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

[Beccab]

 

[steve9728]

14 minutes ago, Beccab said:

 

Not good... might have hit on something I think

It was launched at 0652 and this is happened at 1325 CST.  The satellite, Yunhai-3 it launches is in the 800 km SSO. 7h I think is enough for an upper stage sends the payload into the planned orbit and finished its passivation.

Add: 

Yep, it finished the passivation, or at least started this operation 5 hours before this thing happened. Weird

Edited November 13, 2022 by steve9728

[Beccab]

22 minutes ago, steve9728 said:

Not good... might have hit on something I think

It was launched at 0652 and this is happened at 1325 CST.  The satellite, Yunhai-3 it launches is in the 800 km SSO. 7h I think is enough for an upper stage sends the payload into the planned orbit and finished its passivation.

Add: 

Yep, it finished the passivation, or at least started this operation 5 hours before this thing happened. Weird

Perhaps the passivation didn't empty it completely, and the residuals ended up blowing it up due to the increasing pressure

[steve9728]

At 14:18 CST today, the Shenzhou-14 crew were open the Tianzhou-5's hatch and entered the vessel at 15:03. 

Camera A in Tianzhou-5.

Taken on the ground before sealing:

Full of the parcels About 1 kg of plant seeds were also carried on board this time for conducting space breeding experiments. These seeds include staple crops such as rice, wheat, corn, and some forest tree seeds.

Deputy Chief Designer of Tianzhou cargo spacecraft system from the CASIC's 5th institute, Sun Xiaoping said to CCTV: The Tianzhou-6  will increase its cargo-carrying capacity about 500 kg, mainly by increasing the volume of the sealed compartment.

Edited November 13, 2022 by steve9728

[steve9728]

CMS official website: Tianzhou-4 cargo spacecraft is scheduled for a controlled re-entry on 15 Nov CST. Most of the spacecraft will be ablated and destroyed during re-enter. A little amount of wreckage may have will falling into predetermined safe waters in the South Pacific.

Tianzhou-5 this time take a material science experiment payload. And it will be mounted on one of the slots on the exposed experiment platform:

-What is the picture on the left (the first picture)?
-A wide variety of special materials. Such as organic shape memory alloys, lubricating materials, lightweight radiation-resistant metallic materials... and, yes, lunar soil cement.

I miss this one: on 3 Nov, CNSA's Lunar and Planetary Data Release System was released Chang'e-4 20th international corporation payloads scientific data, Chang'e-4 32nd scientific data and Tianwen-1 16th scientific data. 

Spoiler

Kind of curious how long it would take to send back 147.2GB of data from Mars.

[steve9728]

Tianzhou-4 was re-entry at 7:21 CST. It brought 6.2t supply in total, operated for 189 days and 2959 laps in orbit.

The last three photos it sends back:

Tianzhou-4's docking camera

Camera for monitoring solar panels

Farewell and thanks for your service, Tianzhou-4!

Edited November 15, 2022 by steve9728

[steve9728]

The third group satellites of Yaogan constellation

The mission patch this time:

Spoiler

The previous two, Yaogan-34 01 and 02 group:

Edited November 15, 2022 by steve9728

[SunlitZelkova]

As the tweet says, SLS launched 27 minutes after a Ceres-1 from Jiuquan!

Makes me wonder what the record minimum time between launches in two different countries is.

Also, some giggles . Appears to be fake though.

EDIT- Ninja’d? I assumed it would make sense to post it here too though.

Edited November 16, 2022 by SunlitZelkova

[steve9728]

16 minutes ago, SunlitZelkova said:

Makes me wonder what the record minimum time between launches in two different countries is.

ChinaSat-18 launched by CZ-3B/G2 Y58 rocket at 12:03 on 19 August 2019 UCT in XSLC. And just 9 min later, the 8th of the Electron rocket was taken off from NZ.

Tianhe Core Module launched by CZ-5B Y2 rocket at 03:23 on 4 April 2021 UTC in WSLC. And 21 minutes later, Starlink V1.0-L24 was launched from CCSFS

Xihe (Chinese H-alpha Solar Explorer, CHASE) and 9 other cube sats launched by CZ-2D Y53 rocket at 10:51 on 14 Oct  2021 UTC in TSLC. And 1h 11 min before, the Soyuz-2.1b ST36 was sent 36 OneWeb satellites into orbit.

