The term electric propulsion is sometime used in reference to ion drives. It would make sense to use this sort of technology to counteract drag. There may be implications to the micro-gravity environment available for science.
Is there any difference using an ion engine in LEO compared to higher orbits? There's a bit of free oxygen floating around in LEO (where you get that drag) and I wonder if that creates any problems with the emitter or charged particles or anything like that.
It makes little sense at this point to design a station for LEO without SEP - it reduces the mass requirement per year substantially for not a lot of cost.The EM Drive remains unexplained fringe theory that everything we know about physics says will eventually be explained away in terms of poor testing methodology. Ion thrusters are COTS flight-proven hardware. Electrodynamic tethers are physically well-modelled but untested tech. It's a safe bet they're talking about ion thrusters.
JERUSALEM — China is soliciting international participation in its future manned space station in the form of foreign modules that would attach to the three-module core system, visits by foreign crew-transport vehicles for short stays and the involvement of non-Chinese researchers in placing experiments on the complex, the chief designer of China’s manned space program said Oct. 12.But he declined to commit to an international orbital docking technology that would facilitate international participation in the Chinese facility.The Chinese orbital station, consisting of a core module and two experiment-carrying modules, can be expanded to a total of six modules if international partners want to invest in their own components, said Zhou Jianping, chief designer of the China Manned Space Program at the China Manned Space Agency.Zhou said China plans to launch an astronomy telescope into an orbit near enough to the space station to dock to it for upgrades and servicing. He declined to specify the telescope’s size.
Time to breathe new life into this thread. There have been several updates on the "Novosti kosmonavtiki" forum in the last few weeks (with interesting comments from Konstantin Lantratov, a former NK journalist) :http://novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/forum/forum10/topic8751/?PAGEN_1=40Most notably, a 35-page document (unfortunately, in Chinese) on the space station published by the Chinese Manned Space Agency :http://cmse.gov.cn/uploadfile/news/uploadfile/201604/20160427104809225.pdf
Wouldn't it be better to call this the Tian He complex? That's the name of the core module.
Quote from: Steven Pietrobon on 06/05/2016 07:13 amWouldn't it be better to call this the Tian He complex? That's the name of the core module.I thought that the overall name of the station was to be Tiangong - whether a serial number is added or not. Of course, I could be out of date!
Interesting move by China here. Quite a bit of useful info about the station in general as well.China prepares assembly of its space station, invites collaboration through U.N.http://spacenews.com/china-prepares-assembly-of-its-space-station-invites-collaboration-through-u-n/
I assume the Chinese use Kurs (or their own version) for automated docking.
AIUI, they have a docking system patterned after the APAS, so I would guess their aproach ops could be similar to Kurs. But I don't have any information.I understand that the new IDSS does include some approach ops definitions and that the Chinese desire to be compatible with it.
Quote from: Star One on 06/20/2016 04:44 pmInteresting move by China here. Quite a bit of useful info about the station in general as well.China prepares assembly of its space station, invites collaboration through U.N.http://spacenews.com/china-prepares-assembly-of-its-space-station-invites-collaboration-through-u-n/It claims that Tiangong 2 will be launched atop a CZ-5B vehicle from Wenchang in September. Hopefully the rest of the piece is more accurate than this.
Quote from: Phillip Clark on 06/20/2016 05:18 pmQuote from: Star One on 06/20/2016 04:44 pmInteresting move by China here. Quite a bit of useful info about the station in general as well.China prepares assembly of its space station, invites collaboration through U.N.http://spacenews.com/china-prepares-assembly-of-its-space-station-invites-collaboration-through-u-n/It claims that Tiangong 2 will be launched atop a CZ-5B vehicle from Wenchang in September. Hopefully the rest of the piece is more accurate than this.Well ok then what is being launched on and where from with quoted sources if your going to dispute this?