Great hike
China is ready to conquer space in all directions.
Big space "divorce" took place. Nothing means the fact that the partners are still continuing to visit and “sweep” the common dwelling - the ISS. It is already clear that the new programs of Roscosmos and NASA are not foreseen in the foreseeable future. Moreover, Russian officials have identified a future partner in space exploration. Now it is China. The second economy of the world with a dynamic national space program is a seemingly worthy choice. What could be the new union?
Who is who
"In China, the 105-day experiment was completed to study the ability of a person to be in a sealed capsule that simulates the lunar base, eating exclusively products grown inside the module," says a message from XNHX, a leading Chinese news agency, Xinhua. “The volunteers left the capsule alive and well.”
According to the Chinese media, the participants in the experiment (two women and a man) fed on the fact that they themselves grew five types of grain crops, 15 varieties of vegetables and one sort of fruit), one hundred percent of oxygen and water were regenerated on board, and waste materials were used as fertilizers . In other words, the developers of interplanetary manned flights from the Middle Kingdom seem to have succeeded in creating a fully closed-loop life support system. Neither the widely publicized Russian experiment Mars-500 or any other similar undertakings have completed the task of creating an optimal model for life-support systems for deep space exploration.
Moreover, this experiment is not the only achievement of Beijing. This is to answer the question of why China is chosen as the Roscosmos partner.
Almost immediately after the publication of the NASA sanctions against the Russian side, our responsible officials began talking about the possibility of promoting domestic star navigation without an American participation. However, it is clear to everyone that the level of tasks in the exploration of outer space is such that it requires international cooperation in one degree or another. The Russian capabilities, at least at this stage, of course, involve partnership in organizing and conducting complex expeditions.
No matter how optimistic the statements made by our officials about the possibility of individual exploitation of the ISS, the Americans refuse to use this program, it is clear that it will not be possible to “populate” the station alone. At least because of limited opportunities in the field of energy and communications. It is even more difficult to deploy new long-term orbital complexes using our own resources. For manned flights, which remain the main direction of the Russian space program, a partner is needed. From whom do we choose?
Americans disappear by definition. The European Space Agency is, of course, a serious organization, but, unlike China, it hasn’t yet said anything intelligible in the matter of manned expeditions. Nobody discards ESA from accounts, but China is a more promising space partner.
In Roskosmos this idea is not hidden. “Now we are developing a national strategy for manned space flight. Together with the Russian Academy of Sciences and industry, we are preparing a certain concept outside the ISS, ”said Sergey Saveliev, deputy head of the agency, at the economic forum in St. Petersburg that ended in late May. He clarified that the intention is to create new manned complexes that will allow Russia to go beyond the orbit of the Earth and may be used to explore the Moon, which will be the first step into deep space.
We will pay attention not to the prospects of domestic manned flights, but to the thought of a responsible official that Roskosmos views China and Europe as strategic partners, provided that the key role in the implementation of projects will belong to Russia.
Europe as a partner, we have casually mentioned. ESA can be used in the pickup, but not in the "main composition".
About China as the main partner after Sergey Savelyev, the curator of the domestic military industrial complex, including the space program, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, said: “After the 2020 of the year (when the ISS program is completed - AK), we may have new projects related to the manned space program ... with a wider range of partners ... We agreed that during the EXPO in Harbin at the end of June we will hold talks with our Chinese colleagues on possible new projects on manned cosmonautics. ”
There is little reason to doubt that it is China that will become the Russian leader in the field of space. It’s not for nothing that the last visit to China of Russian President Vladimir Putin is called the beginning of a new stage in the world order.
No noise and dust in advanced
So, what is the cosmonautics of the Middle Kingdom.
China began with carrier rockets, and exactly followed the path of the “elder brother”, transforming the first combat missiles, obtained by itself from the USSR, into means of launching spacecraft.
24 April 1970, China has become the third country that successfully launched a satellite into space, and its own production. Up until the beginning of the current millennium, Beijing was busy overcoming the military-technical consequences of the Soviet-Chinese 1960 gap. Forces and means were concentrated on the production of combat missiles and mainly military satellites. By the way, from 1970 to 2000, the year China made 50 successful launches of its own spacecraft. On the basis of the ICBM, it was possible to create the “Long March” carrier rocket park. Today we are working on the ninth series of the family. Beijing is boosting the heavy booster program. According to open sources, the development of the Great March-9 is being completed. This rocket will be able to launch a payload weighing up to 133 tons into low orbit. That is, before the American lunar masterpiece performed by Werner von Braun - the Saturn-5 rocket, the Chinese are harvesting only six tons. The corresponding Russian carrier remains in the plans.