The shortest interval between "classified satellites" launches by either side of Pacific I saw was recorded in September this year: at 22:25 on 24 Sep. 2022, Delta-4 D-387 launched NROL-91.  Half hour later, Shiyan-14 and Shiyan-15 was launched by KZ-1A rocket from TSLC.

May be inaccurate, feel free to correct me

Congratulations to GALACTIC-ENERGY and our America friends!

[Codraroll]

1 hour ago, SunlitZelkova said:

Makes me wonder what the record minimum time between launches in two different countries is.

Probably the launch of cruise missiles from one country, and interceptors from the target country. I.e. in Ukraine at the moment.

[steve9728]

 

Someone painted an advertisement on the rocket again: just below the fairing, the Chinese words "纽诺健康". Do some little research on online store, it's a company that mainly sells health products such as vitamin supplements. Never heard before.

[steve9728]

Shenzhou-14 crew, Chen Dong and Cai Xuzhe currently is carrying out their third EVA mission.

The mission task is:

•  Installation of inter-cabin connector
• Panoramic camera lift on the outside of the Wentian module
• Installation of one more set handrail on the small robotic arm

The inter-cabin connectors are for the astronauts in future can be more convenient to go to the other module in future if the EVA mission need them.  Because the handrails of the two module, Wentian and Mengtian, are not connected to the handrails of the Tianhe core module and there were quite a distance apart. That would make the astronauts not so convenient for hang the safety hooks when carry on the EVA mission.

Some screenshots from CCTV's live:

The inter-cabin connector, the new 3.6m long handrail itself:

Chen Dong riding on the combination of big and small Chinarm (this is also the first time on record on CSS): 

Chinarm camera view of Chen Dong and the Wentian Module:

The view of camera on Chen Dong's helmet:

Chen Dong today also broke Wang Yaping's record for the total length of taikonaut space missions: Wang Yaping was 197 days (14.6 days on Shenzhou-10 + 182.4 days on Shenzhou-13) and Chen Dong is now 197.32 days (32.27 days on Shenzhou 11 + 165.05 days already on Shenzhou 14). After this EVA, he will also become the longest taikonaut who completed the EVA missions in total.

Edited November 17, 2022 by steve9728

[steve9728]

 

[steve9728]

8 hours ago, steve9728 said:

The inter-cabin connector, the new 3.6m long handrail itself:

 

Make some correction. Logically these should have been brought by Tianzhou-5

[steve9728]

If CNSA can, it would be fun to send them some tiny sports cameras like GoPro or DJI's Osmo Action to make some unboxing video

 

Seems like it's not easy to play rowing machine up there

[steve9728]

Read something funny but it's fully Chinese and it have a paywall: Design and Performance Analysis of the Cat-inspired Lunar Landing Mechanism

"Abstract: Aiming at the problem that the buffering force of the existing passive alumimum honeycomb lunar lander fluctuated greatly and could not be reused, the cat-inspired lunar landing mechanism based on magnetorheological damper is proposed. Firstly, the jumping and landing experiments of house cats from different height platforms are carried out, and the attitude and the impulse of their front/rear legs touching the ground are analysed to explore the buffering and absorption mechanism of house cats. The results show that rear legs absorb more than front legs. Secondly, based on the cat jumping experiments and the parameters of China's Chang'e-series lunar landers, a novel  cat-inspired landing buffering mechanism is designed, simulated and compared. The results show that the maximum acceleration of the proposed cat-inspired lander is reduced by 18.3% and has better landing performance. The shock absorption contribution of the front legs is about 40%, and that of the rear legs is about 60%, which is basically consistent with experiments of house cats. The rationality of the proposed lunar landing buffering mechanism design is verified."

Spoiler

Tribute to the cat!

[steve9728]

Here we go! Shenzhou-15 with CZ-2F/G Y15 rocket was leaving the VAB and arrived the launch site

The eight-word slogan under the launch platform in English is: Living up to the (responsibility of the) times, Living up to the (trust of the) people

 

They were interviewed once before the Shenzhou-14 crew went on their mission. They said that the Shenzhou-14 crew will have a "special welcome for the newly arrived Shenzhou-15 crew to take over"

Chen Dong said to Liu Yang: Yeah, maybe you can dress up as an alien next time

[steve9728]

Chen Dong became the first taikonaut to spend 200 days in orbit. With the previous Shenzhou-11 missions' 32.27 days, he has accumulated 200 days in space today.

