to be adept at servicing these things etc, one day there may be a need to build a space port thingy to build larger ships for futher manned deep space missions

And the giant tomatoes too.

Build a space rail or elevator to help build bigger space ships with orbital construction station. NOVA | Space Elevator

Originally Posted by Red Moon

And the giant tomatoes too.

Right. With a space station, it's quite convenient to place different plant seeds out of the "window" for irradiation in order to, hopefully, produce some of the out-the-world plants. Some prickless smoothskin pineapple or seedless rambutans would be great.

Originally Posted by Equation

Build a space rail or elevator to help build bigger space ships with orbital construction station. NOVA | Space Elevator

Good idea if workable, but what happens if the integretity of the cable is compromised by space junk?

And the giant tomatoes too.

Good idea Its an insult when one lifts up the top of the burger bun of a "McFeast" and see a insulting slice of tomatoe that barely covers a third of the bun.
More important though is the need for a large square tomatoe, one that reaches all the edges of a regular slice of bread.Theres nothing worse than having a tomatoe sandwich which has areas that lack tomatoe.

So how about it Delft. The Dutch I new were good horticulturists especially when it came to hybrid seeds.

the guy also mentioned the launch schedule for 2011: 20 launches, 25 satellites. so there're still 8 launches to go for the next two months

China plans 2012 manned space flight after docking test

(Reuters) - China will launch up to two manned space missions in 2012 as it hones the skills needed to secure a long-term manned presence in outer space, an official spokeswoman said on Monday, on the eve of the launch of an unmanned spacecraft.

The spokeswoman for China's space program, Wu Ping, said a rocket will lift the unmanned Shenzhou 8 spacecraft into orbit from northwest China on Tuesday at 0558 a.m. local time (5:58 p.m. EDT), preparing the way for the spacecraft to dock with the Tiangong 1, an experimental module launched on September 29.

The rendezvous and docking exercises between the two vessels are part of China's effort to develop the technological and logistical skills needed to run a full space lab that could house astronauts for long stretches.

The next step, planned for 2012, will entail similar exercises with at least one mission carrying astronauts onboard, Wu told a news conference at the launch site in the Gobi Desert, according to a transcript on an official news website (ä¸*国网--网上ä¸*国).

"Next year, we will carry out the Shenzhou 9 and 10 flight missions, and they will also carry out rendezvous and docking tests with the Tiangong 1," said Wu.

"According to the mission plans, at least one of the two flights next year will be manned," she added.

Beijing is still far from catching up with the established space superpowers: the United States and Russia. The Tiangong 1 is a trial module; not the building block of a space station.

Russia, the United States and other countries jointly operate the International Space Station, to which China does not belong. But the United States will not test a new rocket to take people into space until 2017, and Russia has said manned missions are no longer a priority for its space program, which has struggled with delays and glitches.

China's impending unmanned tests will help determine whether a modified version of the Shenzhou spacecraft "is suited to the needs of manned space travel," said Wu

Bringing together craft in the vastness of space is one of the key skills needed for an advanced aeronautic program that includes a space station. Collisions can be costly, even fatal.

"It is quite difficult and risky to join together two vehicles traveling at high speeds in orbit, with a margin of error of no more than 20 centimeters," Wu said.

China launched its second moon orbiter last year after it became only the third country to send its astronauts walking in space outside their orbiting craft in 2008.

Wu said crew members have been selected for the possible space missions next year, including two female astronauts.

Beijing also plans an unmanned moon landing and deployment of a moon rover in 2012. Scientists have talked about the possibility of sending a man to the moon after 2020.

China is also jostling with neighbors Japan and India for a bigger presence in space, but its plans have faced international wariness. Beijing says its aims are peaceful.

(Reporting by Sally Huang and Chris Buckley; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)

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I was linked to this through a Norwegian paper also emphasizing how Obama has scrapped the new NASA moon programme and the new booster rockets. It played the "China conquers space" card for most of the article, with an emphasis on Tiangong 2 and 3 and Chinese ambitions for space.