However, the presence of "heavy trucks" and even our own satellites in our time does not mean belonging to an elite club of powers that can carry out the entire spectrum of space activities: operate multi-field systems in near-earth orbits, carry out manned expeditions, develop promising programs for the study of interstellar space.
Until the beginning of the new millennium, China could not boast of anything like it. In all likelihood, the latter circumstance forced Beijing in the early tenths to seek rapprochement with the United States and Russia to participate in, say, the ISS program. However, the Americans were far from enthusiastic about such an expansion of partnership at an international station, and China stopped trying, concentrating efforts on its own space program.
We note in passing that in 2011, he overtook the United States in the number of launches: 19 versus 18, second only to Russia. And held on to this position in 2012. Only last year, the Americans regained second place, ahead of China by four starts. In the next five years, China plans to launch 100 space rockets and launch 100 satellites into orbit.
But the most interesting thing is the success of the Celestial Empire in manned flights. It is considered that the leader in this segment of space activity is Russia, and the Chinese only repeat what we have long since passed. Is it so?
October 2003 of the year. In orbit, the Chinese spacecraft "Shenzhou-5" with the taykonavtom Yan Livei on board. The first orbital flight of the Celestial Empire lasted 21 hour 14 minutes. Since then, China has made five manned launches. In terms of the number of the Middle Kingdom far to the United States and Russia. But with quality ...
The Chinese did not follow the path of venerable teachers, did not make several similar launches in a row, and each time made the program more complicated.
After Liwei, the launch of 2005 follows, and there are already two taikonauts in orbit. The 2008 is the first spacewalk. In 2011, the Tiangong-1 module, a prototype of a promising Chinese manned station, appears in orbit. The ship "Shenzhou-8" docked to it several times in the automatic mode, practicing the approach and docking maneuvers. On 2012, three people work on board the module for 10 days, including a woman. Last year, the same flight followed to “consolidate the material covered.”
Of course, the 120-ton “Mir” is not comparable to the 8,5-ton “Tianhun”. Nevertheless, China today is engaged in precisely what is considered the pinnacle of Russian cosmic thought, orbital complexes. But quantitative equality is not far off. By 2020, the Chinese plans to deploy in orbit a three-module complex "Tyangun-3" weighing about 60 tons. I think that in 20 years after the first manned launch, the mass of the Chinese station will exceed 100 tons.
A few words about the ship "Shenzhou", the basis of the design philosophy of which, of course, lies half a century ago, the Russian "Union". However, the technical differences are obvious. The main thing: the ship "Shenzhou" - a shared machine. One bay with taykonavtami returns to Earth, the other remains in orbit and can work there automatically as a scientific laboratory. In addition, compared with the "Union", the ship is better energy-equipped, has a much larger internal volume.
As for deep-space research, in particular, the lunar program, China became the first country in the last 40 years to land softly on the surface of the Earth satellite. In December, the Xinge 2013 apparatus with the Yuuta lunar rover, the Jade Hare, made it 3. This mission is the second stage of the corresponding Chinese program. Earlier, in 2007 and 2010, the Chang'e-1 and Chang'e-2 vehicles flew around the Moon and made a detailed map of it. At the third stage in 2017, China plans to deliver samples of lunar soil to Earth. In 2020, according to plans, a manned flight is scheduled with a landing on the surface of the Moon.
The Chinese calm and full confidence in achieving the goal are amazing. Of course, in the field of high technology, the PRC took the best from us. Only the victorious rhetoric of socialist construction, which for some reason took root in the Russian cosmonautics, did not come in handy.
In a single order
The PRC has the largest armed forces in the world, the most numerous ground forces, and relatively modern navy and air forces.
The basis of China’s nuclear missile potential up to 2040 will be the three-stage solid-fuel ICU DF-31 (“Dun Feng-31” - “Wind from the East”) being developed today. According to open sources, the length of the rocket is 13 meters, the diameter is 2,25 meters, the starting weight is 42 tons. The ICBM is equipped with an inertial guidance system with astronavigation.
The missile can be equipped with both a monoblock nuclear warhead with a capacity of up to 1 Mt, and an MIRV type multiple rocket launcher with three warheads with an 20 – 150 CT capacity. In this case, the circular deviation of the rocket is, according to averaged estimates, 300 meters - a very flattering figure for the developer. In other words, this ICBM, designed for both mine and mobile bases, corresponds to the Russian Topol and Topol-M missiles.
