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China's First Spacewalk

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the hold-your-breath dept.

Smivs writes "The BBC reports that China will launch its third manned space mission in late September, according to state-run news agency Xinhua. The Shenzhou VII flight will feature China's first-ever space walk, which will be broadcast live with cameras inside and outside the spacecraft. For the spacewalk, two crew members will go into the spacecraft's vacuum module. One yuhangyuan (astronaut) will carry out the spacewalk; the other is there to monitor the activity and assist in case of an emergency. Two types of spacesuits — one made in China, the other from Russia — will be carried up on the flight. It is unclear why China has opted for two different types of spacesuit. Spaceflight analyst Dr Morris Jones commented that China might want to test the suits against each other. Alternatively, he said, it might not be ready or willing to fly a mission exclusively with its own suits."

16 of 148 comments (clear)

  1. Whatwhatwhat? by Mastadex · · Score: 2, Insightful

    What kinda link is this:

    http://science.slashdot.org/ChinawilllaunchitsthirdmannedspacemissioninlateSeptember,state-runnewsagencyXinhuareports.TheShenzhouVIIflightwillfeatureChina

    --
    A morning without coffee is like something without something else.
  2. State run media? by Tom90deg · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Hmm..Well, while I wish the Chinese astronauts the best of luck and hope they get back safely, I doubt that the film is going to be "Live" More likely? A nice safe delay of, oh...a hour to make sure that nothing gets shown that's not supposed to be shown.

    China has too much media control to trust something as unpredictable as live TV, especially in a situation where so many things could go wrong.

    On that note, good luck! Maybe this'll get us off our asses and back up into space! A little competition never hurt nobody.

    1. Re:State run media? by oodaloop · · Score: 4, Insightful

      A little competition never hurt nobody.

      Except the loser.

      --
      Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
  3. Good... by interactive_civilian · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I realize that China isn't the moral leaders of the world, but I'm happy to see them playing catch-up when it comes to manned space-flight.

    Because, given the way China tends to think, when I see them putting men in space, it makes me think they already have long term plans for trips to the moon, and perhaps even a permanent presence off-planet. And I say, it's about time.

    Humans could do much worse than start making the steps to get us off this rock.

    --
    "Empathise with stupidity, and you're halfway to thinking like an idiot." - Iain M. Banks
    1. Re:Good... by damburger · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Catch up? I would say that Shenzhou is at least comparable with other manned space flight systems. The shuttle is on its last legs and crippled with problems. Soyuz is also due to be retired.

      As essentially a larger version of Soyuz, with an orbital module that can operate indepedently. The program might not be moving fast (although now the Chinese have finished with the olympics they might redirect more resources) they do have the most technically impressive craft currently flying.

      --
      If we can put a man on the moon, why can't we shoot people for Apollo-related non-sequiturs?
    2. Re:Good... by inhuman_4 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I am afraid I must disagree. The Shenzhou is certianly newer, and probably better then the Soyuz. But it is far from the most impresive.

      The big deal with the Space Shuttle is that it can carry seven people, a large chunk of cago, and the shuttle can be re-used (although not as well as was planned). It may be near the end of its life span, but as far as capabilities go it is still the best the world has.

      For the Soyuz is claim to fame is its consistancy. The Soyuz design is the most tested manned flight system out there. So while yes it may be old and crappy, its got a solid reputation. Not to mention that it is cheap, and fast to launch.

      Give the Shenzhou another decade and it could replace the Soyuz as the cheap way to get to space, but the Shuttle is still the king in terms of capabilities.

    3. Re:Good... by damburger · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The ability to carry up cargo and passengers isn't that impressive when you look at the costs. Putting up the same quantity of people and cargo with 2 Soyuz launches and one Proton costs $180 million whilst a Shuttle launch costs over $400 million.

      Reusability isn't all its cracked up to be for the Shuttle. It has made it more expensive than throw-away alternatives, and the thing has to be practically rebuilt every flight as well.

      The only capability the Shuttle has which the Russian launchers do not is returning cargo, and that hasn't been used in a while.

      --
      If we can put a man on the moon, why can't we shoot people for Apollo-related non-sequiturs?
    4. Re:Good... by Daniel+Dvorkin · · Score: 4, Insightful

      A permanent moonbase is like the war in Iraq: Sure, some profit off it but essentially you are throwing money away.

      Yeah, just like the war in Iraq, except without the part about, you know, killing people.

