China's burgeoning space program plans to place astronauts on the moon before 2030 and expand the country's orbiting space station, officials said Monday.
China will beat the USA back to the moon, but 2030 is a little ambitious.
A crewed moon landing all hinges on Long March 9 flying reliably,
That's what I thought too and it's not going to be ready until after 2030. But apparently they have an SLS-like Long March 10 in development that will be ready before 2030?
even the most careful astronaut is going to track it back into their ship
I remember several years ago there were American concepts for crewed Mars rovers that had spacesuits as part of the vehicle. Instead of climbing into an airlock, the suits are the airlock. That way you don't bring in any dust. I'll try to find a picture or video.
Even Long March 10 would require at least two launches to put the various pieces off the ground. Its design payload mass to a trans-lunar injection would be about the same as the Apollo CSM alone, no Lunar Module in tow. Modern crewed spacecraft haven't really gotten much lighter than older-design spacecraft (gains in compactness of electronics is often offset by improving safety margins in other systems), and the Apollo CSM engine was a pretty darn efficient one for its day, so I think it'd be fair to assume that a Chinese Apollo-style mission would have an architecture roughly equivalent to Apollo - including similar masses for similar ships.
Suitport is a fascinating idea. It would be a great idea for "disposable" hardware like an Apollo-style mission. One of the big challenges in longer-term missions would be suit maintenance. My favourite suit design is the good old USSR-derived Orlan suit. It has only one opening, the back, where cosmonauts slide in. The fabric panel behind the cosmonaut is actually just a cover for all the suit's systems. Pretty easy to maintain by space-tech standards.
That's what I thought too and it's not going to be ready until after 2030. But apparently they have an SLS-like Long March 10 in development that will be ready before 2030?
I remember several years ago there were American concepts for crewed Mars rovers that had spacesuits as part of the vehicle. Instead of climbing into an airlock, the suits are the airlock. That way you don't bring in any dust. I'll try to find a picture or video.
edit: Suitport!
Even Long March 10 would require at least two launches to put the various pieces off the ground. Its design payload mass to a trans-lunar injection would be about the same as the Apollo CSM alone, no Lunar Module in tow. Modern crewed spacecraft haven't really gotten much lighter than older-design spacecraft (gains in compactness of electronics is often offset by improving safety margins in other systems), and the Apollo CSM engine was a pretty darn efficient one for its day, so I think it'd be fair to assume that a Chinese Apollo-style mission would have an architecture roughly equivalent to Apollo - including similar masses for similar ships.
Suitport is a fascinating idea. It would be a great idea for "disposable" hardware like an Apollo-style mission. One of the big challenges in longer-term missions would be suit maintenance. My favourite suit design is the good old USSR-derived Orlan suit. It has only one opening, the back, where cosmonauts slide in. The fabric panel behind the cosmonaut is actually just a cover for all the suit's systems. Pretty easy to maintain by space-tech standards.
TIL