China's Space Program News Thread

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ESA and China have been cooperating through the Dragon Programme since 2004 to encourage the use of Earth observation in China. Building on the success of the past years, the programme is taking on more momentum as it enters its third phase.

The Dragon Programme started in 2004 as a joint undertaking between ESA, the National Remote Sensing Center of China (NRSCC) under the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) of China. The aim is to promote the use of ESA, Third Party Missions and Chinese Earth observation satellite data within China for science and applications.

Since its conception, the programme has grown from strength to strength. In 2004, Dragon focused on 16 projects to exploit satellite data for scientific research and different practical applications.

Under Dragon 2, which started in 2008, more than 400 scientists from 165 research institutes in Europe and China were involved in 25 joint Chinese–European research projects covering land, ocean and atmospheric themes.his week, some 400 scientists gathered in China to discuss the results of Dragon 2 and mark the opening of the programme’s third phase, Dragon 3.

Prof. Cao Jianlin, Vice Minister of MOST, addressed the symposium stating the importance of the collaboration between ESA and China to advance science through Earth observation.

“The Dragon Programme has become a model for scientific and technological cooperation between China and Europe.
“Through collaborative research, advanced training courses and sharing Earth observation data, not only have applications of remote-sensing expanded, but also high level results in scientific research have been achieved.”

One of the largest areas of research has focused on land applications.

For example, radar data from ESA’s Envisat have been used to monitor forests in northeast China.

Using the technique of hypertemporal imaging, scientists were able to map changes in forest cover along the Chinese–Russian border in 2005–10. The usefulness of flood monitoring has also been demonstrated through the programme. For example, 2010 proved to be a particularly bad year for floods in China but radar imagery from Envisat meant that they could be carefully monitored.

In fact, using data from a range of satellites, teams were able to reconstruct changes in the dynamics of Lake Poyang in east China in the period 2003–08.Dragon has also focused on using Earth observation for monitoring air quality and water quality. Under this next phase of cooperation, some 50 projects have been selected for joint exploitation of Earth observation data. These projects involve 170 institutes and 700 researchers from both Europe and China.

ESA’s Maurice Borgeaud added, “The Dragon Programme is a perfect example of cooperation between MOST and ESA.”

“It not only enables the promotion of Chinese and European Earth observation data, but it also stimulates the collaboration between Sino–European science teams and the training of a new generation of young scientists.”

Dragon 3 will continue with advanced training courses on the exploitation of remote sensing of land, ocean and atmosphere. The first course, focusing on land, will take place in Beijing on 15–20 October.

 

[Equation]

Question.. Why did the Soviets never attempt to land their space capsules on the ocean? Seems China has followed suit. Were not the space capsules sea worthy?

I believe it's sea worthy, because I remember watching a CCTV special displaying some of the emergency equipment on board the capsule, and one the technician crew was pointing to an emergency inflatable life boat sitting behind the astronauts. I guess rough seas makes it more difficult to retrieve it. Imagine how the Apollo crew must've gone through when they touch down into the seas and waiting for the retrieval to come pick them up.

 

[NikeX]

Question.. Why did the Soviets never attempt to land their space capsules on the ocean? Seems China has followed suit. Were not the space capsules sea worthy?

Answer: A look at a map of the world provides the answer. The Russian land mass makes it easy to recover the capsule on land. Plus the orbits due to the Russian launch parameters placed the capsules mostly over land. However there were occasions when the Russians did recover space craft at sea, just not manned ones

Russian test spaceplane recovered Indian Ocean

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“The new campus in Huairou, as the base of National Space Science Center in the near future, will provide pivotal support to the Strategic Priority Research Program on Space Science” said WU Ji, Director of National Space Science Center, on the Ground Breaking Ceremony of NSSC new campus in Huairou on May 5, 2012.　

About 500 staff members and invited guests witnessed this important moment in the history of NSSC.

The Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (HXMT), Quantum Science Experimental Satellite, Dark Mater Particle Detection Satellite, SHIJIAN-10 Retrievable Scientific Experimental Satellite and three satellites of Kuafu Project, which are included in Strategic Priority Research Program on Space Science, will be tested and operated at the new campus.

There are six or seven new space science satellite programs which are going to be reviewed and established at the new campus. The design and testing of equipments for future manned space lab and space station, Chang’E project, and a large number of payloads for application satellites will be executed gradually in this new campus. The international participation in the satellite missions in question is important.

The new campus covers about 8.7 hectares, and its first phase construction will be completed in June 2014. The experimental facilities as well as the operation and control facilities will be installed and subsequent commissioning will be conducted after the first phase construction. The distance between the current location of NSSC and the new campus is about 70 km, while the distance between the new campus and Beijing Capital International Airport is about 30 km.

 

[NikeX]

Why no planetary exploration programs by the Chinese? Clearly they have the lifting capacity to launch missions to Mars and Venus as well as to the outer planets. Why no plans for missions like those?

 

[stardave]

Question.. Why did the Soviets never attempt to land their space capsules on the ocean? Seems China has followed suit. Were not the space capsules sea worthy?

I believe land landing is better than ocean landing, because you can land heavier return payload on land, and there is no chance of drowning.

---------- Post added at 12:15 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:11 PM ----------

Why no planetary exploration programs by the Chinese? Clearly they have the lifting capacity to launch missions to Mars and Venus as well as to the outer planets. Why no plans for missions like those?

Patience young man, patience, it will happen.

And yes, you don't need to remind everyone that China have inferior tech than the West.

 

[Quickie]

There're probably planning for contingency sea landing but that's separate from the normal land landing that was aimed for.

---------- Post added at 02:02 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:54 AM ----------

[video=youtube;CzU8HVz1ul4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzU8HVz1ul4[/video]

 

[escobar]

All personnel of the Beijing space city are feasting (there is especially a significant proportion of women).The astronauts reached Beijing and will remain isolated for 14 days.

[video=youtube;hGfzYMTp_q0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGfzYMTp_q0[/video]

Why no planetary exploration programs by the Chinese? Clearly they have the lifting capacity to launch missions to Mars and Venus as well as to the outer planets. Why no plans for missions like those?

For mission to Mars, Venus, etc... you need a deep space network. They have not finished the construction of the DSN.

 

[NikeX]

Patience young man, patience, it will happen.

And yes, you don't need to remind everyone that China have inferior tech than the West.

Those words about inferiority are yours not mine. Besides until China gets into a real scrape know one knows what the true capabilities of their systems are.

---------- Post added at 04:47 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:44 PM ----------

For mission to Mars, Venus, etc... you need a deep space network. They have not finished the construction of the DSN.

Can you provide any additional information on the proposed Chinese DSN?

 

[Blitzo]

Why no planetary exploration programs by the Chinese? Clearly they have the lifting capacity to launch missions to Mars and Venus as well as to the outer planets. Why no plans for missions like those?

Walk before you can run, it's a bit of a daft question, isn't it?

Yinghuo 1 was meant to orbit mars but the russian rocket failed...

And frankly at this point I'm not sure china has a rocket powerful enough to send decent sized orbiters or landers to other planets. Until CZ-5 is mature 2014 onwards this probably won't change.