China's successful launch can reuse the test spacecraft that can be reusable can be used.It has been more than a week, but the outside world has never cools down, and still pays attention to its movement after lifting.
The news of this task was announced by China Aerospace Science and Technology Group on the evening of December 14: China used the Long March No. 2 F -Car Rockets at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on the evening of December 14th.Instrument.
The group said that after a period of running for a period of time, this test spacecraft will return to China to book landing field.Technical support.
There are not many details released by China's officially released.What technical verification can be launched by repeated test spacecraft?What scientific experiments?How long will it run?When will I return to China?What is the task this time?What is the long -term plan?The answers to these questions are currently unknown, and it also arouses the curiosity of the outside world.
"Shenlong" releases six mysterious objects
The American "Space" website and "The Drive" website that has long -term attention to space trends and the "The Drive" website disclosed on December 19More information, saying that amateur astronomical enthusiasts confirm that "Shenlong" releases at least six mysterious objects or valid loads (Payloads) in space through the satellite tracking system and radio signal, and send them into the Earth track."Shenlong" is the common name of this spacecraft in the American media and the Chinese network.
The above reports also said that these six small objects have communication capabilities, and they are still transmitting data through S bands.
There are American astronomical enthusiasts who then try to analyze the contents of these signals, but they are not harvested.The only thing that can be confirmed is that these mysterious objects are suspected to have information interaction.They found an object codenamed A, with close contact with object D and E. The track of A was close to circular, while D and E were similar to ellipse.
The report also said that the launch track of China's "Shenlong" seems to be similar to the previous, but the unique radio transmission ability has never been seen before, so it has been unable to confirm the sixth now.What is a mysterious object.
The Canadian amateur astronomer Scott Tilley told the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong that he and a professional space observation team in the light wave section in Switzerland discovered that after the "Shenlong" was launched, at least six objects appeared in the launch of "Shenlong".Low -earth orbit flight includes a pair of satellites that "Shenlong" may release, but the functions of these two satellites are unknown, and it may be the task of performing "test meetings and recovery".As for other objects, it may be the wreckage of the rocket.
In addition, according to Tili's judgment, "Shenlong" may also send signals to "a secret ground station or on the coastal ship near the west coast of North America".
Tily explained in the province of British Columbia, Western Canada, explained that "Shenlong" flew over the province. He detected a radio wave launch mode with a frequency of 2280 Hz"This may show a secret ground stand on the west coast of North America or on a ship outside the shore."
Dani emphasized that this was just his guess.Teri assisted the National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) in 2018 to re -contact the IMAGE satellite that accidentally lost contact in December 2005.
"Shenlong" is regarded as the Chinese version of the US Army X-37B
Various analysis and inferences of the outside world.The research and development capabilities of the device have obviously improved, and the gap between the United States in the aerospace field has narrowed again.People also naturally regard the "Shenlong" as the Chinese version of the U.S. unmanned space aircraft X-37B.
X-37B is a solar aircraft developed by the US military for the U.S. military.Boeing issued a statement that the X-37B flew in 2010, which has spent more than 10 years in space, and has flying more than 2.1 billion kilometers in six tasks.Record of rail time.
With the continuous progress of the US X-37B test in the United States, China has also accelerated the pace of related technical experiments. In September 2020 at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, the Long March 2 F-Car Rocket Rockets used the Long March 2 FSend a repeated space vehicle into space.After two days of running the vehicle, the vehicle successfully returned to the planned landing field.
On August 5, 2022, China also used the Long March 2 F -Car Rockets to successfully launch a reusable test spacecraft with the Long March 2 F -Carrier Rockets.Return to the landing field on the 8th.
It is reported that in those two launch mission, "Shenlong" was suspected to release a special object with unknown uses, respectively.At the time, it was speculated that these unknown objects may be used to practice test devices that will be valid to the orbit, or a small satellite used to monitor the external conditions of the spacecraft.
In the third launch task of this year, the mysterious object released by "Shenlong" has been greatly increased from one to six, no matter what their purpose or task is, objectively, this change marks that China is in the place where China is inThe development of this field has taken another big step forward.The outside world generally estimates that this time the "Dragon" will be longer in the track, more scientific experiments will be done, and technical verification will be deeper.
Following the future space warfare
The progress of China and the United States in related experiments and verification has attracted much attention. Another main reason behind it is obviously this space battle that may explode in the future.
Public information shows that the X-37B body has a body shape of about nine meters long and wingspan about 5 meters long, with a maximum speed of more than 25 times the speed of sound, and general military radar technology cannot capture its whereabouts.
Moreover, the X-37B project itself belongs to the US Space Army, not the civil exploration project led by the American Aerospace Administration.In other words, the meaning of the X-37B military application is obvious.
What about China's "Shenlong"?According to the analysis of the US media, thanks to the spacecraft's dynamic maneuverability on the earth's orbit, the objects that are loaded are particularly suitable for performing the tasks such as electronic warfare, intelligence collection, and even anti -satellite.It may be "intelligence assets" or can improve China's space intelligence system.
In this regard, Shao Yongling, the PLA University, refuted in an article that the American media analyzes the purpose of this space mission in China from the perspective of "self -reliance", and this is not the American mediaFor the first time, China can reuse the spacecraft with military use. In recent years, the spacecraft can be reused by launching in China in almost every time.Let's go mysterious load ".
Shao Yongling is an expert on foreign propaganda Chinese military and a famous military commentator. She wrote:" In terms of promoting the militaryization of space in the years, the biggest pace is obviously the United States.The U.S. media themselves recognize the possibility of the U.S. military being exploring the space rail wars, but the US military still face its face to accuse our country's normal aerospace launch tasks.Use space to provide technical support."
She concluded:" What is the six loads released by Chinese spacecraft in space this time? It is still based on the announcement of my country's space department. The time for this day should not be too late."
Even if it is not too late, the time of the answer is announced, maybe when" Shenlong "returns to the earth -it is likely to be a few hundred days later.
NowadaysOn the occasion of China's "Shenlong" last week, the United States originally planned to launch the seventh launch task of X-37B at the same time, but due to various reasons, this task is currently postponed to next Thursday (December 28th on December 28th (December 28th).
The two largest space countries in the world in China and the United States start a new round of experiments in two weeks apart. Obviously, it is under their own abacus, but it is the nerves of all parties.The trend of the militaryization of space will undoubtedly accelerate.
