Manned space mission possibly October
"Shenzhou IV" unmanned spaceship is launched
successfully.
BEIJING, Sept. 25 (Xinuhuanet)
-- After four unmanned trial flights, China's
first-ever piloted spacecraft, the Shenzhou
V is set to soar. When it does, and if successful,
China will be propelled into an exclusive
country club status: The third nation capable
of independently rocketing humans into Earth
orbit.
Chinese space officials
have hinted at a multi-pronged human spaceflight
program, including space station construction,
as well as eventual travel to the Moon, all
by 2020.
China's first piloted space
journey could occur as early as next month.
Historic flight
Xu Guanhua, China's Science
and Technology Minister, said last week that
preparations for the historic flight were
going smoothly, although no specific date
for the takeoff was identified.
Rumor has it that the piloted
Shenzhou V could be airborne as early as October
1, Chinese National Day -- the founding of
the country. Others speculate that mid-October
appears to be the liftoff time frame. Several
factors will dictate the launch date insist
Chinese space planners, such as weather, solar
activities and space radiation levels around
Earth.
Even the issue of threatening
space debris is being addressed.
During a second national
space debris workshop held in Shanghai last
month, expert said that Shenzhou V would be
outfitted with an alarm system to avoid collisions
between the craft and chunks of speeding space
flotsam.
Du Heng, chief scientist
at the Center for Space Science and Applied
Research under the Chinese Academy of Sciences
said the hardware allows the spacecraft to
automatically dodge space litter.
Single-seat Shenzhou
Whenever Shenzhou V roars
into space it will be perched atop a Long
March 2F booster, departing from Jiuquan Space
Launch Center in northwestern Gansu Province.
Touchdown of the craft is expected to be on
Inner Mongolian grassland.
From late 1999 into early
2003, four shakeout flights of the Shenzhou
spaceship have taken place.
The Shenzhou V features
3 modules, from front to end: An orbital module
holding science equipment; the crew-carrying
ascent/decent module; and a service module
with attached solar panels, loaded with electronics
gear and rocket engines.
While the crew compartment
can hold as many as three passengers, Shenzhou
V is seemingly to be operated by a lone pilot.
The national program for
lifting its first pilot into space was given
the go-ahead by the Chinese government in
1992, and is tagged Project 921.
Drawing upon the country's
top jet fighter pilots, an initial group of
14 astronauts, have been in training. They
are reportedly all under 30 years of age,
each with a flying time of over 1,000 hours.
Of this carefully picked individuals, two
of them are apparently trainers for the other
astronaut candidates.
China's space officials
are likely to announce who will fly into space
days before the launch.
There are still lots of
unknowns about the impending flight. Based
on reports by Chinese media outlets, both
the launch and landing of Shenzhou V will
take place during daylight. Flight time for
Shenzhou V is considered to be less than 24
hours.
Human-rated rocket
Earlier this year, in a
wide-ranging discussion with the People's
Daily, some details were offered as to how
the Shenzhou booster was human-rated.
Huang Chunping, deputy chief
commander of the Jiuquan Space Launch Center
was also identified as commander-in-chief
of the specially outfitted booster that will
lift Chinese space pilots into orbit, tagged
the "Shenjian"-Long March 2F rocket.
Huang said that there is
enormous pressure to assure the readiness
of a piloted Shenzhou vehicle. He noted that
both Russia and the United States carried
out a dozen or so test shots prior to sending
their first astronauts into space. In contrast,
China is moving into manned flight after only
four unpiloted missions, he said.
The Shenjian-Long March
2F booster features a range of safety systems.
An automatic fault-detection and escape system
is tied to 310 kinds of failure modes, Huang
said. In designing one element of the escape
system, a Russian design approach was once
considered. "But they set the price at US$10
million. Finally we solved the problem on
our own," he added.
More than 3,000 factories
and tens of thousands of scientists, technicians
and managers are engaged in shaping China's
manned space project, Huang said in the People's
Daily interview.
Safer than Soyuz
It's clear that the Shenzhou
booster has gotten a technology makeover,
said British space analyst, Clark.
"The Long March 2F has improved
guidance and control equipment. They've upgraded
the engines and have new computer systems
onboard. Plus, of course, there's the launch
escape system," Clark said.
Clark said that the Chinese
have taken a different path in designing Shenzhou's
escape system - a better approach than that
adopted for Russia's Soyuz vehicle.
Thanks to an extra set of
motors mounted on the booster's shroud, escape
of a Shenzhou craft from a failing Long March
can be done at a very high altitude.
"So in that sense, I think
Shenzhou is even safer than Russia's Soyuz,"
Clark said.
Another design difference
from Soyuz is Shenzhou's orbital module.
Once the Shenzhou 5 flight
draws to a close, its forward module will
be released, as has been the case in the last
three of Shenzhou's four test trips. Packed
with experiments, and powered by its own solar
panels, the orbital module is likely to stay
spinning around the Earth for six months.
While floating through space, the Shenzhou
segment can be maneuvered by ground controllers.
International partnerships
Before Shenzhou 5 flies,
China's ever-growing technological aptitude
has already spawned a number of deals with
other space faring nations.
For instance, China and
the European Union reached an agreement on
September 18, a deal that has China participating
in the Galileo project. This agreement spurs
partnerships on satellite navigation in a
wide range of sectors, notably science and
technology, industrial manufacturing, and
service and market development.
Another example is last
month's agreement between China and Russia
to plan a course together in future space
exploration efforts.
No doubt that the successful
flight of a piloted Shenzhou V would catapult
China into top-drawer status in terms of nations
capable of doing heady things in space.
"I am excited that there is a third nation
that has made the investment in human space
flight and will soon join the U.S. and Russia
in this grand experiment," said Roger Launius,
Chair of the Division of Space History at
the Smithsonian Institution's National Air
and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. . (China
Daily)
(Sept. 25, Xinuhuanet)
