As per Mr Clark's suggestion in the SZ-10 thread for a general discussion thread for the Shenzhou vehicle.
I do have one question to start this thread does anyone know what the Shenzhou's solar power generation is compared to the current Soyuz version?
I have bought a set of 7 Chinese books about the Chinese manned spaceflight program - in fact it was "officially authorized" as in written by experts in all different aspects of CMSP and published in association with the CMSP office in late 2010. The series has the most detailed desciption, photo sets and data about the program history, spacecrafts, rocket, astronaut training, launch facilities, mission control, payloads I have ever seen anywhere - in books or on the web. Unfortunately I don't really have time right now, but if necessary I may put some excerpts of the books as needed.
I can't recall how much power can Shenzhou's solar panels generate off hand, but it's definitely higher than the Soyuz. Lemme check when I am back home over the weekend....
how long shenzu can stay in orbit without docking? one week?? two weeks??
I have bought a set of 7 Chinese books about the Chinese manned spaceflight program
That sounds very interesting! Could you please provide us with details like an ISBN?
I have bought a set of 7 Chinese books about the Chinese manned spaceflight program - in fact it was "officially authorized" as in written by experts in all different aspects of CMSP and published in association with the CMSP office in late 2010. The series has the most detailed desciption, photo sets and data about the program history, spacecrafts, rocket, astronaut training, launch facilities, mission control, payloads I have ever seen anywhere - in books or on the web. Unfortunately I don't really have time right now, but if necessary I may put some excerpts of the books as needed.
I can't recall how much power can Shenzhou's solar panels generate off hand, but it's definitely higher than the Soyuz. Lemme check when I am back home over the weekend....
Thanks for doing. What got me wondering was reading elsewhere on here they are in the process of upgrading Soyuz's solar panels.
I have bought a set of 7 Chinese books about the Chinese manned spaceflight program - in fact it was "officially authorized" as in written by experts in all different aspects of CMSP and published in association with the CMSP office in late 2010. The series has the most detailed desciption, photo sets and data about the program history, spacecrafts, rocket, astronaut training, launch facilities, mission control, payloads I have ever seen anywhere - in books or on the web. Unfortunately I don't really have time right now, but if necessary I may put some excerpts of the books as needed.
I can't recall how much power can Shenzhou's solar panels generate off hand, but it's definitely higher than the Soyuz. Lemme check when I am back home over the weekend....
Thanks for doing. What got me wondering was reading elsewhere on here they are in the process of upgrading Soyuz's solar panels.
Checking the books, it reports an average power of 1200 watts and maximum power of 2400 watts, about three times that of Soyuz (
which apparently has 1000 watts max.). On the earlier flights with the free-flying orbital module, the average power can reach 1400 watts.
I have bought a set of 7 Chinese books about the Chinese manned spaceflight program - in fact it was "officially authorized" as in written by experts in all different aspects of CMSP and published in association with the CMSP office in late 2010. The series has the most detailed desciption, photo sets and data about the program history, spacecrafts, rocket, astronaut training, launch facilities, mission control, payloads I have ever seen anywhere - in books or on the web. Unfortunately I don't really have time right now, but if necessary I may put some excerpts of the books as needed.
I can't recall how much power can Shenzhou's solar panels generate off hand, but it's definitely higher than the Soyuz. Lemme check when I am back home over the weekend....
Thanks for doing. What got me wondering was reading elsewhere on here they are in the process of upgrading Soyuz's solar panels.
Checking the books, it reports an average power of 1200 watts and maximum power of 2400 watts, about three times that of Soyuz (which apparently has 1000 watts max.). On the earlier flights with the free-flying orbital module, the average power can reach 1400 watts.
Thanks again. Sounds like they have the baseline for creating a BEO manned vehicle from it?
Thanks again. Sounds like they have the baseline for creating a BEO manned vehicle from it?
Well....I have never heard of any official musing (or even rumor) for any BLEO human spaceflight plans from the Chinese (apart from wishes from lunar scientists and paper/.pptx HLV plans), so......
Thanks again. Sounds like they have the baseline for creating a BEO manned vehicle from it?
Well....I have never heard of any official musing (or even rumor) for any BLEO human spaceflight plans from the Chinese (apart from wishes from lunar scientists and paper/.pptx HLV plans), so......
Originally Korolyov designed Soyuz as a universal spacecraft for LEO and lunar missions. So there is no reason that Shenzhou wasn't designed with the same options for modifications at the appropriate time.
Thanks again. Sounds like they have the baseline for creating a BEO manned vehicle from it?
Well....I have never heard of any official musing (or even rumor) for any BLEO human spaceflight plans from the Chinese (apart from wishes from lunar scientists and paper/.pptx HLV plans), so......
Originally Korolyov designed Soyuz as a universal spacecraft for LEO and lunar missions. So there is no reason that Shenzhou wasn't designed with the same options for modifications at the appropriate time.
Yup, the basic design is sound for BLEO operations - it's just that there aren't hints from the Chinese that such modifications is planned for the near future. Maybe after a decade...
Thanks again. Sounds like they have the baseline for creating a BEO manned vehicle from it?
Well....I have never heard of any official musing (or even rumor) for any BLEO human spaceflight plans from the Chinese (apart from wishes from lunar scientists and paper/.pptx HLV plans), so......
Originally Korolyov designed Soyuz as a universal spacecraft for LEO and lunar missions. So there is no reason that Shenzhou wasn't designed with the same options for modifications at the appropriate time.
Yup, the basic design is sound for BLEO operations - it's just that there aren't hints from the Chinese that such modifications is planned for the near future. Maybe after a decade...
I would not expect Chinese statements of such modifications until they have a fully-funded programme for BLEO missions..
I have bought a set of 7 Chinese books about the Chinese manned spaceflight program
That sounds very interesting! Could you please provide us with details like an ISBN?
The list of books (unfortunately all in Chinese, but at least you can read the illustrations...):
978-7-80218-440-4 (Program history)
978-7-80218-445-9 (Astronauts and training)
978-7-80218-446-6 (Experiments and payloads for manned spaceflight)
978-7-80218-443-5 (Shenzhou spacecraft)
978-7-80218-442-8 (Launch vehicle)
978-7-80218-441-1 (Launch facility)
978-7-80218-444-2 (Communication, tracking, search and rescue)
All are published by Chinese Astronautics Publishing, and are written by experts involved in the development of the program, so it can be described as the "official" reference books for the Chinese manned spaceflight program.
Can you say a little bit more about these books, please. E.g.: Are there a lot of illustrations (photos, drawings, artworks) in them? How many pages do the books have? What is the proportion between number of illustrations and number of pages (E.g. in average one illustration per page, one illustr. per ten pages, less than that).
Are there many "unknown" illustrations that have not been published on the web, for example?
What is the publishing year for the books? Amazon says, the year is 2000, but I wonder if this is correct, because this seems to be quite long ago, which would suggest that the books and their illustrations are not up-to-date and would not contain much about the actual manned missions.
I would be interested mainly in the books about astronauts and training, spacecraft, launch vehicle, launch facility and maybe communication, tracking, search and rescue.
My problem is, I don't speak or read Chinese. So, I wonder if it would be worth to buy the books just for the illustrations.
