China plans to launch its first communications satellite just in 2020, as the China Research Institute of Space Technology (CRIST) informs.
Wang Min, one of the CRIST main communications satellite designers, said that the country invented its own technology of designing electric engines for satellites.
In the future, as the Chinese hope, their country will become a new major player on the international satellite market.
One of the chief designers pointed out that the purpose of the Chinese satellite to be launched just within 5 years was a high-quality broadband data transmission in the country and neighboring areas.
At the end of 2016, the Chinese also plan to launch a satellite, equipped with both chemical and electric engines.
According to Wang Min’s explanations, the use of electric engines reduces the heaviness of space vehicles and significantly reduces fuel consumption, as well as financial costs on every launch.
The scientists predict that the satellite of this kind will be suitable for 18-20 year operation, and this is 3-5 years longer than durability of actual satellites.
Today there were launched 5 electric-engine vehicles into space. For example, Hayabusa, launched by the Japanese, managed to return to the Earth surface after having collected asteroid soil samples.
It is known that CRIST intends to design an electric engine with the power capacity of 50 kilowatts just by 2020. According to the scientists’ calculations, a spacecraft weighing 300 tons and equipped with 40 modern electric engines will be able to fly from our planet to Mars within about 200 days.