He paints his wife and his two sons on his cloth. The words on the cloth are read vertically from left to right: the most handsome one in space, Chinese Astronaut

Anyway, congratulations, Mr. Chen!

Looking forward the 300 one

Edited November 22, 2022 by steve9728

[steve9728]

We have NOTAM now:

The scope includes the land-based emergency landing area during the take -off phase and the emergency landing zone after one lap into orbit.

Via. https://weibo.com/6142289604/Mgu6z6IGP

Which means the Shenzhou-15 will launch between 14:58~15:41 UTC.  If we take the median, it would be launch around 15:18 UTC (which is 23:18 CST). I guess the docking this time will still be a conservative 6-7h, i.e. arriving the station around 5-6 am CST the following morning: after all, if it take two hours like Tianzhou last time, no one can sleep after all the preparations and the welcome ceremony.

Edited November 24, 2022 by steve9728

[steve9728]

The Lunar & Space Engineering Centre of the CNSA formed a selection committee to ensure the safety and reliability of the Chang'e-6 mission. The effectiveness of the engineering implementation of the international loads and the achievement of the scientific objectives were individually evaluated, and four international loads were finally identified: Radon Gas Explorer, CubeSat, Lunar Surface Negative Ion Analyser and Laser Angular Reflector. "At present, the technical status of these four international loads has been largely determined and is technically feasible to carry" 

As for "When and how will the our taikonauts reach the moon?" The chief designer of China's lunar exploration project, Wu Weiren said that the establishment of a basic lunar research station will be completed before a manned lunar landing, and that the basic lunar research station is expected to be built by around 2028, with taikonauts expected to be on the moon within a decade. By then, the moon will become our frontier base for deep space exploration, and we'll be able to transit on the moon when flying to other planets such as Mars.

Source: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/uX8xeKCQrvu5PVnwt4MZLg

 

To my inaccurate understanding of this, the current progress of the manned lunar landing project is CNSA has completed the demonstration of the project, the central government has approved the project at the political level and allocated the corresponding funds. Then the relevant departments of CNSA now are probably building the initial prototypes of the landing module and other related equipment. Of course, if you want to see a more accurate guess as to when the manned lunar landing will be completed, then you'll have to wait and see when construction of the new launch site at Wenchang will begin.

Emmm... a strange but creative idea from CALT: landing on the moon in a lying position. 

"... For the power system, the engines need to achieve variable thrust in order to achieve a soft landing on the lunar surface. The vehicle is powered by an 8t thrust YF-75D hydrogen-oxygen engine with a variable thrust ratio of 3:1. Eight-unit of RCS configuration scheme is used to achieve a landing section levelling and autogenous pressurisation scheme, with the RCS using gaseous hydrogen and oxygen scheme, with an integrated fluid system providing autogenous gas to meet the pressurisation flow temperature requirements.
For the control system, the reused single-stage lunar surface landing and ascent vehicle adopts a horizontal attitude vertical landing and vertical take-off scheme. Hover control and precision landing are achieved by controlling the thrust magnitude and direction of the main engines, the number of RCS descent nozzles on and their opening frequency." ... "The single-stage lunar landing and ascent vehicle is repeatedly used to decelerate and brake from the 300 km circumlunar orbit space station into a 300 km x 15 km transfer orbit. Deceleration and braking at the near-moon point of the transfer orbit to enter the lunar soft-landing segment." ... "The sub-sections are described as follows:

1. At 15 km altitude the main engines are switched on and ignition is switched on and the deceleration brakes are switched on. The braking section has fuel optimisation as its primary objective, considering the accuracy of the landing point to meet the position and velocity constraints at 1 km altitude.
2. At 1 km altitude, eight normal nozzles are switched on and the vehicle completes an attitude yaw of 180° during hovering.
3. From 1 km altitude, landing descent is initiated and manoeuvre addressing is completed during descent until lunar surface landing.
4. During ascent, the vertical take-off mode with horizontal attitude is adopted, eight normal nozzles are turned on, and the pitch angle is adjusted to 35° after 200 m. At this point, the main engine is fired until the vehicle is in orbit."

