pennyfournasa:

China recently announced plans to develop vegetable tanks with a capacity of 300 cubic meters, which will be used to grow four kinds of vegetables. These tanks are to be used on Mars and also on the Moon.

It isn’t currently known what the types of vegetables will be. The Chinese scientists hope to help ensure an uninterrupted supply of air, water, and food during space travel with these developments.

NASA is planning a new facility for studying plants in orbit, the Vegetable Production System, nicknamed “Veggie.” This will allow the crew to grow salad-type crops. This new system will help provide fresh nutrition, while replacing carbon dioxide with oxygen and purifying dirty water. Veggie is to be launched sometime in 2013.

Our lead in space is no guarantee. With China working to become the premiere space-faring nation, we must either include them with our studies or step up our research.

Since our nation doesn’t seem willing to create a technology share with the Chinese, our only option is clear. Tell Congress and the Senate that you want to maintain our lead in astronomy research by funding a program similar to Veggie, except take it to the surface of the Moon or Mars rather than stay in Earth orbit.

http://www.penny4nasa.org/take-action/

Sources:

http://english.ruvr.ru/2012_12_04/China-plans-to-grow-vegetables-on-Mars-and-Moon/

http://www.nasa.gov/missions/science/f_lada.html

http://english.ruvr.ru/2011/12/19/62491600.html

laboratoryequipment:

China No Longer Reliant on Satellite Image Imports

China’s first high-resolution, stereo mapping satellite, called Ziyuan III, meets international standards, ridding the country of its reliance on imports of satellite images.

It was announced at a seminar reviewing the research and development of Ziyuan III held one year after the satellite was launched. China used to import over 90 percent of its remote-sensing data, according to the seminar.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/01/china-no-longer-reliant-satellite-image-imports

ikenbot:

China Plans Manned Space Mission For June 2013

State media in China has reported that the country is planning a manned space mission in 2013, following a successful launch in 2012.

A three-person crew will be sent into orbit around Earth, comprising of a woman and two men, according to a senior official in charge of China’s manned space programme. The mission will likely be named Shenzhou-10.

The plan closely resembles the launch and safe return of Liu Yang, China’s first female astronaut, and two colleagues: Liu Wang and Jing Haipeng, who blasted off in June 2012 aboard Shenzhou-9 and took part in the country’s first manual space docking mission.

The country is not a member of the International Space Station project, and instead plans to build its own orbital space station by 2020.

According to Niu Hongguang, the deputy commander of China’s manned space programme, 2013’s mission is planned for June, but back-up launch windows have been set out for July or August.

allthingsnuclear:

Chinese television spot of video taken by Chinese astronaut Yang Liwei posted by a Chinese blogger (English translation of subtitles added). 

A crew of three Chinese astronauts recently completed a very successful 13 days in space. They docked the Shenzhou 9 spacecraft with the orbiting Tiangong 1 space lab launched in September 2011, completed numerous medical and biological tests assessing living and working conditions aboard the lab, and safely returned to earth. Despite these accomplishments, the press coverage was somewhat less sensational than past missions, even with the attention-getting headlines surrounding Liu Yang, China’s first female astronaut.

Read More

(Source: allthingsnuclear)

discoverynews:

Success! China’s Astronaut Trio Return to Earth

The Shenzhou-9 spacecraft touched down safely after a successful 13-day mission to test orbital docking technologies.

keep reading

Shenzhou-9 Crew Docks and Enters Chinese Spacelab

The crew of the Chinese Shenzhou-9 spacecraft docked today with the Tiangong-1 mini-spacelab and the three taikonauts entered the small spacelab for the first time. China becomes only the third nation to have a manned craft rendezvous and dock with another spacecraft, behind the U.S. and Russia. Commander Jing Haipeng led the crew into the lab, followed by Liu Wang and then later Liu Yang, China’s first female taikonaut. The Shenzhou capsule completed the docking maneuvers shortly after 0600 UTC (2 am EDT). The two spacecraft are about 343 kilometers (213 miles) above Earth. The docking was shown live on national television.

This docking was automated and monitored by China’s mission control. A manual docking by the crew will be done later in the mission.

You can view the docking video here.

