China's Space Program News Thread

[H2O]

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China's first Mars rover has been named "Zhurong."

The name "Zhurong," which means the god of fire in Chinese mythology, was revealed on Saturday at the opening ceremony of the Space Day of China held in Nanjing, the capital city of east China's Jiangsu Province.

The name indicates Chinese people's blessing for the rover to ignite the flame of China's planetary exploration.
The rover is 1.85 meters high and weighs about 240 kilograms, with a designed life span of three Martian months – equivalent to about 92 Earth days.

It will probe the composition of the Martian surface, the distribution of materials, the geological structure and the meteorological environment.

 

[Lnk111229]

Indeed; China's ongoing reliance on supposedly "legacy" rockets such as LM-3 is concerning. Investing in new support facilities for legacy capabilities suggests either serious institutional dysfunction or serious ongoing problems with the LM-5/6/7/etc. series. Neither possibility bodes well for future progress.

Lol, don't need to jump off ship so quick. The on going most important space program of China is Space station, Lunar, Mar and beyond. All of that program already booking full list of new generation rocket( LM-5/6/7/etc). You worrying is nonsense. New launchpad in Xichang most likely will serve just for less important program like satellite launch for domestic and international. So LM3 will keep running for those program while new generation rocket focus on more important jobs. You don't need Private jet to transport cargo while on going truck fleet do just fine.

 

[voyager1]

IMO reusability is a must. I am not asking for a Starship but China should at least try to get reusability right.

The space industry is going to explode in a few years and China would need all the rockets to service its needs

 

[zszczhyx]

This is the blueprint of the manned space station project in the past "863" program.

199x--2000--2010--2020: Space station

 

[siegecrossbow]

Futuristic 'sky ladder' and more achievable manned lunar rover designs being unveiled.

They are planning for a space elevator?

 

[winword]

They are planning for a space elevator?

I believe this is just science fiction for now, we probably won't be able to see it. In theory carbon nanotubes may have enough tensile strength and its density is low enough to support this idea, but it has to be at least 35785 kilemeters long, and you need a lot. A few years ago a group from Tsinghua has demonstrated 0.5m long carbon nanotube, may be more progress has been made since then but it's far from practical yet.

 

[eprash]

They are planning for a space elevator?

Well serious work on it started at least in the early 2000s in fact China has the record for Length and Tensile strength in CNT

 

[taxiya]

Indeed; China's ongoing reliance on supposedly "legacy" rockets such as LM-3 is concerning. Investing in new support facilities for legacy capabilities suggests either serious institutional dysfunction or serious ongoing problems with the LM-5/6/7/etc. series. Neither possibility bodes well for future progress.

Not true.

First to clarify some basics.

1. In terms capacity and target orbit, LM-7 is to LM-2, LM-7A is to LM-3. LM-5 and 6 have nothing to do with replacing legacy rockets.
2. LM-7 is designed at crew-grade. The only comparable rocket is LM-2F, nothing else. Using LM-7 for anything other than critical mission is a waste.
3. LM-7G (to be officially LM-7A) had two launches, first failed, second succeeded. So LM-7A is far from ready to replace LM-3. It is not necessarily a problem either, because it is a low priority rocket. The very first launch was only a year ago.
4. LM-7 is to be the dedicated mission critical LEO launcher, space station and future crew. LM-7A is for high mass and high orbit. None of them are intended to be replacement of LM-2 and 3.
5. In reality only LM-8 (formally LM-722HO) is the real replacement of all LM-2 (except LM-2F) for low orbit, and LM-3 for most medium mass high orbit launches.
6. Again, LM-8 has a low priority with the first launch just happened December 2020.

All these are telling that China is in no hurry to remove cheap and effective old rocket. After all, why should China? Green is good and future but nothing advantage (in terms of payload for its tasks) if one has a well established procedure.

We must always keep in mind that, the first priority of China is to get the satellites to the desired orbit and possibly get men on the moon ON TIME, anything else is the second priority. Also note, this is not saying China is not phasing in the new rockets, it is just there is no desire to throw away something old that does perfect job.

 

[voyager1]

Not true.

First to clarify some basics.

1. In terms capacity and target orbit, LM-7 is to LM-2, LM-7A is to LM-3. LM-5 and 6 have nothing to do with replacing legacy rockets.
2. LM-7 is designed at crew-grade. The only comparable rocket is LM-2F, nothing else. Using LM-7 for anything other than critical mission is a waste.
3. LM-7G (to be officially LM-7A) had two launches, first failed, second succeeded. So LM-7A is far from ready to replace LM-3. It is not necessarily a problem either, because it is a low priority rocket. The very first launch was only a year ago.
4. LM-7 is to be the dedicated mission critical LEO launcher, space station and future crew. LM-7A is for high mass and high orbit. None of them are intended to be replacement of LM-2 and 3.
5. In reality only LM-8 (formally LM-722HO) is the real replacement of all LM-2 (except LM-2F) for low orbit, and LM-3 for most medium mass high orbit launches.
6. Again, LM-8 has a low priority with the first launch just happened December 2020.

All these are telling that China is in no hurry to remove cheap and effective old rocket. After all, why should China? Green is good and future but nothing advantage (in terms of payload for its tasks) if one has a well established procedure.

We must always keep in mind that, the first priority of China is to get the satellites to the desired orbit and possibly get men on the moon ON TIME, anything else is the second priority. Also note, this is not saying China is not phasing in the new rockets, it is just there is no desire to throw away something old that does perfect job.

Do you know if China is working on its own reusable rockets? Any timeline?

Reusability is obviously the future, and I would say its almost necessary if China wants to deploy a constellation of satellites ala Starlink

 

[taxiya]

Do you know if China is working on its own reusable rockets? Any timeline?

Reusability is obviously the future, and I would say its almost necessary if China wants to deploy a constellation of satellites ala Starlink

LM-8R in 2022 perhaps. They will test something (suborbital launch?) in second half of 2021.
LM-6X is another one but so far no time plan published.

Regarding a starlink like system, I don't think reusability is a necessity considering the ratio of few more rockets with the whole system cost. In the same reasoning that the benefit of re-usability with payload penalty and extra fuel outweighs the overall cost of rockets. No single technology is the best, everything has to be put into a perspective.