China's Space Program News Thread

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Blitzo

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Congrats to spacex for successfully landing the first stage of their Falcon 9!

If reusability of the first stage (or more) does turn out to be reliable, it could significantly reduce launch costs, with implications for science, commercial purposes, human space flight as well as military purposes.

Hopefully CNSA and CASC were watching and have done some of their own research into this to get a programme going as well. Reusable launch vehicles are definitely a potentially significant factor for space travel in future.
 

Equation

Lieutenant General
Congrats to spacex for successfully landing the first stage of their Falcon 9!

If reusability of the first stage (or more) does turn out to be reliable, it could significantly reduce launch costs, with implications for science, commercial purposes, human space flight as well as military purposes.

Hopefully CNSA and CASC were watching and have done some of their own research into this to get a programme going as well. Reusable launch vehicles are definitely a potentially significant factor for space travel in future.

Nah...I say Space elevator is the key.;)
 

SinoSoldier

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The successful landing of the Falcon 9 Heavy booster now paves the way for a heavy rocket, capable of lifting 50 tons into LEO, that is recoverable.

If that doesn't put other aerospace corporations to shame (SpaceX is a private company!), I don't know what will.
 

escobar

Brigadier
China's first telescope tasked with searching for signs of the elusive dark matter formally began its quest Thursday when it sent home its first set of observation data.

The Dark Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE) Satellite, began sending data back home after running a power-on test before uploading its first count of high-energy electrons and cosmic rays at around 18:00 to the National Space Science Center under the Chinese Academy of Sciences in the Beijing suburb of Huairou.

The detector of the satellite has been power up to 800 Volts at its 108th circle around the earth, signaling "Wukong" is able to detect dark matters in the space.

"The load manager machine was powered up for the first time on Sunday, signaling that the effective scientific load has booted up. So today at its 106th circle around the earth, we powered up the load to level one, about 400 Volts, and powered up to level two about 800 to 900 Volts at the 108th circles. So it means the load has been in a state of scientific observation," said Meng Xin, Chief Designer of the Ground Supporting System of the Dark Matter Satellite Program.

Chang Jin, chief scientist of the project, said the data sent back by DAMPE have fallen into line with experts' initial calculations, suggesting the space telescope is functioning properly, adding that the satellite will still need to undergo two months of tests and calibrations.

According to Chang Jin, about 100 high-energy particles can be captured by Wukong each second while in space. Scientists will look for high-energy electrons and gamma rays among them, which could be residuals of dark matter's annihilation or decay.

More than 100 scientists will study the data sent back by "Wukong". Initial findings are expected to be published in the second half of 2016.

"There will be two years' sky survey and one year's directional observation. Of course the sky survey will not be fixed, which will be changed to directional observation in advance if some special astronomical phenomena and signals related to dark matter are found," said Chang Jin, Chief Scientist of the Dark Matter Satellite Program.
 

delft

Brigadier
Congrats to spacex for successfully landing the first stage of their Falcon 9!

If reusability of the first stage (or more) does turn out to be reliable, it could significantly reduce launch costs, with implications for science, commercial purposes, human space flight as well as military purposes.

Hopefully CNSA and CASC were watching and have done some of their own research into this to get a programme going as well. Reusable launch vehicles are definitely a potentially significant factor for space travel in future.
ArianeSpace tested a parachute to recover an Ariane-4 first stage in the 1980's. Unfortunately it was tested on the Giotto mission to Halley's comet when the trajectory was different from that towards a Geostationary Transfer Orbit so the forces on the anchor in the first stage when the parachute was deployed were too large and the anchor was pulled out of the rocket.
 

escobar

Brigadier
Gaofen-4 sat launched...
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escobar

Brigadier
China closes 2015 Space Launch Year – Long March 3B lofts Gaofen-4 Earth Observation Satellite:
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A Chinese Long March 3B Rocket blasted off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center on Monday, lifting the Gaofen-4 satellite into orbit to have a watchful eye on Planet Earth, becoming China’s first remote sensing satellite operated from Geosynchronous Orbit. Closing out a year that saw 87 orbital space launches, Long March 3B lifted off at 16:04 UTC to perform a standard ascent mission lasting a little under half an hour to drop the satellite off in a highly elliptical transfer orbit. An announcement confirming launch success came forward later in the day via official Chinese media.

