China's Space Program News Thread

[Quickie]

Well, finding the cause of the problem is an unspoken given.

No one can succeed in space at all if they can't find the cause of problems.

There is a concept in programming called

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It means that you release each piece of software iteratively as it becomes available, rather than waiting for an entire project to finish to release all in one go-- project managers have found that this provides efficiency as smaller bits of the product can be rolled out to production and start adding value immediately. Meanwhile, you can learn from these small rollouts and customer requirements can change.

A series of smaller, iterative launches is essentially applying this concept to space. SpaceX has made rapid progress this way.

Building rockets is very much different than writing software. There's zero cost in rewriting a few lines of a program.

Rebuilding/modifying rockets on the other hand is a very costly and time-consuming process. It's still to be seen whether blowing up Starship in its prototyping stage that frequently really helps in its development in an efficient and safe way, as it's still in the early stages of testing using a very different engine as the intended Raptor engine is still in development. (Personally, I have my doubt in this regard.)

 

[Hitchhiker]

The best summary of 2021 China space activities I have seen yet, in one concise article. I hope he will update it every month.

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[KampfAlwin]

Tianhe core module arrived at Wenchang.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1355827898087665667

 

[by78]

A 70-meter diameter deep-space communications dish just came online in Tianjin. It will be used for the Tianwen-1 mission. As I said before, if you're truly serious about deep-space exploration and space science, as opposed to publicity stunts, then you have to have your own deep space communications network.

 

[by78]

LandSpace has completed the assembly of the first stage of its first ZQ-2 rocket, which uses LO2/LCH4 fuel. The stage is powered by four TQ-12 engines. A test launch of the rocket is expected in 2021.

 

[Mt1701d]

A 70-meter diameter deep-space communications dish just came online in Tianjin. It will be used for the Tianwen-1 mission. As I said before, if you're truly serious about deep-space exploration and space science, as opposed to publicity stunts, then you have to have your own deep space communications network.

I was wondering... would it be ok to have the communication dish in such a crowded area with so much potential interference? Or is it just me over thinking since they will be looking for something specific...

 

[broadsword]

I was wondering... would it be ok to have the communication dish in such a crowded area with so much potential interference? Or is it just me over thinking since they will be looking for something specific...

Paging our radar man, @Tam .

 

[escobar]

TJS-6 (Third early missile warning sat) launched

 

[taxiya]

I was wondering... would it be ok to have the communication dish in such a crowded area with so much potential interference? Or is it just me over thinking since they will be looking for something specific...

Some details here

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The dish is called GRAS-4 and belongs to National Astronomical Observatory. It is primarily a telescope, but can be used as receiver for communication with the Mars mission as well.

Interference is not a problem, 1. the signals' frequency band is so high that they go straight lines. 2. the dish is so big that gives a very high S/N ratio at its direction with Mars, so any potential interference from the surroundings can be ignored.

Of course, put it in the middle of desert or on mountain peak will further increase its sensitivity, but that is not necessary apparently. Besides GRAS-4 is in the suburb of Tianjin. For comparison, GRAS-1 and GRAS-4 are in the suburb of Beijing.

 

[anzha]

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