Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

China Working on Floating Spaceport

posted by martyb on Tuesday September 01 2020, @12:59AM   Printer-friendly
from the watching-Elon's-feed dept.

RandomFactor writes:

China currently has four launch centers (three inland and one coastal) and is building a floating one.

China is making progress with a spaceport to facilitate sea-based launch activity and development of rockets, satellites and related applications.

The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp. (CASC), the country's main space contractor, is developing the spaceport in Haiyang City on the coast of the eastern province of Shandong.

The 'Eastern aerospace port' will add to China's four established space launch centers and be a base for sea launches of light-lift solid rockets.

Use of a sea based launch site could reduce safety risks to civilians and also decrease visibility of launches.

Launches from inland sites often see spent stages threaten inhabited areas, requiring expensive safety and cleanup operations.

China's intention to buildout a 'satellite internet' is one of multiple infrastructure initiatives likely to benefit from the new launch center.

Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
China Working on Floating Spaceport | Log In/Create an Account | Top | 20 comments | Search Discussion
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday September 01 2020, @07:42PM (2 children)

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday September 01 2020, @07:42PM (#1045054) Journal
    Keck Observatory managed 85 meters. A large monolithic mirror is impossible, but one could construct an interferometer of up to the diameter of Earth and as much of the surface of Earth as one could afford to apply to the project.

  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday September 02 2020, @12:27AM (1 child)

    by takyon (881) <takyonNO@SPAMsoylentnews.org> on Wednesday September 02 2020, @12:27AM (#1045179) Journal

    An optical interferometer is good to have, and adaptive optics can narrow the gap between ground and space telescopes. But the virtual diameter does not increase the light collecting area/capability that you would get from having larger mirrors. Perhaps you can even start using a modular space telescope, and just keep adding more mirror segments as they are manufactured and launched.

    Maybe it's possible for optical interferometry to do even better in space. You could separate two telescopes by a long distance, have a physical or laser connection, and not have to worry about the vibrations and distortions caused by earthly sources.

    --
    [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]

    • (Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday September 02 2020, @04:58AM

      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday September 02 2020, @04:58AM (#1045258) Journal

      But the virtual diameter does not increase the light collecting area/capability that you would get from having larger mirrors.

      More mirrors on the other hand does increase the light collecting area. The real advantage of microgravity environments will be that you can make a viable and enormous mirror out of really flimsy material, like metallised plastic film.

      Maybe it's possible for optical interferometry to do even better in space.

      For starters, physical separation of more than 12k km.