According to world press reports, a modernized version of the DF-31, which has been designated as DF-41, is being developed. The main requirements for the ongoing modernization are an increase in the firing range from 8000 to 12 000 kilometers and the creation of a full-fledged transport and launcher for this rocket, similar to the Russian Topol. With the creation of this rocket, China will be able to bombard the entire territory of the United States.
On the other hand, in the People's Republic of China today they came to an understanding of the exceptionally important role that the powerful space industry plays in the military-technical component of the state. It was not by chance that in April, the Chairman of the People’s Republic of China, Xi Jinping, called for strengthening the country's capabilities in near-Earth space, adding that the country needed to respond to the militarization of space by rival countries, including the United States.
"Despite the fact that China continues to adhere to the peaceful use of space, we must be sure that we can cope with the actions of others in outer space," the leader of the People's Republic of China stresses.
The January 2007 of the year was indicative, when the Chinese carrier with a kinetic interceptor destroyed the old but operational meteorological satellite of the PRC, Feng Yun-1С. There is complete confidence that the Chinese have spent the first in their stories anti-satellite test weapons.
Then the Americans "froze", and in this state they are, one might say, still. Typical in this regard is the publication in June 2011 of an article by two retired American intelligence officers in the authoritative aerospace weekly Aviation Week & Space Technology.
The essence of the concerns expressed by experts is that the military command and control systems of the Pentagon’s armed forces and national channels for collecting and processing intelligence information depend on the space component on 80 percent. In other words, without satellite provision, all the sophisticated modern weapons with “smart” bombs and high-precision, capable of getting into a mosquito with cruise missiles are nothing more than scrap. The American orbital grouping today has more than 500 devices that provide uninterrupted communication, target acquisition and navigation. China, according to intelligence, is able to deliver a preemptive strike on the relevant US space and ground structures. The attack may be very likely to be effective and seriously disorganize the combat command and control of troops. Then, according to American experts, Beijing can go on negotiations on a cease-fire. Moreover, the United States will most likely find it advantageous to agree, since the Pentagon’s military-technical and intelligence capabilities will suffer significant damage.
The question is: will the country agree with practically unlimited resources, armed with advanced military-technical philosophy, which allowed it to produce the most modern products, to share the palm in space with someone? If yes, then only on a parity basis and under the strict condition of unlimited use of the full potential of the “partner”.
The Chinese without boasting, without pathos, without beating themselves in the chest make their country great.
Big space "divorce" took place. Nothing means the fact that the partners are still continuing to visit and “sweep” the common dwelling - the ISS. It is already clear that the new programs of Roscosmos and NASA are not foreseen in the foreseeable future. Moreover, Russian officials have identified a future partner in space exploration. Now it is China. The second economy of the world with a dynamic national space program is a seemingly worthy choice. What could be the new union?
Who is who
"In China, the 105-day experiment was completed to study the ability of a person to be in a sealed capsule that simulates the lunar base, eating exclusively products grown inside the module," says a message from XNHX, a leading Chinese news agency, Xinhua. “The volunteers left the capsule alive and well.”
According to the Chinese media, the participants in the experiment (two women and a man) fed on the fact that they themselves grew five types of grain crops, 15 varieties of vegetables and one sort of fruit), one hundred percent of oxygen and water were regenerated on board, and waste materials were used as fertilizers . In other words, the developers of interplanetary manned flights from the Middle Kingdom seem to have succeeded in creating a fully closed-loop life support system. Neither the widely publicized Russian experiment Mars-500 or any other similar undertakings have completed the task of creating an optimal model for life-support systems for deep space exploration.
Moreover, this experiment is not the only achievement of Beijing. This is to answer the question of why China is chosen as the Roscosmos partner.
Almost immediately after the publication of the NASA sanctions against the Russian side, our responsible officials began talking about the possibility of promoting domestic star navigation without an American participation. However, it is clear to everyone that the level of tasks in the exploration of outer space is such that it requires international cooperation in one degree or another. The Russian capabilities, at least at this stage, of course, involve partnership in organizing and conducting complex expeditions.
No matter how optimistic the statements made by our officials about the possibility of individual exploitation of the ISS, the Americans refuse to use this program, it is clear that it will not be possible to “populate” the station alone. At least because of limited opportunities in the field of energy and communications. It is even more difficult to deploy new long-term orbital complexes using our own resources. For manned flights, which remain the main direction of the Russian space program, a partner is needed. From whom do we choose?
