China Plans Heavy Lifter To Launch Space Station And More

People's Daily ^ | 14 Mar 02 | staff

[RightWhale]

China Plans Heavy Lifter To Launch Space Station And More

Beijing - Mar 14, 2002 - People's Daily

China is preparing for intensified space missions and international satellite launch services by developing a new family of powerful launch vehicles, senior aerospace officials said Wednesday in Beijing.

Such carrier rockets will be used to launch a 20-ton, permanently manned space station, said Zhang Qingwei, president of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp (CASC).

To realize its goal of exploring outer space and expanding shares in the global satellite launch market, China has stepped up the design and development of carrier rockets with non-toxic, non-pollution, high-performance and low-cost qualities, he said.

Zhang said that developing the new generation of launch vehicles is key to maintaining the country's edge in the world aerospace field and boosting its economic expansion.

Achievements made in recent years

Launch capacity for the world's primary rockets exceeds 20 tons for near-earth orbits and ranges up to 7 tons for geo-stationary transfer orbits while for Chinese rockets, the figures stand at 9.2 tons and 5.1 tons respectively, Zhang said.

China plans to launch its attended space station "at an appropriate time this century,'' Zhang said, declining to specify a timetable.

China has tested two unmanned experimental space flights since 1999 to provide ground for sending astronauts into space, said Zhuang Fenggan, chairman of the Science and Technology Commission of CASC.

After realizing successful manned space flights, China will build space stations. But Zhuang said the country should first build a space lab that will be sporadically attended by researchers.

China's Long March rockets have yet to improve capacity to fulfil the missions, however.

The country has an "imperative'' need to catch up with the world's pace in launch vehicle technology, and provide robust buttresses for efforts including the establishment of space stations and space production bases, Zhang said.

Worldwide, at least 30 satellites will be placed into geo-stationary orbits each year by 2010, each weighing more than 4 tons.

The new launchers will be built on a modular design based on three models of core stages -- 2.25 metres, 3.35 metres and 5 metres in diameter -- powered by liquid hydrogen, liquid oxygen and refined kerosene, which produces powerful propulsion and leaves no pollution or poison, he said.

Zhuang said China has already made breakthroughs in developing liquid hydrogen, liquid oxygen and refined kerosene, which will make its rockets more environmentally friendly.

Upon completion, the new family of rockets -- by combining the three modules -- will be able to cover a launch range between 0.5 ton to 25 tons for near-earth orbits and 4-13 tons for geo-stationary transfer orbits, Zhang said.

One such rocket can be used to blast two 6-ton geo-stationary transfer satellites into their orbits or launch a group of middle and low-orbit satellites, he said.

"The new generation of the carrier rockets will enable China to launch all kinds of satellites to be developed in the world in the coming 20 to 30 years,'' he said. "This will dramatically boost the competitive edge of the Long March rockets in the world market.''

Bright prospect of new launch vehicle technology

Apart from space stations and global launch service, Zhang also envisioned a bright prospect for the use of the new launch vehicle technology in China in the years to come.

The new rockets can be used to send large-scale astronomical telescopes and explorers to the moon and Mars.

As for the timetable of such new-type rockets, Luan Enjie, director of the State Aerospace Bureau, said a preliminary study on such rockets has been finished, and the work has shifted to research and manufacturing of the sample models.

Publisher's Note: This article is from the English Language version of People's Daily and is unedited from the original.

[Magnum44]

So far, and for the near future, no other space ventures succeed with strong national interest and government funding.

So far, and for the near future, no other space ventures succeed without strong national interest and government funding.

I seem to be all thumbs with the key board today.

[RightWhale]

As for space development becoming self supporting

It can be.

At the present level of space development, obviously it is not. Perhaps the commsat sector, or the GPS sector is close to profitable. The science missions are nowhere near self-supporting, it's all government with a little university thrown in.

The sectors of space development that can be profitable are a few industrial sectors and space tourism/Hollywood, none of which are developed at all. Such a sector must reach a certain stage of development before it can begin to break even or get ahead.

For example, Space Adventures is building a mini- Buran in Russia for suborbital tourist flights, ticket $80,000 each. They are years from first launch, and years from profitability.

Space mining is an area I have studied. It can be developed to the point of profitability, and the market already exists. But the investment is large and the time to first paycheck is fairly long.

Space power satellites is something China wants to work on. This could be made to work and pay its own way, maybe more. So far nothing has been done away from the drafting tables.

Space farming is another possibility, but I consider this to be much more difficult in a business sense than space mining; space farming is coming sooner or later, but commercial space farming is a long way off.

A moon settlement can be created, but it won't be commercial. It might be made self-supporting, but not a money-maker.

