I'd like to see a splinter thread about a prospective Chinese manned lunar mission architecture using 4 or 5x launches of Long March 5 since they don't seem to be in a hurry to develop the Long March 9, and there seems to be no models with lift capability between 25 and 130 metric tons under consideration!
Quote from: MATTBLAK on 02/11/2014 05:46 amI'd like to see a splinter thread about a prospective Chinese manned lunar mission architecture using 4 or 5x launches of Long March 5 since they don't seem to be in a hurry to develop the Long March 9, and there seems to be no models with lift capability between 25 and 130 metric tons under consideration!I'm guessing you are looking to stir up trouble, huh?Those kinds of discussions inevitably turn into "But you obviously don't need a HLV to go to the Moon, you can do it with smaller rockets and fuel depots, therefore SLS sucks."
Quote from: Blackstar on 02/12/2014 03:02 pmQuote from: MATTBLAK on 02/11/2014 05:46 amI'd like to see a splinter thread about a prospective Chinese manned lunar mission architecture using 4 or 5x launches of Long March 5 since they don't seem to be in a hurry to develop the Long March 9, and there seems to be no models with lift capability between 25 and 130 metric tons under consideration!I'm guessing you are looking to stir up trouble, huh?Those kinds of discussions inevitably turn into "But you obviously don't need a HLV to go to the Moon, you can do it with smaller rockets and fuel depots, therefore SLS sucks."Geez, Blackstar, lay off the trigger. How was that response warranted?
There were some presentations by Chinese engineers at the IAF last fall where they outlined possible lunar strategies. They seem to prefer splitting up their missions. Instead of launching everything on a single rocket, they send up the crew separately. But they also seem to be interested in HLVs, thinking that they are the way to go. They don't seem to be looking at the LM5 option. My guess is that they did that already and ruled it out.
Thanks for the tips and diagrams, Blackstar - and I truly didn't want to start any kind of argument cycle, guys.
Here's a hi-res version of the CZ-5 architecture that Blackstar posted.
Quote from: Steven Pietrobon on 02/13/2014 02:33 amHere's a hi-res version of the CZ-5 architecture that Blackstar posted.Where'd you get that version? Did I post it to NSF?
I probably got the image from NSF, but I don't remember for sure. I don't remember who posted the image. The only information I have is that I saved the image on 18 February 2010.