China Launches Space Lab; An Insider Look Into China Space Program

ForexTV NewsDesk   |  September 29 2011 10:32 EDT

ForexTV.com (New York) by staff Reporter

Manned Flight, Personnel Selection

The Astronaut System is mainly responsible for selecting and training astronauts, conducting medical monitoring, providing support to astronauts during training and flight tasks.  

An astronaut selection and training center has been set up in Beijing; spacecraft-borne facilities such as intra-vehicular activity spacesuits, medical monitoring, support equipment and personal life-saving appliance have been developed. The first group of 14 astronauts was selected from a group of active pilots from the PLA Air Force at the beginning of 1998, which have successfully completed basic training as well as training on flight procedures and task simulation and joint rehearsals.  Having undergone strict training and tests, the first crew is qualified for manned space flights. In May 2010, the 2nd crew, including 5 male astronauts and 2 female astronauts were selected. Till now, a total of 6 astronauts have undertaken manned space flight tasks, of whom are: Yang Liwei, Fei Junlong, Nie Haisheng, Zhai Zhigang, Liu Boming and Jing Haipeng.

Space Applications System

The Space Application System is mainly designed for such purposes as conducting the earth observation and space scientific experiments, and developing the matching payloads.  Since the first step of the China Manned Space Engineering project, hundreds of sets of spacecraft-mounted equipment have been developed, including large-sized payloads such as medium-resolution imaging spectrometer and multiple-mode microwave remote sensor. These spacecraft-mounted equipment, which were installed on the spacecrafts from Shenzhou II to Shenzhou VII respectively for carrying out earth observation and application experiments in the field of space science, represent  the integration of advanced technologies.

The manned space application activities are highly practical and closely related to the living environment of human beings. Till now, the first step of space applications has been completed while augmentations for the second step and subsequent tasks are being carried out. The internal layout of Space Application System mainly involves many disciplines, such as earth science, space life science, space microgravity science, space astronomy and space environment. In addition, infrastructures such as payload center, space environment forecast center, reliability center and software center have been set up. The Manned Space Engineering Space Application System is a system which involves a maximum number of academic disciplines, and of the largest scale and with the richest contents in the field of space science and applications.

The Manned Spacecraft System is mainly responsible for the development of Shenzhou manned spaceships. The structural, thermal control and electrical models of the spacecraft have been developed for ground tests, and one trial spacecraft and six flight models for flight tasks have also been developed successively. Shenzhou spaceships are the first kind of manned spaceflight vehicles independently developed by China, which are featured with the characteristics of a large space in each module, with multiple purposes.  As for Shenzhou manned spaceships, the scheme of a manned spacecraft consisting of three modules (namely, propelling module, re-entry module, and orbital module) and two pairs of solar array is adopted, in which the lifting force is used to control the re-entry and a dome parachute is used to recover the manned spacecraft. With a total length of about 7.4-9.2m, a total weight of about 8 tons and a maximum diameter of about 2.8m, Shenzhou manned spaceships can accommodate 3 occupants and fly independently for 7 days. After the completion of a manned spaceflight, the orbital module will remain in the orbit for about half a year so as to carry out earth observations from space and various scientific and technical experiments. In order to carry out docking with other spacecrafts, future space laboratories and space stations, a rendezvous and docking mechanism can be mounted to the forefront end of a Shenzhou manned spaceship if necessary for fulfilling flight tasks.

Space Lab

The Space Laboratory System is mainly responsible for the development of space laboratory, including the target spacecraft with the function of rendezvous docking, providing a platform for space scientific experiments with man-tending on short term basis, and accumulating experiences for the development of space station.

Landing and Recovery

The Landing Site System is mainly responsible for the searching and recovering of the landed re-entry module, and the rescuing of the astronauts. The main landing site is located in the middle area of Inner Mongolia, and a backup site is located to the east of Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. Furthermore, some landing zones of emergency rescue during the ascending phase and the orbiting phase have been set up on the land (at Yulin, Handan, Suining,etc.), as well as in three sea areas.

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