When upstart commercial companies such as SpaceX are in advance development of far superior spacecraft, it's no wonder that they need to move forward from what is essential a 1960's design.
On Facebook someone posted a summary of the Go Taikonauts! paper. Apparently the spacecraft comes in two versions. A 14-tonnes ferry which can take six people to LEO or be carried on a Mars mission or a 20 tonnes four-person version for lunar missions. The latter seems light compared with the Apollo CSM, but it all depends on the mission profile and which rockets do which burns at the Moon.
Quote from: Phillip Clark on 05/13/2015 07:44 amOn Facebook someone posted a summary of the Go Taikonauts! paper. Apparently the spacecraft comes in two versions. A 14-tonnes ferry which can take six people to LEO or be carried on a Mars mission or a 20 tonnes four-person version for lunar missions. The latter seems light compared with the Apollo CSM, but it all depends on the mission profile and which rockets do which burns at the Moon.I've heard that if the 3 part Soyuz/Shenzhou design had been employed that a 3 or even 4 person lunar duration craft would be far less massive them Apollo/Orion turned out to be because of the much lighter reentry capsule which would make for a correspondingly smaller service module. If the Chinese are smart they will stick with the current Shenzhou design but simply enlarge it around 3 to 3.3 meters in diameter, that would more then double the volume.[...]
From the latest GoTaikonauts! newsletter..."A little noticed news was that China has formally started development of a new generation of manned spacecraft. CAST started the study in June 2013. After three months of technical reviews and refining of the design, it was finally approved by the government in October 2014. In December, CAST revealed that they are preparing an air-drop test of a scale model of the new manned capsule, reusing the back-up parachutes of Shenzhou 10. According to information revealed earlier, the new manned spacecraft is similar to Apollo or Orion."
Two versions of the new spacecraft are planned, with one having a mass of 14-metric tons and another of 20 tons. They will be capable of carrying four to six astronauts, according to earlier reports.
More news about the spacecraft...this capsule look big...https://spacenews.com/china-to-launch-unmanned-test-flight-of-next-generation-crewed-spacecraft-in-2019/QuoteTwo versions of the new spacecraft are planned, with one having a mass of 14-metric tons and another of 20 tons. They will be capable of carrying four to six astronauts, according to earlier reports.