With Monday’s successful launch, China is overtaking the United States in the number of successful orbital launches carried out in 2015 with 19 fully successful missions, marking another perfect year for Chinese orbital spaceflight. While conducting 20 launches this year, American rockets suffered a pair of failures – a Falcon 9 disintegrated in the skies over Cape Canaveral shortly after lifting off with the Dragon CRS-7 cargo craft in June and the inaugural launch of the Super Strypi small-satellite launcher failed in November about one minute after blasting off from Hawaii.

Russia remains in the lead in 2015 with 29 orbital launches and 26 successes, maintaining its leading position for over a decade, though going through a bit of an up and down in 2015 as both of Russia’s workhorse launchers, Soyuz and Proton, had to deal with failures over the course of the year. European rockets flew nine times this year while India conducted five successful orbital launches and Japanese rockets made four flights, including the country’s first fully commercial mission. Iran conducted a single orbital mission in 2015 bringing the year’s total to 87 missions with five failures, trailing last-year’s 92 launches that set a record for the current century.

...

Gaofen-4 stands out within the CHEOS program as it marks the first time China deploys a Remote Sensing satellite to Geostationary Orbit from where it can deliver around-the-clock imagery of areas in China and surrounding territories. The 4,600-Kilogram satellite makes use of a hexagonal platform with two two-panel solar arrays for power generation and a large optical baffle on its Earth-facing deck.

The Gaofen-4 satellite is outfitted with a staring imager hosting a common optical system focusing light on a visible and infrared detector system. The staring camera has to be pointed to the desired location on Earth and can capture frames around 400 x 400 Kilometers in size. A ground resolution of 50 meters is achieved in the visible wavelengths while the infrared imager reaches a resolution better than 400 meters – realizing a resolution better than current staring imagers deployed to Geostationary Orbit. Being sensitive for infrared wavelengths permits the satellite to complete nighttime imaging operations.

The primary driver of the Gaofen-4 mission is the acquisition of imagery at extremely high temporal resolution, essentially only limited by the time needed to slew the satellite between different targets and downlink data rates/latency. Multi-band imagery delivered by the spacecraft will be used in various applications including disaster monitoring, meteorological observations, environmental monitoring, agricultural planning and national security. The satellite will be employed in the detection of hot spots, to deliver warnings for major weather conditions such as local areas of strong convections and typhoons.

Likely to be stationed at 110 to 112°E, areas covered by the satellite include the entire Chinese Territory, the Asia-Pacific Region including Australia, and entire Indian Subcontinent and surrounding regions as well as Kazakhstan and portions of Russia...
 

escobar

Brigadier
Gaofen-4 is China's first geosynchronous orbit HD optical imaging satellite and the world's most sophisticated HD geosynchronous orbit remote sensing satellite, according to Xu Dazhe, head of SASTIND and China National Space Administration.It can "see" an oil tanker on the sea with a huge CMOS camera, reaching the best imaging level among global high-orbit remote sensing satellites, according to Li Guo, chief designer of Gaofen-4:
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Blitzo

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Gaofen-4 is China's first geosynchronous orbit HD optical imaging satellite and the world's most sophisticated HD geosynchronous orbit remote sensing satellite, according to Xu Dazhe, head of SASTIND and China National Space Administration.It can "see" an oil tanker on the sea with a huge CMOS camera, reaching the best imaging level among global high-orbit remote sensing satellites, according to Li Guo, chief designer of Gaofen-4:
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Interesting. If it can really ID an oil tanker sized ship it could have applications for naval ISR. Obviously a 50m optical resolution isn't as good as what a MOIRE type geosynchronous satellite can do, but it's a step in the right direction.
 
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