Astronauts will live and work in the module for several days doing medical experiments along with studies of live butterflies, butterfly eggs and pupae. This first mission is just the beginning of China’s preparations for having a permanently manned space station, which they hope to have built by 2020. The new space station will weigh about 60 tons and be about one-sixth the size of the 16-nation International Space Station, and just slightly smaller than NASA’s Skylab that was operational in the 1970s.

The 8.5 ton Tiangong 1 is designed to stay in space for at least 2 years and support crews of up to three astronauts for short duration stays. One more manned mission is planned to visit, Shenzhou 10.

China has only cooperated in a limited fashion with other nations and is excluded from the ISS, mainly due to objections from the United States.

China launched their first taikonaut into space in 2003, had a two-man mission and in 2005, with three taikonauts flying to space in 2008, a mission that featured the country’s first spacewalk.

Today’s docking and entrance into Tiangong-1 with a female taikonaut coincides with the anniversary of the first American woman into space. Sally Ride flew on STS-7 on this date in 1983.

Sources: Time, SpaceRef

When China’s fourth human spaceflight blasts off on June 16, it will mark more than the country’s latest crewed space mission. The Shenzhou 9 space docking mission will launch China’s first woman astronaut into orbit and ferry the first crew to a space station prototype.

Liu Yang, age 34, is China’s first female astronaut. She and two colleagues form the crew of the Shenzhou 9 mission, with liftoff set for 6:37 p.m. local time (6:37 a.m. EDT or 1037 GMT) on June 16, 2012.

The astronauts will travel to the Tiangong 1 space laboratory, which has orbited the Earth since Sept. 29, 2011. Pilot Liu Wang, 43, will practice both manual and automatic docking maneuvers. The crew will inhabit the space laboratory module for several days to conduct experiments and test equipment. The mission’s commander, Jing Haipeng, 46, flew in space once before on the Shenzhou 7 mission in 2008. 

The Tiangong 1 laboratory is a prototype for a more elaborate space station that China plans to launch by the year 2020. Tiangong 1 is 34.1 feet long (10.4 meters) and 11 feet in diameter (3.35 meters). The laboratory orbits the Earth at an altitude of about 220 miles and an orbital inclination of 42 degrees.

The Shenzhou ferry spacecraft is 30.3 feet long (9.25 meters) and 9.1 feet in diameter (2.8 meters). Shenzhou’s pressurized crew capsule houses three astronauts for launch and landing. A module at the front of Shenzhou can be left in space for automatic operations after the crew has returned to Earth.

China Successfully Docks Manned Space Capsule at Orbiting Module

Image 1: The crew of China’s Shenzhou 9 mission waves to a camera aboard the Tiangong 1 space module after successfully docking their capsule at the test module on June 18, 2012, in this still from a state-run TV broadcast on CNTV The crew is (from left) Liu Wang, Liu Yang (China’s first female astronaut), and mission commander Jing Haipeng. 
CREDIT: CNTV 

Image 2: This artist’s illustration from a China space agency video shows the Tiangong 1 space laboratory, a prototype module for the country’s planned space station. 
CREDIT: China Manned Space Engineering Office

Chinese astronauts docked two spaceships in orbit for the first time Monday (June 18), marking a vital milestone in the country’s quest to build a manned space station in Earth orbit.

The three-person crew of the Shenzhou 9 spacecraft, which includes the China’s first female astronaut, arrived at the country’s Tiangong 1 (“Heavenly Palace”) test module in orbit and joined the two craft to complete the successful docking. The maneuver is the first manned docking for China, making it the third nation, after the United States and Russia, to achieve such a feat.

“We are one step closer to our destination of constructing a future space station,” an official with China’s space program said during a broadcast on the state-run CNTV news network. “This is the first successful crew transportation mission for China.”

Shenzhou 9 and the Tiangong 1 space module docked in an automatic mode during Monday’s successful link-up, with the Chinese astronauts (called taikonauts) to stay in orbit for about 13 days. Later this week, the Shenzhou 9 crew will undock their spacecraft from Tiangong 1 and then re-dock in a manual mode in another test, Chinese space officials have said.

Shenzhou 9 lifted off on a Chinese Long March 2F rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in China’s northern Gansu province Saturday (June 16). [Launch Photos: China’s Shenzhou 9 Mission]

The mission is notable not just for the docking, but for the fact that this crew includes China’s first female taikonaut. People’s Liberation Army pilot Liu Yang is flying with repeat astronaut Jing Haipeng and rookie Liu Wang.

