China's Space Program News Thread
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Hendrik_2000
Lieutenant General
China own half of the world surveillance satellite
Getting instant images and data throughout space launch missions is very important for the launch to be successful. This job is done through coordination of various tracking and monitoring stations.
At the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center where the Shenzhou-14 manned space craft is scheduled for lift-off in June, CGTN reporter Zheng Yibing visited a station equipped with multiple types of devices, like the optical telescope.
"We are mainly responsible for tracking live images during space missions, like target detection of the carrier rocket and the measurement of its position in space," said engineer Yu Shilong.
The system that he works on requires great skill and precise mechanisms.
"We did lots of training before and after we got this job. That's the only way to learn to conduct stable tracking of a flying object," Yu said.
Many are working with him as the team has a long history in serving the Shenzhou missions.
"Our devices are specifically used for manned missions. We've done this in all previous Shenzhou missions, from the very first in the 1990s to the 13th that blasted off last year. And now, we are getting ready for the 14th," he said.
In this station, there are multiple spots that are going to work together to track and monitor the Shenzhou-14 in flight and there is a command post there to coordinate them.
"We collect data and images from various tracking spots here and gather information on working conditions of the devices used in them," said engineer Jia Jianglei.
"All our tracking and monitoring data and images will be sent to the command center at the launch site. The information, in particular, the radar data, will guide other tracking and monitoring devices," he added.
Jia said that these will be essential references for the command center for the whole mission to monitor and make decisions and responses to make the Shenzhou-14 manned mission a success.
I don't want to be like a party pooper, but there is no 8K nor 4K nor 2K (1920 * 1080) footage anywhere.
Here is from CMSE web site.
By reading the source code of the website, I found the original file
I downloaded it and examined and played it. It is 1536 x 810 which is less than 2K. Also the bit rate is only 1.3Mb/s (h.264) which is very low meaning it is aggressively compressed. So you see lots of blocks and blurs. The file is only 22MB. A decently compressed 8K of such length would be 160 times larger at h.264, close to 3.52GB. 16 times of pixels and 10 times bitrate.
Hosting a piece of high quality 8K video even only 2 minutes long is not easy task for a non-video-professional web site such as CMSE.
I am quite disappointed of CMSE's PR work in this case. The source footage is 8K, but by releasing a heavily downgraded footage due to limitation of IT resources, the PR outcome is bad. 1. It diminishes the achievement of the equipment. 2. It gives people the feeling that 8K is no better than their 10 year old TV. 3. For the worst, it gives internet trolls the "evidence" of "China's 8K tech is just trash".
I would have expected CMSE not to release anything if they can not find a professional video hosting platform.
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The growth of remote sensing satellites between 2019 and 2021 is incredible. Will be interesting to see if the 2021 - 2023 period follows a similar growth trajectory...
Was that announcement official? The coming imminent launch of Shenzhou-14 is surprising low key without much coverage in both local and overseas media.
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by78
General
Here's a version of it on Youtube, albeit only 1080p, but it's convenient for our non-Chinese users access.
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