Chinese Launch New Space Lab

Toroid

Founding Member
The Chinese have launched Tiangong-2 space lab. :cool:

SPACE NEWS WEBCASTS: China Launches Tiangong-2 Space Lab
Like its predecessor Tiangong-1, Tiangong-2 is an orbiting space lab – but this latest model has made several improvements in the series. Among the advances: astronauts can remain on the station up to 30 days; New systems allow in orbit refueling of propellant; and 14 new experiments in a wide range of sciences.

"Some of the scientific research will include:

  • Composite material fabrication
  • Advanced-plant cultivation
  • Gamma ray burst polarization
  • Fluid physics
  • Space-to-earth quantum communications
"The space lab is also equipped with a cold atom space clock, that has an estimated precision of 10 to the power of minus 16 seconds. This essentially means accuracy of the clock is within a one-second error every 30 million years. This exactitude will help measure previously undetectable fluctuations for experiments conducted in zero-gravity.

"'The clock is of the world’s leading technology to enhance time-keeping in space by one to two orders of magnitudes,' says Wu Ping."
 

Toroid

Founding Member
Now it looks like the Tiangong-1 will crash to Earth in the next few months.
China's space station will crash into Earth within months | Daily Mail Online
When China launched its first space station in 2011, it had great ambitions of using the craft to set up a larger space complex.

But the Chinese space agency lost control of Tiangong-1 in September 2016, and now experts predict the 8.5 tonne craft will come crashing back down to Earth within months.

Worryingly, experts are unsure precisely when the space station will head towards Earth - or where the debris will land.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4977568/China-s-space-station-crash-Earth-MONTHS.html#ixzz4vPBXacUh
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Toroid

Founding Member
The Tiangong-2 space lab will be in orbit until July 2019 then deorbited.
Another Chinese space lab is going to fall back to Earth, but this time it’s under control
Remember back in April when China’s Tiangong-1 space station unceremoniously fell out of the sky, burned up in the atmosphere and rained a bit of debris down on our lovely planet? It was a scary time, and nobody really knew where the leftovers from the hulking satellite might end up. Thankfully it landed in the ocean, allowing everyone to breathe a sigh of relief, but now China has announced that we’re in for a repeat.

China’s space agency just announced that the Tiangong-2 space lab will also be crashing back down to Earth, only this time the country has a better handle on its fateful descent.

“Tiangong-2 has fulfilled its mission during the two-year time, and all the loads are now in good condition,” Lin Xiqiang, deputy director of the China Manned Space Engineering Office, explained in a statement to Chinese state media. “It will be in orbit until July 2019, and then will be controlled to deorbit.”

The key word here is “controlled.”

When Tiangong-1 fell from orbit it did so with absolutely no input from its handlers back on Earth. Chinese scientists had totally lost contact with the spacecraft two full years before it fell and it was at the mercy of gravity as it swung around the planet and eventually penetrated the atmosphere. This time around, Tiangong-2 is actually under control and its engineers can decide when and where it eventually deorbits.

The Tiangong-2 space station was launched fairly recently in 2016. China says that it has exhausted its usefulness and that’s the reason for scuttling the spacecraft. China state media reports that the station performed a total of 14 “projects” for the space agency during its brief tenure. When it comes time to deorbit Tiangong-2, engineers will likely pick a remote area of the Pacific Ocean over which to bring it down.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-8yC7hrCYs
 
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