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China's Mars explorer launched

Russia failed. China will go it alone to Mars after 2014 with Long March V.

The launch vehicle for the Phobos-Grunt was a Russian Zenit-2SB. The Zenit-2SB can carry a 12 tonne payload to LEO/NEO (low earth orbit or near-earth orbit).

The Long March 5 engine has already passed its 200-second engine-burn test. We have already seen photographs of Long March 5 rocket segments being assembled. The Long March 5 rocket propellant tank is also ready.

The Long March 5 has twice the payload capacity (e.g. 25 tonnes) of the Russian Zenit-2SB. We only have to wait two short years before China possesses the indigenous capability to send another Chinese Yinghuo-1 orbiter to Mars.

References:

Phobos-Grunt: Fobos-Grunt - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Zenit-2SB: Zenit-2M - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Long March 5 propellant tank and 25 tonne LEO capacity: China develops largest propellant tank for space vehicles - Economic Times

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Rocket to go to moon under design

The following impressive video is a successful 200-second rocket-engine burn of the forthcoming 2014 Long March V. Having completed this milestone, the talented rocket scientists have moved on to designing and building the final heavy-lift rocket engine that will carry Chinese taikonauts to the Moon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=836xtLHRhcs

Rocket to go to moon under design

"Rocket to go to moon under design
By Xin Dingding (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-03-05 07:26

BEIJING: A new heavy-thrust carrier rocket is under scientific research, with the goal of sending astronauts to the moon, scientists said.

8gc0i.jpg

A model of the Long March V rocket

Although there is no official timetable yet for China's moon landing, scientists are researching a new powerful carrier rocket with a lift-off thrust of 3,000 tons, Liang Xiaohong, vice-president of the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, told China Daily on Thursday.

"The heavy-thrust launcher's lift-off thrust will be three times that of the Long March-5
, China's current largest launcher," said Liang, who is also a member of the 11th CPPCC national committee.

The large-thrust Long March-5 launch vehicle has a lift-off thrust of 1,000 tons, which enables it to send a maximum payload of 25 tons to near-Earth orbit and a payload of 10 tons to the higher geo-stationary orbit. Designed for transporting heavyweight satellites and space stations, it is slated to take off in 2014, according to Liang.

Compared to the Long March-5, the heavy-thrust launcher will be more powerful, but its payload capacity is still under discussion, he said.

The Long March-5 is also likely to be used in the preparatory stage of a future moon landing, he added.

China is currently studying the feasibility of a moon landing, despite US President Barack Obama's decision to kill NASA's $100-billion plans to return astronauts to the moon.

Bao Weimin, an academician with the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a CPPCC national committee member, said: "A moon landing program is very necessary, because it could drive the country's scientific and technological development."

Besides the heavy-thrust carrier rocket under study, the academy is also developing a new family of carrier rockets for future space programs.

"The Long March-6 will be a small-thrust carrier rocket, and the Long March-7 will be a medium-thrust launch vehicle. Together with the Long March-5, they will form a family that can cover all necessities for launch vehicles and replace the current carrier rockets," Liang said.

So far, the Long March-5 project has entered the testability analysis stage, he added.

About 100,000 square meters of workshops have been completed so far at a new base being built in the Binhai New Area of the northern coastal city of Tianjin. The facility will be used for testing and manufacturing the Long March-5. Construction began last year with an investment of 1.5 billion yuan ($220 million), Liang said.

Eventually, a total investment of 10 billion yuan will be poured into the base, which will be able to produce a maximum of 12 Long March-5 launch vehicles each year, he said.

Qi Faren, former chief designer of Shenzhou spaceships and a CPPCC national committee member, said on Thursday that the Long March-5 will be used to launch China's space station mission.

"We aim to send the core module of the space station into orbit before 2020. Without the large-thrust launcher, the 20-ton core module cannot be in place," he said.


Before that, however, the first task of the Long March 5 may be to send the Fengyun-4 weather satellite into space from the launch center under construction at Wenchang in Hainan, China's southern island province, according to Liang.

The new Fengyun-4 satellite, which is under design, weighs about eight to nine tons, which cannot be lifted by the current launchers that can carry a maximum payload of 5.2 tons to geo-stationary orbit, he added.

Hou Lei contributed to the story"

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Bonus:

If you have never seen the assembly of a Chinese rocket, look below and now you have seen "a Long March 5 prototype being assembled!"

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A Long March 5 section is hoisted into place.

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Technicians inspect a Long March 5 rocket segment.

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A technician proceeds with Long March 5 assembly.

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Different Long March 5 segments are being aligned.

[Note: Thank you to ChineseTiger1986 for the newslink. Thank you to HouShanghai for the Long March 4B launch photograph. Thank you to Qwerrty and ChineseTiger1986 for the Long March 5 assembly photographs.]
 
Chinese rocket suck balls.. the salary of Chinese rocket scientist is pathetic too.. RMB$5000 for a employee holding a doctor.. now you dream of China come after the US in space.. HAHAHAHA
 
Sorry to hear about the Russian craft, but pathetic to even hint at sabotage. How utterly juvenile. That's like a kid falling off his skateboard and blaming an onlooker 25 meters away who has done nothing.

I'd like to see China or Russia do something that hasn't been done yet. We have moon rocks. How about a Chinese Mars mission that will land near the poles, scoop soil, and return samples? Or better yet, missions to the moons of Saturn and Jupiter? Lots of interesting science to be done on moons like Titan, Ganymede, and especially Europa.
 
I'd like to see China or Russia do something that hasn't been done yet. We have moon rocks. How about a Chinese Mars mission that will land near the poles, scoop soil, and return samples? Or better yet, missions to the moons of Saturn and Jupiter? Lots of interesting science to be done on moons like Titan, Ganymede, and especially Europa.

that's for india, not china. indians seemed to love to fly first before they crawl. :lol:
 
Sorry to hear about the Russian craft, but pathetic to even hint at sabotage. How utterly juvenile. That's like a kid falling off his skateboard and blaming an onlooker 25 meters away who has done nothing.

I'd like to see China or Russia do something that hasn't been done yet. We have moon rocks. How about a Chinese Mars mission that will land near the poles, scoop soil, and return samples? Or better yet, missions to the moons of Saturn and Jupiter? Lots of interesting science to be done on moons like Titan, Ganymede, and especially Europa.

nope, sorry, your latest Mars rover project curiosity cost about 2.5 billion USD, our leader would spend such amount of money on develop a new military toy rather than a interplanetary explorer, they even refuse to invest on a decent LOX/LH2 rocket engine.

same goes for Russia, regardless of why, their space agency is underfund too, Fobos-Grunt cost only 163 million USD, which is considered the major cause of its failure.
 
Why doesnt the world work together on space?

Is it fear of sharing technology?

Anyway awsome im interested in all things space:)
Most space exploration is about status, respect and glory despite the talk about Mankind, etc, etc. The less glory there is, the more talk of cooperation and scientific progress becomes reality. Does anybody actually believe landing on the Moon was about scientific progress rather than 99% glory seeking propaganda during the Cold War? lol
 
Most space exploration is about status, respect and glory despite the talk about Mankind, etc, etc. The less glory there is, the more talk of cooperation and scientific progress becomes reality. Does anybody actually believe landing on the Moon was about scientific progress rather than 99% glory seeking propaganda during the Cold War? lol

You have a point but it applies ONLY to the moon race. Pretty much everything after 1975 has been science with little "glory" thrown in. Are people basking in glory over a probe mission to Europa? No. But there's been some awesome science that has come out of the space program. The Hubble is on example of many.
 

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