China planning powerful carrier rocket for manned moon landing
English.news.cn 2011-03-03 20:18:28 FeedbackPrintRSS
BEIJING, March 3 (Xinhua) -- China is studying the feasibility of designing a powerful carrier rocket for making a manned moon landing and exploring deep space, Liang Xiaohong, vice head of the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, told Xinhua Thursday.
The rocket is envisaged to have a payload of 130 tonnes, five times larger than that of China's current largest rocket, said Liang, who is attending the annual session of National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), China's top political advisory body.
The diameter of the planned heavy-lifting rocket is expected to be two times that of the current largest one, said Liang, whose academy is responsible for the development.
He did not provide a timetable for the development, but said Chinese scientists had to acquire a number of advanced technologies to develop it.
According to him, the rocket would be an advanced model of China's next-generation carrier rockets, and the development of the first next-generation model, the Long March V, was going in accordance with plan.
With a maximum low Earth-orbit payload capacity of 25 tonnes and high Earth-orbit payload capacity of 14 tonnes, the Long March V rockets were expected to catch up with the U.S. Delta-4H rockets in payload capacity, he added.
China launched its first lunar probe, Chang'e-1, named after the country's mythical moon goddess, on Oct. 24, 2007. The probe ended its 16-month mission on March 1, 2009, when it was crashed into the moon's surface.
The second lunar probe, Chang'e-2, was launched on Oct. 1 last year. It entered its long-term lunar orbit on Nov. 3, beginning a six-month mission to take high-resolution images of the moon's Sinus Iridum, or Bay of Rainbows.
According to China's three-phase moon exploration plan, the first phase was the launch of Chang'e-2. The second will be when Chang'e-3 lands on the moon in 2013. Then, in 2017, a moon rock sample will be returned to Earth.
Space experts said the country would conduct more than 20 space missions this year as it accelerated efforts to improve space technologies.
Last year China conducted 15 space missions.
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China setting up new rocket production base
(AFP) 1 hour ago
BEIJING China is setting up a new high-tech manufacturing base that will build the rockets for its ambitious space programme to put a man on the moon, state press has said.
Twenty of the 22 plants that will make up "the world's largest rocket design, production and testing base" have already been completed at the complex in the northern port city of Tianjin, the Global Times said.
China's Long March IV and V rockets will be designed and built at the 200-hectare (500-acre) complex, the paper said, citing Liang Xiaohong, vice head of the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology.
No timetables were given on when the new-generation rockets would be completed.
But with a payload capacity of 25 tonnes, the Long March V would rival the US Delta 4H rocket, Liang said.
"Long March V rockets are designed for missions following the country's manned space programme and lunar exploration programme," Liang was cited as saying.
China launched its second lunar probe on October 1 and hopes to bring a moon rock sample back to Earth in 2017. It has planned a manned mission to the moon for around 2020, according to state media.
China also hopes to complete a manned space station in around 2016, state press reports have said.
China's first space docking, an essential step toward building a space station, is expected to be carried out later this year when two unmanned, but separately launched, space modules link up while orbiting the Earth.
The nation became only the third in the world to put a man in space independently -- after the United States and Russia -- when Yang Liwei piloted the one-man Shenzhou-5 space mission in 2003.
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