Americans disappear by definition. The European Space Agency is, of course, a serious organization, but, unlike China, it hasn’t yet said anything intelligible in the matter of manned expeditions. Nobody discards ESA from accounts, but China is a more promising space partner.In Roskosmos this idea is not hidden. “Now we are developing a national strategy for manned space flight. Together with the Russian Academy of Sciences and industry, we are preparing a certain concept outside the ISS, ”said Sergey Saveliev, deputy head of the agency, at the economic forum in St. Petersburg that ended in late May. He clarified that the intention is to create new manned complexes that will allow Russia to go beyond the orbit of the Earth and may be used to explore the Moon, which will be the first step into deep space.
We will pay attention not to the prospects of domestic manned flights, but to the thought of a responsible official that Roskosmos views China and Europe as strategic partners, provided that the key role in the implementation of projects will belong to Russia.
Europe as a partner, we have casually mentioned. ESA can be used in the pickup, but not in the "main composition".
About China as the main partner after Sergey Savelyev, the curator of the domestic military industrial complex, including the space program, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, said: “After the 2020 of the year (when the ISS program is completed - AK), we may have new projects related to the manned space program ... with a wider range of partners ... We agreed that during the EXPO in Harbin at the end of June we will hold talks with our Chinese colleagues on possible new projects on manned cosmonautics. ”
There is little reason to doubt that it is China that will become the Russian leader in the field of space. It’s not for nothing that the last visit to China of Russian President Vladimir Putin is called the beginning of a new stage in the world order.
No noise and dust in advanced
So, what is the cosmonautics of the Middle Kingdom.
China began with carrier rockets, and exactly followed the path of the “elder brother”, transforming the first combat missiles, obtained by itself from the USSR, into means of launching spacecraft.
24 April 1970, China has become the third country that successfully launched a satellite into space, and its own production. Up until the beginning of the current millennium, Beijing was busy overcoming the military-technical consequences of the Soviet-Chinese 1960 gap. Forces and means were concentrated on the production of combat missiles and mainly military satellites. By the way, from 1970 to 2000, the year China made 50 successful launches of its own spacecraft. On the basis of the ICBM, it was possible to create the “Long March” carrier rocket park. Today we are working on the ninth series of the family. Beijing is boosting the heavy booster program. According to open sources, the development of the Great March-9 is being completed. This rocket will be able to launch a payload weighing up to 133 tons into low orbit. That is, before the American lunar masterpiece performed by Werner von Braun - the Saturn-5 rocket, the Chinese are harvesting only six tons. The corresponding Russian carrier remains in the plans.
However, the presence of "heavy trucks" and even our own satellites in our time does not mean belonging to an elite club of powers that can carry out the entire spectrum of space activities: operate multi-field systems in near-earth orbits, carry out manned expeditions, develop promising programs for the study of interstellar space.
Until the beginning of the new millennium, China could not boast of anything like it. In all likelihood, the latter circumstance forced Beijing in the early tenths to seek rapprochement with the United States and Russia to participate in, say, the ISS program. However, the Americans were far from enthusiastic about such an expansion of partnership at an international station, and China stopped trying, concentrating efforts on its own space program.
We note in passing that in 2011, he overtook the United States in the number of launches: 19 versus 18, second only to Russia. And held on to this position in 2012. Only last year, the Americans regained second place, ahead of China by four starts. In the next five years, China plans to launch 100 space rockets and launch 100 satellites into orbit.
But the most interesting thing is the success of the Celestial Empire in manned flights. It is considered that the leader in this segment of space activity is Russia, and the Chinese only repeat what we have long since passed. Is it so?
October 2003 of the year. In orbit, the Chinese spacecraft "Shenzhou-5" with the taykonavtom Yan Livei on board. The first orbital flight of the Celestial Empire lasted 21 hour 14 minutes. Since then, China has made five manned launches. In terms of the number of the Middle Kingdom far to the United States and Russia. But with quality ...
The Chinese did not follow the path of venerable teachers, did not make several similar launches in a row, and each time made the program more complicated.
After Liwei, the launch of 2005 follows, and there are already two taikonauts in orbit. The 2008 is the first spacewalk. In 2011, the Tiangong-1 module, a prototype of a promising Chinese manned station, appears in orbit. The ship "Shenzhou-8" docked to it several times in the automatic mode, practicing the approach and docking maneuvers. On 2012, three people work on board the module for 10 days, including a woman. Last year, the same flight followed to “consolidate the material covered.”
Of course, the 120-ton “Mir” is not comparable to the 8,5-ton “Tianhun”. Nevertheless, China today is engaged in precisely what is considered the pinnacle of Russian cosmic thought, orbital complexes. But quantitative equality is not far off. By 2020, the Chinese plans to deploy in orbit a three-module complex "Tyangun-3" weighing about 60 tons. I think that in 20 years after the first manned launch, the mass of the Chinese station will exceed 100 tons.
