China goes full throttle in its quest to land astronauts on the moon by 2030.
That was clearly evident in an Aug. 15 floor check of the first-stage propulsion system of the Long March 10 (CZ-10), the brand new rocket that China is constructing to ship folks towards the moon.
A variant launcher is the Long March-10A, which can launch China’s Mengzhou piloted spacecraft and uncrewed Tianzhou freighter to additional make the most of and evolve the nation’s Tiangong house station in Earth orbit.
Record thrust
The August test firing concerned a shortened mockup of the CZ-10’s first stage, outfitted with a cluster of seven YF-100K engines working on liquid oxygen and kerosene gas. Four of the YF-100K engines are fastened in place, whereas the opposite three can swivel to manage the rocket’s flight.
The engines roared for about 35 seconds utilizing a brand new CZ-10 launch pad on the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center in Hainan Province. The thrust scale within the check reached practically 1,000 tons, a report for China’s house program.
Xu Hongping, an engineer with the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), advised state-run broadcaster CCTV that “the first stage and boosters of the Long March-10 rocket are what we call the universal core stage, which essentially consists of three identical core modules bundled together.”
Peng Yue, additionally an engineer with CASC, advised CCTV that “conducting a power system test is one of the most critical steps in rocket development. It mainly assesses the thermal and mechanical environment created by simultaneously operating seven engines on a 5-meter-diameter core stage. It’s also a key step to ensure system compatibility and to mitigate risks ahead of the rocket’s maiden flight.”
Moon milestones
The recent static fire test of the Long March-10 follows a progression of other humans-to-the-moon milestones notched this year by China. For example, there was a successful pad-abort test of the Mengzhou crewed spacecraft on June 17.
According to CCTV, Mengzhou’s escape engine ignited, then propelled the capsule-tower meeting upward. About 20 seconds later, the return capsule separated from the escape tower at a predetermined altitude. Two minutes later, the capsule parachuted safely into a chosen space utilizing an airbag cushioning system.
“It was the country’s first zero-altitude escape test for a manned spacecraft in 27 years, following a similar test for the Shenzhou spacecraft in 1998,” CCTV defined.
Then, on Aug. 6, China performed a simulated takeoff and touchdown of its two-person “Lanyue” lunar lander on the “extraterrestrial celestial landing test site” in Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province.
This identical web site was utilized in 2019 to check the Tianwen-1 Mars lander that carried the Zhurong rover. Zhurong, China’s first-ever Mars rover, studied the Red Planet’s Utopia Planitia — an unlimited plain through which NASA’s Viking 2 spacecraft additionally landed within the Seventies — from May 2021 to May 2022.
Lanyue is designed to hold two astronauts between lunar orbit and the lunar floor. It may also tote a lunar rover and scientific payloads to help astronaut keep time and actions on the moon. (Chinese lunar missions may even use Mengzhou spacecraft, which can fly astronauts to lunar orbit and stay there whereas Lanyue descends to the floor.)
The Aug. 6 check validated the lander’s lunar landing and takeoff system, management plan, lunar contact shutdown procedures, and the compatibility of interfaces between subsystems, together with steering, navigation, management and propulsion.
According to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA), Lanyue will function the “lunar life center, energy center and data center for astronauts after they land on the moon, and can support lunar residence and activities.”
Moonwalking fits
Speaking of astronauts touchdown on the moon: Last September, CMSA unveiled the country’s lunar spacesuit.
The spacesuit consists of protective materials to shield astronauts from the lunar thermal environment and pervasive lunar dust, CMSA explained. It is equipped with an easy-to-operate, multifunctional integrated control panel, as well as cameras for recording close-up and long-distance scenes.
The spacesuit also features flexible gloves, a panoramic glare-proof helmet visor, and joints adapted for low-gravity environments. The overall design of the spacesuit is lightweight and suitable for activities on the lunar surface, be it using a ladder to get down to the lunar surface from Lanyue or walking, squatting, bending over and kneeling on the gray dirt.