March 1, 2009 CCTV

The TianGong 1

Seems still under construction......

Looks like they are indeed copying the olde Soviet program. Tiangong=Salyut.

I wonder why they removed all the people when they are filming this.........

You can't see a single soul in the pictures....

kind of scary.....

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Maybe the people building this is wearing army uniforms and the Chinese guys don't want to look intimidating....

So all the people are asked to leave....

No they are not. Tiantong is only eight tons. There was no Russian or US counterpart to su7ch a small space station. The hardware under construction is Tiangong.

The larger spacecraft shown in the artwork is the follow-on the Tiangong. It is going to be much larger, and be Mir like in concept, using 20-25 tonne modules. The artwork is for illustration only. Several different configurations have been shown. This is the most Mir-like I have seen, as the illustration appears identical to the Mir base block. I suspect the artist has used Mir as template. I very much doubt that the larger space station will be that similar to Mir.

However the photos nicely show one of the specific technologies that the Chinese bought from the Russians, the docking hatch. It looks to my eye to be very similar to that flown on the ASTP, and later one of Mir's docking ports, used for at least one Soyuz.

Jon

I think this is a bit paranoid. Maybe they did not want a film crew interfering with the work crew, and so filmed during the off shift. maybe they wanted images that focussed on the hardware and not on people milling about.

Sorry, but I find this sort of clutching at sraws level of paranoia quite off putting.

Jon

Very, very nice pictures though, thanks for finding these. As someone else said, it is still under construction (but then launch is still probably a year off at least).

No sign of the service module as yet. Nor of the second docking hatch. Perhaps it is at the other end? If so, where goes the sernice module go? Perhaps an unmanned Shenzhou derivative docks with it to act as a service module?

Jon

Okay~~ my fault

The docking mechanism looks different from the one used on ISS, at first glance. Is it compatible?

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I suspect not. Although the principle is the same, the ISS androgynous system has four petals, this has three. I have no idea what the hatch diameter is either. I suspect that it will be the same as the Russian one for several reasons. So I don't thibnk thisd hatch could dock with either the Russian or US end of the ISS.

Any idea why China wasn't involved in the ISS project? My guess is that they won't let a new and untested vehicle to dock to the station, but anyway, ATV was allowed to fly, Japanese craft will be allowed to fly...

Politics at the time when the ISS was drawn up and the agreement signed, is my guess.

I also don't know whether Shenzhou could reach the ISS anyway, they are in quite different orbital inclinations.

If it could, fitting a Russian male docking hatch to the orbital module would be fairly straight forward, I would have thought.

I'td be good to see!

Jon

Here is an official drawing of the Mir-like follow to Tiangong. From http://thespacereview.com/article/1231/1 . Also of Tiangong itself, from http://thespacereview.com/article/1231/2

Attached Images

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	1231b.jpg (26.7 KB, 11 views)

I just found this... I can't find a date for this photo however....



The name reads "Space Laboratory - from the National High Technology field"

And this..



It says "2009 Yinghuo 1 to Mars, 2009 Chang'e 2 to the Moon, 2010 Tiangong 1, 2011-2012 Shenzhou 8,9,10, 2012 Quafu 1 to the Sun, 2020 our space station."

Most interesting! Thank you! The two rear modules of the station appear identical to Mir base blocks. The others don't. There is also a large diameter hub I have not seen before.

Obviously the design of something 10 years from now is still fluid. But the other spacecraft drawings are accurate, given the scale.

Something not shown is that there are supposed to be three Tiangong's, each with an operational life of two-three years. That fills most of the gap between Tiangong 1 and the Mir-like space station.

Ealier reports suggested that the Mir like station would begin construction in 2015, in this case the 2020 date might be completion. But since the Chinese are very cautious, 2020 might fit in with an extended Tiangong program. On the other hand, Tiangong might be such a success that the program gets truncated in favour of the more advanced station which might get launched earlier. But building such a complex station isn't something that can be rushed, as experience with Mir and the ISS shows.


Jon

Another picture... the moon rover of India's moon program..



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And some old pictures from July 2008...

Could be fakes....





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Return vehicle of the moon lander



and the rover

Why could they be?

China has a long standing interest in high lift entry vehicles (some of their earlier manned concepts were space planes). They also have a strong interest in hypersonics for both civil and miliutary applications. These photos of the Shenlong are entirely consistent with a flight test program of an experimental entry vehicle. The Chinese are also interested in air launching small payloads into orbit.

Jon

Oh.. nothing... no technical reason...

Just that the popular media and official never use these photos and never report anything like them..... We don't even have a name for the vehicle...

The two photo originally came from a pro-China web article on some BBS(forum), criticizing the US for their China-bashing report... so....



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wait.....you mentioned it is called Shenlong....

Seems I was mistaken again........................

Happens to me alot...... :-)

cheers

Jon

I have just discovered a photo of a model that shows the location of the second port (it's at the rear of Tiangong) and a good idea of the physical size. It looks quite a bit larger than Shenzhou in length and diameter, most of this I assume is accounted for by volume to keep it within the 8 tonne limit.

The image is from http://www.strategycenter.net/resear...pub_detail.asp

Jon

Attached Images

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In the rendering that makes up the third image there is a robotic arm of some sort. Wonder if that is something they are actively developing now or later.

Yes they are.....

I don't know the newest developments but base on news report,

As of Oct. 2008, the Harbin Institute of Technology is doing a satellite project, they what to launch a satellite (by 2011) with a robot arm and a mini satellite inside.

Once in orbit, the main satellite will release the mini satellite using its arm, and later, follow and retrieve it back from orbit.

As of Sept. 2007, the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics is doing a project for future space stations.....

They are trying to make two arms to collaborate in space..








They are also making nano robots that can perform medical operations on cells...




I also found a concept of Japan's robots...

Awesome

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They have a very ambitious schedule. I think other countries should take a look and follow suit. I'm expecting great things from the China space program.

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Ooooo, I think I thought a thought. Ooo I did, I did, I did think a thought.

Hello all, been a while since I’ve been here since last year I think?

Anyway this is the only possible thread I searched for under “China fakes space.”

I’ve seen some footage on Youtube and was disgusted that they pulled such a cheap show off.

Air-bubbles and the Earth’s clouds suddenly, speeding up. LOL

I for one for one believe Apollo was real! Yet the Chinese have the cheek to pull a fast one.

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We came in peace for all mankind…
The moon no longer as any astronomical importance! Thanks to NASA for defacing it!

Try the words "chinese" and "hoax". You'll find a few including some with the spacewalk (assumed) anomolies.

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The 'analysis' by conspiracy theorists done on Chinese spacewalk videos is no better than that done on the Apollo photos and videos. I have seen convincing refutation of all the main charges, but the main one is that the rest of the world didn't dispute it at all.

Like it or not, China is an emerging space power.

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Okay thanks for that tip or keyword cheers.

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Bart Sibrel is owned by the (Buzz-Lite-Punch) right on the chops.

We came in peace for all mankind…
The moon no longer as any astronomical importance! Thanks to NASA for defacing it!

I for one am looking forward to the surge of missions beginning next year associated with Tiangong 1.

Jon

I have to get one of these.