China's Space Program News Thread

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Nutrient

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But more than one thousand launches every year by 2045 is totally out of my imagination.

Space planes, perhaps using scramjets.

Laser-launch vehicles, perhaps using giant ground-based lasers to heat propellant on the rocket. The heated propellant gives enormous thrust. I'm no expert in rocketry, but some people think that laser launchers can achieve a specific impulse of 1000 seconds, much greater than the 290 seconds of the CZ-2F used to launch the space station crew. If such a laser launcher were used to launch the crew, the rocket would shrink from 460 tonnes to about 33 tonnes***, or about the size of a truck. Thus launching a thousand of them a year becomes practical.

Someone mentioned a space elevator, but that would need materials presently unavailable. Maybe someday.


***A reduction of 460 tonnes to 33 tonnes seems incredible, but that is apparently what Tsiolkovsky's Rocket Equation says.
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, the CZ-2F used to launch the space station crew has a takeoff weight of 464,000 kg and a payload (to Low Earth Orbit) of 8400 kg. Thus the overall mass fraction, combining the two stages, is
460/8.4 = 54.8
The CZ-2F's engine has a specific impulse of roughly 290 seconds. If we accept that a laser launcher would have a specific impulse of 1000 seconds, then the new mass fraction would be
54.8^(290/1000) = 3.2
where "^" means exponentiation. With a payload of 8.4 tonnes, plus say 2 tonnes for the rocket itself, the new launcher's takeoff weight would be
(8.4 + 2)*3.2 = 33.3 tonnes.
As I said, I'm no expert in rocketry. I invite someone to check my calculations.
 
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Richard Santos

Captain
Registered Member
Some nice screen captures of astronauts onboard the space station. The 4th image shows a sleeping area.


51254821429_5d7d583b22_o.jpg

The three of them are rendering their salutes 3 different ways. The one on the left (Tang Hongbo) is saluting in more typical military manner commonly used in german, russian, american and Chinese forces, with hand strait, palm facing down, tip of middle finger touching tip of eyebrow. The one on the right (liu Boming) is saluting in a manner more like the British and the commonwealth, hand straight, palm turned to the front, tip of middle finger above eye brow.
 

Richard Santos

Captain
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It appears each of Tiangong’s main laboratory modules has its own environmental, power, attitude control, and propulsion. Each is almost a mini-station in its own right. The only thing they depend on Tianhe for is kitchen, toilet, exercise and rest space for the crew. this implies the lab modules would not be a big drain on tianhe’s fixed resources, and additional modules beyond what has been publicly announced can be attached later with relatively little impact on the station’s services.

So in its eventual configuration the Tiangong could well have a few more large modules than the 2 announced so far, and be much heavier what has been declared up to now.
 

davidau

Senior Member
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It appears each of Tiangong’s main laboratory modules has its own environmental, power, attitude control, and propulsion. Each is almost a mini-station in its own right. The only thing they depend on Tianhe for is kitchen, toilet, exercise and rest space for the crew. this implies the lab modules would not be a big drain on tianhe’s fixed resources, and additional modules beyond what has been publicly announced can be attached later with relatively little impact on the station’s services.

So in its eventual configuration the Tiangong could well have a few more large modules than the 2 announced so far, and be much heavier what has been declared up to now.
China can have a secomd Tianhe core module with a number of ports that other experimental/cargo/transfer craft can be attached to, as required. I agree that the Tiangong will look quite different than the one now proposed. Their service life would be at least twenty years.
 

voyager1

Captain
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Is there a way to expand it even more with another 2 or even 3 core modules.

Is it a design/engineering constrain on how many core modules it can fit or is it a budget issue?

I would like to see it expanded to be able to hold 6+ astronauts for long term stays and to be able to conduct more experiments with the added modules and crew
 

Temstar

Brigadier
Registered Member
Is there a way to expand it even more with another 2 or even 3 core modules.

Is it a design/engineering constrain on how many core modules it can fit or is it a budget issue?

I would like to see it expanded to be able to hold 6+ astronauts for long term stays and to be able to conduct more experiments with the added modules and crew
Let's not go crazy, ILRS needs funding too.
Everything in moderation.
 

xiabonan

Junior Member
Not just ILRS. Mars sample retrieval, landing on asteroids, Space Telescope like the Hubble, etc etc all need money. Also, it's not that bigger is always better when it comes to these things. Size depends on what you need to do and want to do, it's not a dick measuring exercise. If the size of the Space Station allows all intended expriements to be carried out, then it is a good size.
 
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