These are just a few possibilities. Space mining is economically possible now, the rest won't be until later. Tourism/Hollywood can be done anytime someone builds a ship, but profitability is a different question.

[borghead]

Here's the deal, China's population growth has just dropped below 2%, and since their male to female ratio is totally imbalanced, its likely that the imbalance along with rapid industrialization will cause the population to level off around 2020, and then go into active decline after that. India on the otherhand being significantly underdeveloped will not experience a leveling off effect for another 20 years, so around 2030 I would expect the population of india to exceed that of China, thus by then China should at the very least have a foot hold on another world such as the moon or some astroid, because they risk the chance of losing their power on earth. Now if this policy of space exploration works, and they establish a moon base by 2020, they can colonize the moon, and exchange lunar resources for additonal chinese colonists, and perpetuate its population growth, otherwise the future may be gloomy.

[Brett66]

This is a picture of one of the boosters they refer to in this article:

The CZ-5-5.0 heavy launcher would use the 5.0 m core stage together with a number of modular 2.25 m or 3.35 m diameter stages as strap-ons. Maximum payload with four 3.35 m diameter strap-ons is given as 23 tonnes to low earth orbit or 11 tonnes to geosynchronous transfer orbit. Lower payloads could be achieved by using 2 x 2.25 m plus 2 x 3.35 m strap-on stages; four x 2.25 m strap-on stages, or two of either stage. Growth to 40 tonnes payload would be possible if eight 3.35 m strap-ons could be used. The CZ-5 core stage is similar in dimensions and mass to the Ariane 5 core, but powered by four engines instead of the single engine used in Ariane.

CZ-5-5.0

[Willie Green]

Expect space news to increase over the years ahead. Expect China to eventually take the lead in space exploration and to build a permanent moon base. Expect NASA to die out.

Great Expectations!!!

Who cares that China has over a billion mouths to feed?
Let 'em squander their resources on the moon.
Been there, done that.

Nothing up there but a gigantic, barren rock.
If the Chinese can figure out how to eat it, let 'em have it.

[Brett66]

I thought their CZ-2E(A) was going to be their main launch vehicle to loft their space station. Then they say the CZ-5-5.0 will handle these tasks. Maybe the CZ-2E(A) is man rated.

[Moonman62]

More news from the People's Republic. Expect space news to increase over the years ahead. Expect China to eventually take the lead in space exploration and to build a permanent moon base. Expect NASA to die out.

This is just a wish list of things the US is doing or has already done. The fact is the space program no longer drives research and technology the way it once did. The glass cockpit in the Space Shuttle was derived from commercial airliners fer cryin' out loud, and corrupt senators get joy rides in the name of "medical research." NASA is simply shrinking to its proper size -- reflecting the reality of what we can efficiently get out of it versus what we get out of other research programs for the same amount of money.

And as far as China goes, it would be much better for them if they dropped their totalitarian government and shared in the technological wealth of the free world rather than reinvent the wheel forty years after the fact.

[mikeIII]

world's primary rockets exceeds 20 tons for near-earth orbits and ranges up to 7 tons for geo-stationary transfer orbits while for Chinese rockets, the figures stand at 9.2 tons and 5.1 tons respectively, Zhang said.

They don't seem to have improved much on the technology passed on by Loral and Clinton!

[RightWhale]

let 'em have it

Note to our Chinese friends:
You have the "Green" light. Go for it!

[RightWhale]

That seems to be the way to go for modern boosters. Develop a core that is reliable and relatively inexpensive and relatively efficient. Then have flexibility in strap-ons, as well as upper stages. The "most efficient motor" in the world is a Russian design, and is used on the new Atlas. Where Atlas used to have 3 motors on lift off and dropped 2 after it got underway, they now have 2 all the way, and that rocket moves out, nothing slow about it. The move to hydrogen and LOX for the main stage is highly efficient, as well as environmentally friendly. They can burn kerosine in the upper stage since that happens above most of the atmosphere. Top stage can be any fuel they want, hypergolic possibly so it is easy to start and stop.

[newwahoo]

"There is no doubt that China considers everything in light of its military potential. We do, too."

Absolutely. We all spy and we all use space exploration for military purposes. All the more reason for me to wish the Chinese space program many fortune cookies worth of bad luck.

[Tailgunner Joe]

[wattsmag2]

Here you go. First the US

Now Asia

[RightWhale]

When Pres Bush was in Korea recently, viewing the Axes of Evil at the DMZ museum, he commented on this very image of the planet, how N Kor was dark and should be brought into the light.

We each read different things into the image. What do you see?

[wattsmag2]

We each read different things into the image. What do you see?

Beauty in the first image, trouble in the second.