A few words about the ship "Shenzhou", the basis of the design philosophy of which, of course, lies half a century ago, the Russian "Union". However, the technical differences are obvious. The main thing: the ship "Shenzhou" - a shared machine. One bay with taykonavtami returns to Earth, the other remains in orbit and can work there automatically as a scientific laboratory. In addition, compared with the "Union", the ship is better energy-equipped, has a much larger internal volume.
As for deep-space research, in particular, the lunar program, China became the first country in the last 40 years to land softly on the surface of the Earth satellite. In December, the Xinge 2013 apparatus with the Yuuta lunar rover, the Jade Hare, made it 3. This mission is the second stage of the corresponding Chinese program. Earlier, in 2007 and 2010, the Chang'e-1 and Chang'e-2 vehicles flew around the Moon and made a detailed map of it. At the third stage in 2017, China plans to deliver samples of lunar soil to Earth. In 2020, according to plans, a manned flight is scheduled with a landing on the surface of the Moon.
The Chinese calm and full confidence in achieving the goal are amazing. Of course, in the field of high technology, the PRC took the best from us. Only the victorious rhetoric of socialist construction, which for some reason took root in the Russian cosmonautics, did not come in handy.
In a single order
The PRC has the largest armed forces in the world, the most numerous ground forces, and relatively modern navy and air forces.
The basis of China’s nuclear missile potential up to 2040 will be the three-stage solid-fuel ICU DF-31 (“Dun Feng-31” - “Wind from the East”) being developed today. According to open sources, the length of the rocket is 13 meters, the diameter is 2,25 meters, the starting weight is 42 tons. The ICBM is equipped with an inertial guidance system with astronavigation.
The missile can be equipped with both a monoblock nuclear warhead with a capacity of up to 1 Mt, and an MIRV type multiple rocket launcher with three warheads with an 20 – 150 CT capacity. In this case, the circular deviation of the rocket is, according to averaged estimates, 300 meters - a very flattering figure for the developer. In other words, this ICBM, designed for both mine and mobile bases, corresponds to the Russian Topol and Topol-M missiles.
According to world press reports, a modernized version of the DF-31, which has been designated as DF-41, is being developed. The main requirements for the ongoing modernization are an increase in the firing range from 8000 to 12 000 kilometers and the creation of a full-fledged transport and launcher for this rocket, similar to the Russian Topol. With the creation of this rocket, China will be able to bombard the entire territory of the United States.
On the other hand, in the People's Republic of China today they came to an understanding of the exceptionally important role that the powerful space industry plays in the military-technical component of the state. It was not by chance that in April, the Chairman of the People’s Republic of China, Xi Jinping, called for strengthening the country's capabilities in near-Earth space, adding that the country needed to respond to the militarization of space by rival countries, including the United States.
"Despite the fact that China continues to adhere to the peaceful use of space, we must be sure that we can cope with the actions of others in outer space," the leader of the People's Republic of China stresses.
The January 2007 of the year was indicative, when the Chinese carrier with a kinetic interceptor destroyed the old but operational meteorological satellite of the PRC, Feng Yun-1С. There is complete confidence that the Chinese have spent the first in their stories anti-satellite test weapons.
Then the Americans "froze", and in this state they are, one might say, still. Typical in this regard is the publication in June 2011 of an article by two retired American intelligence officers in the authoritative aerospace weekly Aviation Week & Space Technology.
The essence of the concerns expressed by experts is that the military command and control systems of the Pentagon’s armed forces and national channels for collecting and processing intelligence information depend on the space component on 80 percent. In other words, without satellite provision, all the sophisticated modern weapons with “smart” bombs and high-precision, capable of getting into a mosquito with cruise missiles are nothing more than scrap. The American orbital grouping today has more than 500 devices that provide uninterrupted communication, target acquisition and navigation. China, according to intelligence, is able to deliver a preemptive strike on the relevant US space and ground structures. The attack may be very likely to be effective and seriously disorganize the combat command and control of troops. Then, according to American experts, Beijing can go on negotiations on a cease-fire. Moreover, the United States will most likely find it advantageous to agree, since the Pentagon’s military-technical and intelligence capabilities will suffer significant damage.
The question is: will the country agree with practically unlimited resources, armed with advanced military-technical philosophy, which allowed it to produce the most modern products, to share the palm in space with someone? If yes, then only on a parity basis and under the strict condition of unlimited use of the full potential of the “partner”.
The Chinese without boasting, without pathos, without beating themselves in the chest make their country great.
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