China sets 2018 target for launch of its core space station module
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CHINA will launch the core module of its first space station around 2018, a senior engineer with China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp said yesterday.
Two space labs will be launched later and dock with the module, Tianhe-1, said Wang Zhongyang. A prototype is currently being assembled, he said.
Construction of the space station is expected to finish around 2022, when it will consist of the core module and the two labs.
Wang said the next few years will see some exciting advances in the space station program. This year, China is launching its second orbiting space lab Tiangong-2 and a Shenzhou-11 spacecraft will carry two astronauts to dock with it.
Next year, the country’s first cargo ship, Tianzhou-1, literally “heavenly vessel,” will be sent to dock with Tiangong-2 and test some key systems.
China launched its first space lab, Tiangong-1, in September 2011 and conducted two dockings with the module over the following two years.
Tiangong-1, which ran for four and half years, is said to have fulfilled its mission and ended service in March. It remains in orbit but will descend gradually over the coming months until it burns up.
“We have specifically modified the interior of the new space lab to make it more liveable for mid-term stays for our astronauts,” Wang said ahead of China’s Space Day on Sunday, set to mark the launch of China’s first satellite 46 years ago.
Meanwhile, China is working on reusable rocket technologies, a source close to the research told reporters yesterday.
Chinese experts have already built a prototype model to test theories on the reusable rocket booster’s landing subsystems. They have completed “experimental verifications” using “multiple parachutes” supposedly attached to the booster, a source with the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technologies, developer of China’s Long March rocket series, said.
“The experiment has laid solid foundation for the realization of reusable rockets,” the source said.
The remarks came weeks after the reusable main-stage booster of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket made a historic landing at sea.
Ma Zhibin, deputy director of CALT’s aerospace department, confirmed in a separate interview that Chinese scientists are working on reusable rockets, though the technologies they employ may differ from those of SpaceX.
“There is of course more than one way to do this ... I believe we could see some serious results during the 13th Five-Year Plan period,” he said, referring to the years between 2016 and 2020.
Still, Ma said it could take a considerably longer time before reusable launch vehicles could totally replace the current expendable rockets.
“This is not a one-day job, making rockets retrievable and reusable,” agreed rocket scientist Han Houjian, a designer of the Long March-1 rocket, which carried China’s first satellite, Dongfanghong-1, into space in 1970.
“Even (SpaceX founder Elon) Musk admitted that they had to reduce the payload of Falcon-9 to make it (the sea landing) happen,” he said
In another initiative, scientists are developing robotic arms for use in space.
Research on the project began in 2007, and so far experts have built a robotic arm over 10 meters long, according to a CASC source, capable of both payload lifting and precision maneuvers.
Meanwhile, scientists are also testing a new and smaller-sized re-entry capsule and designing a Xuntian optical module, similar to the Hubble telescope launched in 1990.
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