China's Space Program News Thread

[iantsai]

I think that China will continue testing all the parts of a potential LM5 moon shot until they are confident about making an announcement.

From announcing the mission to carrying it out could be a short time, like 2 years only.

This ought to happen no matter what happens with LM9.

Maybe. But CNSA was always cautious on the missions.

I think they won't send taikonauts to the moon where there were brand new rocket and brand new ship and just one testing launch before the crewed mission.

For manned spaceflight and lunar soil sample retrieval missions there were both more than one test flight before the destinated missions were carried out.

If CNSA would be funded like NASA of the Apollo era it would be scheduled with compact missions, but that's not possible. CNSA still has very limited annual budget by now.

 

[taxiya]

My guess is the test flight will be somewhat like the Orion flyby of the moon followed by automated landings of landers, rovers, and even moon station modules, and then only, manned landings.

Here is my thought. CASC can do something like Chang'e 5 sample returning mission, do all things in one mission (2 launches). Chang'e 5 is a miniaturized Apollo mission. Since no human life is at risk, if CASC is confident in Chang'e 5, why not do it again. You won't gain anything by doing it in two steps, you won't put anybody at risk by doing it in one step. The only difference is that you need two launches being closely followed, maybe two launch pads, but that is about money not risk.

I don't think Orion flyby test (Artimis I mission) is technical necessary or out of caution, but rather NASA has no lander to do a unmanned landing test in the near future, nor does NASA have the gateway for Orion to do docking test. Artimis I is a political mission forced by Trump, nothing else.

 

[iantsai]

The slide said 3 crew on board and landing on the surface. See the texts in red circle. I assume that you read Chinese, so I don't understand how you could have interpret the slide to unmanned test (like Artimis I).
View attachment 97367
The slide basically says that CASC can put people on the moon around 2030 in this two launch scheme, it is another question whether the political leadership will authorize to do so.

A rocket and vehicle test that you suggest can be done much earlier, that is CZ-5DY's maiden flight around 2026. The new gen capsule has been tested for moon return just like Orion, so it is ready any time now.

So I would have agreed with you that manned mission may not happen around 2030 due to political reason, but I disagree that the rocket and vehicle test happens around 2030.

Agree.

The testing of the rockets and vessels to the moon should be carried out before 2030, so is the first manned moon landing mission, possibly.

The news above I refered is talking about the timeline of the ILRS construction, not the moon-landing mission.

 

[by78]

A Long March 7A being transported to the launchpad. The payload is unknown.

 

[iantsai]

A Long March 7A being transported to the launchpad. The payload is unknown.

It may be a delayed news or the payload is military.

 

[by78]

Analysis of Chang'E-5 lunar sample reveals high water content in lunar minerals –– some 170 grams per metric ton –– a pretty significant amount...

A research team from the Institute of Geochemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences conducted analysis on the lunar soil samples returned by Chang'E-5 mission. Using infrared spectroscopy and nano-ion probe analysis, the team found that there is a large amount of water embedded lunar minerals. This study confirmed that the minerals on the lunar surface are important reservoirs of water. The results were recently published in the journal Nature Communications.

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Abstract: The formation and distribution of lunar surficial water remains ambiguous. Here, we show the prominence of water (OH/H2O) attributed to solar wind implantation on the uppermost surface of olivine, plagioclase, and pyroxene grains from Chang’E-5 samples. The results of spectral and microstructural analyses indicate that solar wind-derived water is affected by exposure time, crystal structure, and mineral composition. Our estimate of a minimum of 170 ppm water content in lunar soils in the Chang’E-5 region is consistent with that reported by the Moon Minerology Mapper and Chang’E-5 lander. By comparing with remote sensing data and through lunar soil maturity analysis, the amount of water in Chang’E-5 provides a reference for the distribution of surficial water in middle latitude of the Moon. We conclude that minerals in lunar soils are important reservoirs of water, and formation and retention of water originating from solar wind occurs on airless bodies.

 

[escobar]

New generation crewed launch vehicle appears to be named CZ-5G.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1569685819363033094

 

[SanWenYu]

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China completed the country's first repeat flight test of a reusable liquid oxygen kerosene rocket engine. The said engine flew twice with maintenance and reassembly in between.

突破！液氧煤油发动机重复使用技术进入实战阶段​

微信公众号“ 西安航天动力研究所”9月13日消息，近日，由西安航天动力研究所自主研制的某型液氧煤油发动机首次实现重复飞行试验验证。该型发动机作为某飞行器主动力装置参加首飞试验后，经检测维护，再次装配并顺利完成了重复飞行试验，国内首次实现了液体火箭动力的重复使用。

目前，我国补燃循环液氧煤油发动机已在地面试验实现了不间断三次点火起动，摸索出了重复点火工作间的吹除处置和预冷方法。

我国液氧煤油发动机具备无级推力调节能力，通过地面试车进行充分验证，其中推力调节机构和大范围推力调节能力在新一代长征八号运载火箭上实现了飞行验证。

某飞行器试验的成功，初步验证了液氧煤油发动机对重复使用飞行力、热载荷条件及免维护防护措施的有效性。

国内液体火箭发动机地面故障诊断系统在液氧煤油发动机研制试验中应用较早，技术成熟。2022年3月在新一代长征六号甲运载火箭上首次实现了飞行健康监控系统的实战应用。通过液体动力健康诊断相关技术研究，液氧煤油发动机在试车或飞行后状态评估技术方面也开展了大量研究工作。

液氧煤油发动机通过发射场使用维护简化研究及重复使用相关维护处理技术研究，实现操作维护项目大幅度精简，首次实现低温火箭液氧加注后无人值守功能验证。

 

[taxiya]

New generation crewed launch vehicle appears to be named CZ-5G.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1569685819363033094

View attachment 97463

G usually stands for "gai" which means "update/change", it is likely a temporary designation. It is the same rule applied to CZ-7G which becomes CZ-7A and CZ-6G which becomes CZ-6A.

There is a tiny chance that G stands for "Gao" meaning High (orbit). But I highly doubt that is the case because CASC only use letters sequentially, not for their meaning in Chinese or English. That is the rule that I observed so far.

 

[texx1]

Launch of CZ-7A