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Andrew Jones Profile picture
@AJ_FI
Jul 14, 2020 • 3 tweets • 2 min read • Read on X
Tianwen-1: Utopia Planitia confirmed as candidate landing site, landing attempt to follow 2-3 months after Mars orbit insertion in Feb 2021, according to Nature Astronomy paper released yesterday #Tianwen1 nature.com/articles/s4155…
This is a MOLA map of the two earlier selected candidate landing areas. 'Utopia Planitia' means we can narrow this down area #2 to the red box, omitting Isidis Planitia. Still a big area. Image
And within this red box there are preferred sites (3, 4, 5) based on the probability of dust storms in the area, calculated by scientists at the Institute of Space Sciences, Shandong University. Unknown if these are/factor into actual chosen site. Source: researchgate.net/publication/34… Image

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More from @AJ_FI

Andrew Jones Profile picture
Jan 19, 2023
China launch plans: CASC has released its 2023 "Blue book," updating it plans to 60+ launches, meaning 80+ planned all in. Only 1 Tianzhou because increased capacity, 200+ spacecraft, 20m SAR sat to GEO, and much more... also a CZ-9 update (1/4)
Other noted launches/projects: Environmental Surveyor 2-05, Fengyun-3 F+G, new Haiyang sats, Zhongxing 26, "New Generation Commercial Remote Sensing Satellite System" and Gaojing sats, Hongtu-1 SAR sats, Jilin-1 EO sats, Geely autonomous driving constellation, etc... (2/4)
2022: China launched 64 times last year, sending 188 spacecraf into orbit with a combined mass of 197.21 tons. Launches included 53 Long March rockets, reaching a successful streak of 128 launches. Source: mp.weixin.qq.com/s/YeaQNaVA0A5v… (3/4)
Read 4 tweets
Andrew Jones Profile picture
Aug 9, 2022
China's secretive spaceplane is still in orbit following its launch on Thursday. The first mission, in Sep. 2020, lasted ~two days, so this is already a longer mission this time out. Only word from China far is a terse statement of launch. A few things to note so far:
The last mission saw the (or a) apparent spaceplane in a 331 by 347 km, 50 degree orbit. This time it's a more eccentric 346 x 593 km, 50 deg. orbit, for unknown reasons.
Last time, the spacecraft released an object likely a couple of orbits before reentry and landing. This time, as well as a few pieces of debris and the CZ2F launcher second stage, there are 2 unknown objects also tracked in orbit, possibly camera sats akin to Banxing-2 from TG-2.
Read 6 tweets
Andrew Jones Profile picture
Feb 8, 2022
Yet another funding round for China's array of launch startups. Space Pioneer ( 天兵科技) has closed B round strategic funding, backed by state-owned funds. The firm is targeting a first orbital launch of the Tianlong-1 kerolox rocket sometime in 2022. mp.weixin.qq.com/s/e3VfAX76z7zb… Image
The Tianlong-1 is a smaller launcher, though the firm stated in 2020 the 1st flight vehicle would have a payload capacity to LEO of 3 tonnes+. Also working on the staged combustion, reusable Tianlong-2, and the Tianlong-3, benchmarked against the Falcon 9, would you believe...
Notably Space Pioneer is targeting opportunities presented by the national Guowang satellite internet constellation plan, aiming to be able to launch 60 sates on a Tianlong-3. GW plan remains vague, but private firms all note its potential for contracts. spacenews.com/chinas-megacon…
Read 5 tweets
Andrew Jones Profile picture
Jan 26, 2022
Wow. Another big funding round in Chinese launch, this time OrienSpace (东方空间) raising nearly 300m yuan ($47m). Follows the Y400m/$62m Orienspace raised in June last year. Funding goes to Gravity-1/引力一号/Yinli-1, 3-tonnes-to-LEO launcher and engines
mp.weixin.qq.com/s/vAFZBo_t90mL…
This follows, in recent days, Galactic Energy raising $200 million, Deep Blue Aerospace securing $31.5 million on Jan. 18 & Space Trek completing a round of "tens of millions" of yuan to develop target missiles. Some more background on Orienspace plans:
Like other places around the world, lots of funding in China going to launch startups. Can't be room for many, but we have Landspace, OneSpace, iSpace, Galactic Energy, Space Pioneer, Deep Blue Aerospace, Linkspace, Space Trek, Orienspace, Rocket Pi, Space Transportation...
Read 4 tweets
Andrew Jones Profile picture
Jan 25, 2022
China's 5G satellite plans: China's Commsat reveals it won a 5 million yuan contract from Beijing Municipal Sci & Tech Commission for a project related to 5G satellite onboard processing as part of a new gen ICT project to break technology bottlenecks. mp.weixin.qq.com/s/KS_SHdilUaev…
Beijing Municipal Sci & Tech Commission's pages also reveal that CASC-affiliated Sunwise Space Tech co and GalaxySpace (private) also won ICT bottleneck project bids for high-performance processors & Q/V/Ka band payloads respectively. kw.beijing.gov.cn/art/2022/1/20/…
Could be very much related to China's plans to construct ~13,000-sat LEO "Guowang" megaconstellation. Commsat notes intensifying int'l competition for freq./LEO resources & domestic constraints inc. limited data processing capacity & inability to deploy ground stations globally.
Read 4 tweets
Andrew Jones Profile picture
Jan 24, 2022
China’s Galactic Energy has raised $200 million for development of its Pallas-1 reusable launch vehicle, with 2 funding rounds that, combined, eclipse the previous largest Chinese launch rounds. Also Pallas-1 will be more capable than previous stated spacenews.com/chinas-galacti…
Lots of other commercial activity in China in the last day or two. Tsignhua university, together with Space Transportation announced the test of a spray combustion rocket.
Space Transportation, which is working on hypersonic vehicles for point-to-point transport and space tourism, itself conducted the 10th launch of its Tianxing series rockets a day earlier: Image
Read 4 tweets

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