Chinas Race to Space

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Chinas Race to Space

• AJ Hartle
• ASCI 513
• Remote Sensing and Earth Observation

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Chinas Future in Space

• Manned space flight October
• 2003
• Space program spans full range of
• capabilities one of the only
• developing countries that does this
• from Satellites design to launch
• services

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Chinas Future in Space

• Builds satellites on its own, and is very
• involved in international commercial
• and scientific collaborations with Europe,
  Russia and Brazil
• The PRofC has an enormous commercial satellite
  launch industry can launch payloads into
  geosynchronous and polar orbits

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Chinas Future in Space

• Most of Chinas capabilities are geared towards
  commercial and scientific purposes improved
  technology developments could greatly increase
  military capabilities
• There are ever-growing concerns on what they
  might target (US military use of space), and the
  possibilites of a

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Chinas Future in Space

• Sino-American space race
• Became the third nation to shoot down an orbiting
  satellite with an anti-satellite missle

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Chinas Future in Space

• Ray crater on the moon issued by the China
  National Space Administration (CNSA) on Dec. 11,
  2007. The charge-coupled device (CCD) camera on
  Chang'e-1, China's first lunar orbiter, has
  started imaging probes on the dark side of the
  moon and captured photos of parts of this region
  (image on next page)

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Chinas Future in Space
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Chinas Future in Space

• The 2,350-kg satellite carries eight probing
  facilities with a range of instruments. These
  include a three-dimensional camera and an
  interferometer (a set of two or more telescopes
  that combine their signals to improve
  resolution), an imager and gamma/x-ray
  spectrometer, a laser altimeter, a microwave
  detector, a high-energy solar particle detector
  and a low-energy ion detector.

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Chinas Future in Space

• Mission has four objective 3D survey of the
  lunar surface an analysis of the abundance and
  distribution of elements on the lunar surface an
  investigation of the characteristics of lunar
  regolith (loose, fragmented surface material) and
  the powdery soil layer on the surface, and an
  exploration of the conditions between Earth and
  the moon.

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Chinas Future in Space
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Chinas Future in Space

• Compass Navigation Satellite System, which
  consists of five positioning satellites orbiting
  the Earth, will help alleviate traffic problems
  during the Olympics by providing detailed
  positioning information to individual drivers.

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Chinas Future in Space

• China had primarily constructed the experimental
  satellite navigation web by May 2003, via
  launching three Beidou satellites into space. In
  February and April 2007, another two satellites
  were separately sent into orbit. The cluster of
  five Beidou satellites are comprised of the main
  infrastructure of the Chinese satellite
  navigation network.

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The multiple look angles allow the calculation of
digital elevation models of the lunar terrain
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Chang'e 1 image and DEM from the farside
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Chang'e 1 image and DEM from the farside contd

• To explain what is going on in this image
  remember that Chang'e 1's camera is actually
  three cameras that shoot photos of the same areas
  on the Moon from slightly different angles. One
  of the photos is shown in the leftmost frame, of
  a familiar area near the center of the near side
  of the Moon. The three different-look-angle
  photos can be used to calculate a digital
  elevation model (DEM) of the topography in the
  scene, which is shown in color at the center of
  the slide blues represent lower elevations,
  yellows and reds higher elevations. Finally, the
  third panel shows the DEM overlaid on the photo.
  You may notice that the photo is a bit hard to
  interpret, because there aren't many shadows the
  Sun must have been nearly behind the spacecraft
  when the image was taken.

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References

• http//www.space.com/adastra/china_implications_05
  05.html
• http//www.spacedaily.com/reports/Chinas_space_amb
  itions_key_to_nations_strength_Hu_999.html
• http//www.spacedaily.com/reports/China_Made_Satel
  lite_Navigation_System_To_Support_Olympic_Games_99
  9.html

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References contd

• http//www.sinodaily.com/
• http//www.clep.org.cn
• http//www.planetary.org/blog/article/00001258/