China's Space Program, News & Views

I just find this: it seems that Tiangong-1 is equipped with "2 high definition camera for Earth Observation". One have a CCD resolution of 60cm and the other is IR. By comparison the World's Highest-resolution Commercial Sat GeoEye-1 is able to collect imagery with a resolution of 41cm.

Maybe this could be something for the Director of the Chinese Space Agency to think about?

Russia to Build Nuclear Space Engine by 2017 | Science | RIA Novosti



MOSCOW, March 28 (RIA Novosti)
Tags: Skolkovo, NASA, Russia
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A Russian Megawatt-class nuclear propulsion system for long-range manned spacecraft must be ready by 2017, Skolkovo Foundation's Nuclear Cluster head Denis Kovalevich said on Wednesday.

“At present we are testing several types of fuel and later we will start drafting the design,” Kovalevich said. “The first parts [of the nuclear engine] should be built in 2013, and the engine is expected to be ready by 2017.”

The engine is being developed for interplanetary manned spacecraft to ensure that Russia maintains a competitive edge in the space race, including the exploration of the Moon and Mars.

The Russian government allocated 500 million rubles ($16.7 million) in 2010 to start a project to build a spacecraft with a nuclear engine. The overall investment in the project is estimated at 17 billion rubles (over $580 million) until 2019.

According to Russia’s nuclear power agency Rosatom, the development and construction of a nuclear propulsion system for spacecraft will cost over 7.2 billion rubles ($247 mln).

NASA started a program to develop a nuclear propulsion system in 2003, and spent several hundred million dollars on the project before cutting funding.

Russian space officials believe that nuclear engines for interplanetary spaceships are a very promising area, as solar power is too weak to be used as a power source at distances beyond Earth's orbit.

Russian space officials believe that nuclear engines for interplanetary spaceships are a very promising area, as solar power is too weak to be used as a power source at distances beyond Earth's orbit.

In the first place, no country has ever used solar power as a source of energy to launch spacecraft into orbit.

Originally Posted by Quickie

In the first place, no country has ever used solar power as a source of energy to launch spacecraft into orbit.

Distances beyond earth's orbit, not to launch into earth orbit...

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I think this is a pipe dream. Megawatt class nuclear engine? Ready by 2017? Good luck with that.

Originally Posted by Bltizo

Distances beyond earth's orbit, not to launch into earth orbit...

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I think this is a pipe dream. Megawatt class nuclear engine? Ready by 2017? Good luck with that.

I was referring to the logical error in the wordings which implies that solar power is already used to launch spacecraft to earth's orbit. Btw, solar power could only be the source of energy for the propulsion fuel, whatever it may supposed to be. In the case of the above article, they're still figuring out the type of propulsion fuel to be used with the nuclear engine.

There may well be problems with the translation. When talking about nuclear fuel I suppose they mean Pu oxide or U carbide or something similar as well as the material to encapsulate that fuel to provide the energy while I would call the other material the reaction mass. For ion engines this is most often an easily ionized metal.
For low mass vehicles photo-voltaic power might well be adequate to power ion engines. Megawatt class suggests use for manned vehicles travelling about 200 days from Earth orbit to Mars. Very large mass unmanned vehicles to transport the equipment to be used near and on Mars might well use solar sails and travel by way of Lagrange points, taking a very long time. Such trajectories would save on the weight of the solar sails.

http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/wi...1/92550781.jpg

Here's a pic of what the Russian space craft might look like.

Originally Posted by Bltizo

I think this is a pipe dream. Megawatt class nuclear engine? Ready by 2017? Good luck with that.

Hmmmm We...eell Isnt this Mars thing a joint Russia Chinese project?. So the Russians design it and China builds it.Respecting all IP rights of course. He He.

That way it might come in on budget and on time. There might even be some money left over for drinks all round.

---------- Post added at 04:04 AM ---------- Previous post was at 03:53 AM ----------

Originally Posted by delft

There may well be problems with the translation. When talking about nuclear fuel I suppose they mean Pu oxide or U carbide or something similar as well as the material to encapsulate that fuel to provide the energy while I would call the other material the reaction mass. For ion engines this is most often an easily ionized metal.
For low mass vehicles photo-voltaic power might well be adequate to power ion engines. Megawatt class suggests use for manned vehicles travelling about 200 days from Earth orbit to Mars. Very large mass unmanned vehicles to transport the equipment to be used near and on Mars might well use solar sails and travel by way of Lagrange points, taking a very long time. Such trajectories would save on the weight of the solar sails.

Xenon gas as the propellent?and with a more poweful drive system you should get to Mars quicker......Yes?
.

Originally Posted by bladerunner

Hmmmm We...eell Isnt this Mars thing a joint Russia Chinese project?. So the Russians design it and China builds it.Respecting all IP rights of course. He He.

.

after russia screw up the mars joint venture probe . i think china might as well go on its own...

bladerunner wrote:

Xenon gas as the propellent?and with a more poweful drive system you should get to Mars quicker......Yes?

Yes, and yes. Xenon is the one non-metal proposed as propellant. And of course a stronger and heavier and more expensive drive system will get you there quicker. Sending a heavy load of equipment to Mars and landing on the surface among other things a tunneling machine that will provide people with protection against meteorites, cosmic rays and solar storms, following that with a load that includes a landing vehicle and then sending a crew by fast nuclear rocket in say two months would look attractive to me. As I expect that will happen around 2040 or later the travel time might even be shorter. The travellers will be very vulnerable to solar storms as they cannot escape back to Earth as is possible from ISS. We need a very good way of predicting solar weather for the whole time of the journey or accept this risk.

Shenzhou-9 spacecraft delivered to launch center



The manned spacecraft Shenzhou-9 was delivered to the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China on Monday, a spokesman with the country's manned space program said.

The assembly of the Shenzhou-9 and its associate vehicles was complete, but its carrier rocket, the Long March-2F, had not been delivered as it was undergoing tests, the spokesman said.

China will launch the manned Shenzhou-9 spacecraft between June and August this year and strive for a manned space rendezvous and docking mission with the orbiting Tiangong-1 space lab module.

Preparations at the Jiuquan launch center are well underway, said the spokesman, adding that the Tiangong-1, or Heavenly Palace-1, is orbiting without problems, and is capable of docking with Shenzhou-9.

The target module Tiangong-1, blasted off on Sept. 29, 2011, went into long-term operation in space awaiting docking attempts of Shenzhou-9 and Shenzhou-10 after completing China's first space docking mission with the unmanned Shenzhou-8 spacecraft in early November.

man those Chinese space labs sure look awesome and well equipped!!

On March 30 the Brazilian company 'Opto Eletrônica' sent to China the MUX camera that will be used on the CBERS-3 satellite.This camera will be used to environmental monitoring and remote sensing of natural resources. MUX mass is 120 kg and has a 20 meter resolution (CBERS-3 will be orbited at 750 km altitude).

Originally Posted by Lion

after russia screw up the mars joint venture probe . i think china might as well go on its own...

Im not so sure.We dont even know whether China has even seriously contemplated this option yet. IMO the advantage a spacecraft with nuclear power plant in tandem with a high efficiency ion drive using xeon gas as a propellent over the currently more conventional system,is greater than what steam power had over sail.
Journeying to Mars and back with bigger payloads is a great advantage.