China's First Spacewalk

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."

Comments

I know what they're up to...

[Anonymous Coward]

...and I can't stand by to let it happen! To arms, people, they're going to censor the IIS's wifi!

State run media?

[Tom90deg]

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.

Re:State run media?

[damburger]

Why not? Most live events have a delay, because sometimes bad shit happens. I don't think the Chinese state not making its own impromptu snuff film has anything to do with their censorship practices.

Re:State run media?

[oodaloop]

A little competition never hurt nobody.

Except the loser.

Re:State run media?

[jellomizer]

Well on the manned Moon mission for the US. If something happened and they couldn't have returned to home, they would have turned off all contact with them and Nixon had a wonderful speech to give about their deaths preprepared to give in this case even if they were still alive but stranded on the moon.

Re:State run media?

[Lincolnshire Poacher]

> I doubt that the film is going to be "Live"

The Shenzhou 6 launch in October 2005 was the first to be broadcast live in China, so they may yet surprise you.

After all. if something does go wrong there is little that can be done to hide it. This isn't Leonov's era - telemetry and communications will be under constant scrutiny.

Re:State run media?

[cmr-denver]

There were actually extensive plans made for that very contingency. The speech (draft) was written for Nixon by William Safire. In my opinion, it is one of the finest pieces of writing I've ever seen:

"Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace.

These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, know that there is no hope for their recovery. But they also know that there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice.

These two men are laying down their lives in mankind's most noble goal: the search for truth and understanding. They will be mourned by their families and friends; they will be mourned by their nation; they will be mourned by the people of the world; they will be mourned by a Mother Earth that dared send two of her sons into the unknown.

In their exploration, they stirred the people of the world to feel as one; in their sacrifice, they bind more tightly the brotherhood of man.

In ancient days, men looked at the stars and saw their heroes in the constellations. In modern times, we do much the same, but our heroes are epic men of flesh and blood.

Others will follow, and surely find their way home. Man's search will not be denied. But these men were the first, and they will remain the foremost in our hearts.

For every human being who looks up at the moon in the nights to come will know that there is some corner of another world that is forever mankind."

Descision making

[Hrshgn]

I'm just asking myself how they decided which of the two astronauts will have the honor to try the Chinese spacesuit?

Smart testing

[Chairboy]

China is fast tracking their progress in space, and they're doing pretty good risk management to get it done. They used Russian experience when designing their capsule system (their spacecraft has a number of big similarities to the Soyuz capsule, very very big similarities, and now they're taking up a backup suit in case a design flaw appears during the test that would affect a rescuer. It's a fine idea and doesn't indicate some big uncertainty about their own design, it shows a clear headed decision to trade a possible nationalistic PR win for a measured, risk aware backup plan that puts the lives of their Taikonauts ahead of the usual spin goals.

I'm not a huge fan of PRC in general, but their space program has been well executed so far. They're making good use of available data while still innovating on their terms instead of having to build everything from scratch.

Re:Smart testing

[damburger]

One major difference? You joke surely;

1. The engines were on the stack, not the orbiter. The stack could (and did) fly without the orbiter at all
2. There were four boosters instead of two.
3. The boosters were liquid, not solid fueled

Even the link you provided as alleged evidence that it was just stolen technology acknowledges these very major differences.

Nine comments...

[tgd]

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

Scary space walk

[Dystopian Rebel]

If I were the yuhangyuan on the tether, I'd be yelling "You Hang You On!" like crazy!

Joy luck, gentlemen.

Differing space suits

[halcyon1234]

It is unclear why China has opted for two different types of spacesuit.

Because the first type of suit doesn't come in child sizes

Re:OMG someone stop the Chinese right now

[eln]

The reference makes no sense if it's referring to Spaceballs. The bubble around Druidia (the air shield) was intended to keep the air in, not the people. The people could presumably come and go as they pleased as long as they knew the combination (which, coincidentally, is the same combination I have on my luggage).

Re:An astronaut by any other name...

[barzok]

As NASA has defined it, only US space-going individuals may claim the title "astronaut." Further, they cannot be civilians, at least according to an article in the latest Wired.

Aside from surviving the trip, Garriott has one more wish--to earn the title of astronaut. As a gamer, he cares deeply about the difference between character classes--whether a ninja, merchant, or citizen spaceman. But the moniker he has dreamed of all his life is not coming easily. NASA has strict rules about how it titles its explorers, and Garriott cannot qualify, no matter what he does, because he's a private citizen. Instead of an astronaut, they'll call him a space flight participant.

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/16-09/ff_starcity?currentPage=6

Re:Good...

[Daniel Dvorkin]

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.