Chinese Space Program (CNSA) & Ch. commercial launch and discussion

[Scotius]

There is difference between an orbiter and helicopter drone.

Orbiter is much less likely to crash and scatter across the landscape.

[kerbiloid]

Actually, currently the only function of a drone is to test a drone.

[Beccab]

1 hour ago, Scotius said:

There is difference between an orbiter and helicopter drone.

Orbiter is much less likely to crash and scatter across the landscape.

Depends if the orbiter provider used metric or imperial

[kerbiloid]

1 hour ago, Beccab said:

Depends if the orbiter provider used metric or imperial

Depends on the empire.

[SunlitZelkova]

2 hours ago, Scotius said:

There is difference between an orbiter and helicopter drone.

Orbiter is much less likely to crash and scatter across the landscape.

The difference is one will rip 500 million dollars out of the rest of the robotic space program and one is possibly one of the cheapest planetary spacecraft in history.

30 minutes ago, kerbiloid said:

Depends on the empire.

Graveyard of empires = Mars landing attempts? The National Geographic documentary on Disney+ made a big point out of how many missions to Mars have failed.

[kerbiloid]

10 minutes ago, SunlitZelkova said:

Graveyard of empires = Mars landing attempts?

I mean the Ancient Martian Empire.

Somebody had to dig out all those channels...

Edited September 20, 2021 by kerbiloid

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

10 hours ago, SunlitZelkova said:

would actually be illegal

Derp - of course it is. 

 

Thanks 

[DDE]

2 hours ago, SunlitZelkova said:

Graveyard of empires = Mars landing attempts? The National Geographic documentary on Disney+ made a big point out of how many missions to Mars have failed.

The Martians, every time a probe from Earth fails:

Spoiler

Sons and daughters of Mars indeed.

 

Edited September 20, 2021 by DDE

[SunlitZelkova]

Tianzhou-3 has launched and Shenzhou 12 has landed-

 

[DDE]

6 hours ago, SunlitZelkova said:

Tianzhou-3 has launched and Shenzhou 12 has landed-

 

Interesting how they've herded everyone out of the shot

(this style of photoshoot seems a bit usually formal, too)

and avoided the somewhat gratifying sight of heroes being carried around.

[SunlitZelkova]

4 hours ago, DDE said:

Interesting how they've herded everyone out of the shot

and avoided the somewhat gratifying sight of heroes being carried around.

I myself thought the photo was unnecessary, but here it is! The chair appears to be specially designed to avoid making them look like they are being carried in the manner injured (and thus weak? In the view of propaganda...) people are.

A marker has been erected at the landing site. Within the square they targeted, the landing was dead center. This makes me curious about modern Soyuz accuracy.

Edited September 23, 2021 by SunlitZelkova

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

Isn't there a bit of showmanship in this?  These guys can't have been invalided by such a short time in space 

[DDE]

2 hours ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

Isn't there a bit of showmanship in this?  These guys can't have been invalided by such a short time in space 

About two weeks:

 

[kerbiloid]

That's also the answer for the thread "How far can we get with current technologies but unlimited resources".

This far.

[insert_name]

Kuaizhou and LM-3b launched within 2 hrs, the satellite on the LM-3b seems to have failed 

https://spacenews.com/status-of-satellite-unknown-after-china-conducts-pair-of-launches-in-2-hours/

[SunlitZelkova]

First time a crewed spacecraft has been propelled by something other than chemical rockets, even if it is just for station keeping.

The Zhuhai air show yields lots of juicy info for not only space, but also China's armed forces and export military equipment. Models of the LM-5DY and LM-9 were on display as well.

Remember the spaceplane that had a suborbital flight test of the second stage some months ago? I posted an artist's concept when I posted the news, but the definitive look is now known. A video presentation was shown which included an animation of it docking with a space station, so the designer's may have Tiangong resupply in mind for a future mission.

The Long March 8 (CZ-8) is China's government developed Falcon 9 counterpart (partial reusability).

[DDE]

6 hours ago, SunlitZelkova said:

Remember the spaceplane that had a suborbital flight test of the second stage some months ago? I posted an artist's concept when I posted the news, but the definitive look is now known. A video presentation was shown which included an animation of it docking with a space station, so the designer's may have Tiangong resupply in mind for a future mission.

That's an X-37B riding a Spiral.

And that thing in the back is a dead ringer for Kalibr UKSK. Not many ways you can make a 533 mm VLS )

[kerbiloid]

1 hour ago, DDE said:

That's an X-37B riding a Spiral.

They forgot to copy the two-staged hydroflu _{or how is hydrogen+fluorine called like "hydrolox" for H+O} booster for the upper stage from the original project. The plane is not enough.

Edited September 30, 2021 by kerbiloid

[SunlitZelkova]

Mission profile of China's asteroid sample return mission, which will launch in 2024. It is currently being referred to as Zheng He, after the early Ming era maritime explorer.

---------------------------------------

--------------------------------------

I think the Chinese commercial companies have a much better shot at nailing reusability compared to the government funded Long March 8R. Of course, I hope both will be successful, but not much visible progress has been seen on the LM-8R and I am a little skeptical of whether the "old space" ballistic missile manufacturers have the will to deal with the failures to eventually succeed.

Edited October 13, 2021 by SunlitZelkova

[kops said]

Looks like shenzhou 13 was successfully launched. Carrying one female astronaut and two male astronauts to the Tiangong space station.

This mission looks like it's going to prove some sort of "fast docking technology", but it doesn't look like it's going to be that fast, six hours supposedly.

I watched the whole launch live, and this time I can confirm it was real time.

[SunlitZelkova]

Crew is as follows-

Commander- Zhai Zhigang (PLA Strategic Support Force Major General, became the first Chinese person to walk in space in 2008)

Operator- Wang Yaping (PLAAF Colonel, deputy of the National People's Congress, second Chinese woman in space, visited Tiangong-1)

System operator- Ye Guangfu (PLAAF Colonel, first spaceflight)

More pictures from the launch-

Spoiler

 

14 hours ago, kops said said:

Looks like shenzhou 13 was successfully launched. Carrying one female astronaut and two male astronauts to the Tiangong space station.

This mission looks like it's going to prove some sort of "fast docking technology", but it doesn't look like it's going to be that fast, six hours supposedly.

I watched the whole launch live, and this time I can confirm it was real time.

Six is considered fast. Soyuz used to take two days to dock with the ISS but the 6 hour docking flight profile first used on Soyuz TMA-08M is referred to as a "fast rendezvous and docking".

Soyuz MS-17 used an "ultra fast" rendezvous and docking profile, docking in 3 hours.

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

5 hours ago, SunlitZelkova said:

used an "ultra fast" rendezvous and docking profile, docking in 3 hours.

When do you start counting? 

Is there an official designation? 

[kops said]

7 hours ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

When do you start counting? 

Is there an official designation? 

It's counting from about T0, probably.

I'm not aware of the official designation of ultra fast rendezvous and docking profile.

But I think the theory that he defined helped me a lot.

[SunlitZelkova]

12 hours ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

When do you start counting? 

Is there an official designation? 

I’m not sure if it is official (present in actual documents and so on) in that sense of the word, but both NASA and Roscosmos have used those two terms in their PR.

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

So launch to docking in 3 hours?

Kinda hell bent for leather - but it does show off mature command and control