... "Conclusion
... In addition, the reusable single-stage lunar surface landing with a horizontal attitude vertical landing In addition, the landing gear of the reusable single-stage lunar surface landing and ascent vehicle with a horizontal attitude vertical landing can be converted to a wheeled mobile system to move the large mass payload from the to transport a large mass payload from Earth to the lunar landing base and then to another lunar base without loading or unloading, providing inter-orbit transport + lunar surface transport. orbital refuelling / lunar surface refuelling technology, for future large-scale lunar resource development, the lunar research station construction and operation, and space exploration and utilisation on the Earth and Moon. A new reusable transport system solution."

 

Have to say, pretty Kerbal this idea

[SunlitZelkova]

6 hours ago, steve9728 said:

To my inaccurate understanding of this, the current progress of the manned lunar landing project is CNSA has completed the demonstration of the project, the central government has approved the project at the political level and allocated the corresponding funds. Then the relevant departments of CNSA now are probably building the initial prototypes of the landing module and other related equipment. Of course, if you want to see a more accurate guess as to when the manned lunar landing will be completed, then you'll have to wait and see when construction of the new launch site at Wenchang will begin.

I am curious about the status of the Next Gen Crewed Spacecraft. I feel like I can sense how long it might take for the lunar lander, but it seems puzzling we don’t see more about the other element of the crewed lunar flight.

I imagine we will continue to hear only whispers and tidbits and then things will move fast all of a sudden.

6 hours ago, steve9728 said:

Emmm... a strange but creative idea from CALT: landing on the moon in a lying position.

Reminds me of the 1993 International Lunar Resources Exploration Concept.

I think building a separate lander and rover would be better though. Even if the engines can be covered to protect them from dust being kicked up, that amount of vibration would be bad for them.

[steve9728]

3 hours ago, SunlitZelkova said:

I imagine we will continue to hear only whispers and tidbits and then things will move fast all of a sudden.

And you don't know how unexpectedly they can do until the things finally come out. Then if you ask, they'll probably be like: "ah just a normal progress under normal situation. Is this unexpected for you?"

Everyone:

4 hours ago, SunlitZelkova said:

Even if the engines can be covered to protect them from dust being kicked up, that amount of vibration would be bad for them.

With reference to the experience of the Antarctic research stations, what if the ground was hardened for the landing sites needed for the lunar research stations?

[steve9728]

The third of Yaogan-36 remote sensing satellites has been sent into its planned orbit by CZ-2D Y69 rocket in XCLC at 20:23 CST today.

This three satellite mission patches finally forms a trapezoid

On 10/15/2022 at 11:48 PM, steve9728 said:

According to the mission patch this time and previous time, I guess this batch of launches should be followed by at least one more in the future:

  Hide contents

Previous one, the Y68:

[steve9728]

The Shenzhou-15 crew were made public. They are:

01: 费俊龙 (Fei Junlong), who has flown Shenzhou-6 mission. aka China's second manned space mission.

02: 邓清明 (Deng Qingming), the one who most moving for me: he is the first echelon of taikonaut and has been back-up Shenzhou-9, 10 and 11 missions. He also travelled to Russia to participate in astronaut training missions with the first taikonaut, Yang Liwei and others. He has been trained as taikonaut 24 years and finally make it going to space.

03: 张陆 (Zhang Lu), the only one from second echelon of taikonauts. He served as the Director of Air Combat Firing at a PLAAF training base command and was rated as one of the PLAAF First Class pilots.

 

Deng Qingming's daughter, 邓满琪 (Deng Manqi) also following her father's dream of space. She joined CNSA, where she now works in the flight control hall.

Edited November 28, 2022 by steve9728

[steve9728]

"CNSA have completed the key technology research and programme deepening demonstration for manned lunar exploration. Through the previous phase of work, we have made breakthroughs in key technologies such as the Next Gen Crewed Spacecraft, the Next Gen Manned Launch Vehicle, the Manned Lunar Lander, and the lunar suit.  This formed manned lunar mission implementation plan with Chinese characteristics, which has laid a solid foundation for the manned lunar exploration project." said by Ji Qiming, spokesman for the CMS office, "I believe that the dream of Chinese people to reach the moon in the ninth heaven will become a reality in the near future."

 

The crew of Shenzhou-15 have a same hobby: brush calligraphy (pretty typical middle-age Chinese man). Deng Qingming shared his calligraphy works yesterday.

Spoiler

Vertically from right to left: Going to Space, chasing the dream I dare to challenge the sky. Be proud to serve my country by going to space, and I never fear there's how many difficulties. Deng Qingming for the Shenzhou-15 mission

Quite powerful his work have to say.

Edited November 28, 2022 by steve9728