China Plans Heavy Lifter To Launch Space Station And More

People's Daily ^ | 14 Mar 02 | staff

[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.