      The US is still a very rich country (not, granted, as rich relative to the rest of the world as we were in the 1960s, but still) and we can afford to do things that don't show an immediate profit. Speaking as someone who has seen war up close and personal -- and whose father was one of the people who made the moon landings happen -- I'd much rather have us spending money on space exploration than on wars of aggression.

      --
      The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
    5. Re:Good... by Richard_at_work · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Which is why it needs to be done in baby steps:
      1. Manned moon base - supported by Earth with regular cargo shipments
      2. Self sustaining manned moon base - they can grow their own food, repair their own facilities and do not need support from Earth
      3. Basic mining and refining of ore with support from Earth - the initial tools to do the job are brought up from Earth
      4. Self sustaining basic mining - refined ore is used to produce replacement parts and new tools
      5. Advanced mining - could be self sustaining, might not be
      6. Basic large structure construction - possibly expanding the moonbase or building new vehicles for achieving lunar orbit
      7. Advanced large structure construction - building lunar orbit to earth transfer vehicles in lunar orbit

      Once you have completed that last stage, you have the basic plans for going anywhere in the solar system at a fraction of the price of new build from Earth. Yes, its a fantastic idea now if you simply say 'use the moon to build space ships', but not if you break it down into logical steps.

      Of course, the idea that anyone is actually going to finance this is fantasy in and of itself...

    6. Re:Good... by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The Soyuz design is the most tested manned flight system out there.

      Except for the Shuttle, of course. Which has flown more flights (123 as opposed to 99), with a higher success rate (two major failures as opposed to four).

      --

      "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
    7. Re:Good... by AJWM · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Given that the Progress resupply ships are essentially unmanned Soyuz capsules, I think you have to count a lot more than merely the 99 manned flights. The launch system is essentially the same in either case, even if there are detail differences in the orbital vehicles. (I can't readily find total number of Progress launches, but it was 43 - all successful - to Salyuts 6 and 7; plus many since then to Mir and 30 to ISS.)

      --
      -- Alastair
    8. Re:Good... by DerekLyons · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The Soyuz design is the most tested manned flight system out there.

      Not even remotely, the current mark of the design only has thirteen flights. Soyuz, overall, only has 90 odd flights *total* as compared to the Shuttle which is up around 120.
       
       

      So while yes it may be old and crappy, its got a solid reputation.

      A reputation totally undeserved and based on many people being utterly ignorant of the history of Soyuz - which includes a long series of dangerous near misses, total mission failures, and landing issues. Three of the last five landings have had serious failures!
       
       

      Not to mention that it is cheap, and fast to launch.

      Yeah, it's cheap. So is a Yugo or a Vespa scooter. You get what you pay for.

  4. Nine comments... by tgd · · Score: 5, Insightful

    All nine of you are totally busted for pretending you read the article, since the link doesn't work.

  5. Re:Descision making by cashman73 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I'm not sure that would such an "honor". Judging by the quality of 90% of their other products, I think I'd take the "Made in Russia" suit, myself,... ;-)

  6. Bizarre by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    America was one of the great nations in the space race. But we are about to be grounded. Again. This time, for 5 years. Why? Because Bush would not allow either NASA OR the airforce to complete the X-33. It sat in a hanger for 6 years and only last year was dismantled. The air force kept asking and cheney said no. Sad that Sick politics is what has grounded America. Even now, We could be up there in 2 years, by having congress and NASA authorize COTS-D as well as have NASA consider alternatives such as Direct. Nuts, simply moving orion or dragon to an eelv would keep us going, and that is doable within 2 years. But politicians and NASA are afraid that it might kill ares I. Personally, I would rather see the I killed and worked started on the IV and V. As long as have multiple launchers (EELVs, Falcon, Tarus), as welled a rated capsule, then we would be ok.

    Bush and his admin will go down in history as the worst American presidency.

  7. Re:Smart testing by v1 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    From the sound of it, this "vacuum module" is there so they can evacuate it slowly and check for leaks, and if a problem happens, re-pressurize it quickly. That's safer for lots of reasons. Firstly, you don't need to get the guinea pig back IN the ship before you can begin to re-pressurize them. Secondly no risk of a hose splitting and causing them to rocket away from the ship. (and break a tether)

    The use of two suits is a good plan also. I'd expect them to have two people in the vacuum module, one in the russian suit and one in their new suit. If there's an emergency with the new suit, having someone in the module to help could make all the difference.

    Does make me wonder though how much ground testing they've done. One would assume they've done a lot of vacuum testing on the ground already, but they sure are going about this slowly despite that. They should already know if their suit is OK before flying it up into space. The lack of gravity seems unlikely to change the behavior of the suit.

    --
    I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.