After Monday’s successful docking, Jing entered the Tiangong 1 module first and waved to a TV camera to flight controllers on Earth. Liu Wang followed Jing inside the module while Liu Yang remained inside the Shenzhou 9 capsule performing final checks.

Later, Liu Yang entered Tiangong 1 and applause was heard from China’s mission control room at the Beijing Aerospace Control Center as all three Shenzhou 9 astronauts boarded the module.

“I feel honored to fly into space on behalf of hundreds of millions of Chinese females,” Liu said before the launch, according to Chinese state news agency Xinhua.

Now that they have arrived at their new orbital home, the taikonauts will soon start settling in and exploring the Tiangong 1 module. In addition to necessary equipment, a collection of surprise trinkets have been planted around the lab for the astronauts to find, both for fun and to test the crew’s puzzle-solving abilities in orbit.

“Discovering unexpected items by themselves could add more fun to living in space,” said Chen Shanguang, general director of the astronaut system department, Xinhua reported.

Tiangong 1 launched in September 2011, with another unmanned vehicle, Shenzhou 8, lifting off in November of that year to link up with it, marking China’s first docking. This crewed docking a new step forward for China’s plans to built a large manned space station by the year 2020.

Eventually, China aims to land people on the moon, officials with the country’s space program have said.

fuckyeahfemaleastronauts:

Today, June 16, The Shenzhou-9 spacecraft had a successful lift off, bringing the first Chinese female astronaut into space. Liu Yang became the 56th woman in space exactly 49 years after the first women, Valentina Tereshkova was launched in the Vostok-6.

My congratulations to China and a big Hurray for 49 years of women in space. 

(via astudyinspock)

China to Send Its First Woman to Space on June 16th

China will launch a three-person crew on Saturday, June 16, 2012 at 10:37 UTC (6:37 a.m. EDT) on board a Shenzhou 9 spacecraft, heading to the Tiangong 1 spacelab. The crew includes Liu Yang, the first female Chinese taikonaut. With her will be Jing Haipeng, the commander and a veteran of two other spaceflights and Liu Wang. This will be the first manned docking to the Tiangong 1 (Heavenly Palace), which was launched in September 2011.

The Shenzhou 9 will launch from the Jiuquan Space Launch Center in the Gobi desert in western China.

Yang is a 33-year-old fighter pilot and said during a broadcast interview, “From day one I have been told I am no different from the male astronauts…I believe in persevering. If you persevere, success lies ahead of you.”

Liu joined the taikonaut training program in May 2010 and was selected as a possible candidate for the docking mission after she excelled in testing, according to the Xinhua news agency.

She initially trained as a cargo pilot and has been praised for her cool handling of an incident when her jet hit a flock of pigeons but she was still able to land the heavily damaged aircraft.

At a press conference, the three taikonauts were behind a glass wall before a small group of hand-picked journalists. They said the manual docking was a “huge test,” but that they had rehearsed the procedure more than 1,500 times.

“The three of us understand each other tacitly. One glance, one facial expression, one movement, we understand each other thoroughly,” said Jing.

Once Shenzhou 9 reaches the vicinity of Tiangong 1, the crew will perform a manual docking, but the Chinese space agency has said future missions will have automated dockings.

Some reports have indicated the Shenzhou spacecraft is designed with a common docking system that would allow it to dock with the International Space Station in the future should China be invited to visit.

Once on board the Taingong 1, the crew will do some medical research and conduct other research including monitoring live butterflies and butterfly eggs and pupae.

China has said they hope to add more modules to their space station, with a final version of it built by 2010. A white paper released last December outlining China’s ambitious space program said the country “will conduct studies on the preliminary plan for a human lunar landing.”

Lead image caption: China’s astronauts Jing Haipeng (C), Liu Wang (R) and Liu Yang meet with media in Jiuquan, China on June 15, 2012. The three astronauts will board Shenzhou-9 spacecraft on Saturday for China’s first manned space docking mission. Credit: Xinhua/Wang Jianmin

Second image caption: An artists rendering of the Tiangong-1 module, the first part of China’s space station. To the right is a Shenzhou spacecraft, preparing to dock with the module. Image Credit: CNSA

Sources: PeopleDaily, AFP, SpaceRef.

(Source: universetoday.com)