First posted 27 October 2021; Updated 26 MAY 2022

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. Background

2.1. Videomancy

3. PLA LEO KKV ASAT

4. PLA ♥♥♥/HEO/GEO KKV ASAT

5. PLA LEO coorbital ASAT

6. PLA GEO coorbital ASAT: Shijian-21

7. PLA Lunar Orbit coorbital ASAT

8. PLA GEO Microwave DEW: OMEGA Project

8.1. Elon Musk's commentary

8.2. PLA counter-Starlink ASAT
8.2.1. PLA GW-class laser ASAT


India's ASAT using KKV launched by a rocket booster such as the 27th March 2019 Indian Shakti Mission, are limited in range to LEO satellites.

While the South Asian military superpower is trying to catch up with Asia's leader, the gap with China's PLA is not decreasing, with a minimum of 25 years lag.

Indeed, China's PLA has already demonstrated both LEO KKV ASAT, HEO/GEO KKV ASAT, LEO coorbital ASAT, and even Lunar orbit coorbital ASAT capabilities.

Coming up next are GEO coorbital ASAT and GEO DEW! The whip is on!

Publicado originalmente por amateur:

October 21 2021

“We should be open to the reality that China is also capable of technological innovation,” said Jeffrey Lewis, a nuclear weapons expert at Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey.

“I would be careful about exaggerated characterisations that may help excuse a mundane intelligence failure. If we say some innovation is impossible to imagine, then no one is really responsible for missing it.”


FT link[www.ft.com]
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Mulan (2020)[web.archive.org]2[archive.ph] is an American fantasy action drama film produced by Walt Disney Pictures. Directed by Niki Caro from a screenplay by Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver, Lauren Hynek, and Elizabeth Martin, it is a live-action adaptation of the 1998 Walt Disney Animation Studios film of the same name, itself based on the Chinese folklore story Ballad of Mulan.

The film stars Yifei Liu in the title role, alongside Donnie Yen, Tzi Ma, Jason Scott Lee, Yoson An, Ron Yuan, Gong Li, and Jet Li in supporting roles. In the film, Hua Mulan, the eldest daughter of an honored warrior, masquerades as a man to take her ailing father's place during a general conscription to counter the Rouran army in Imperial China.

In this Hollywood vision of today's China, the main videomancy's hint is that the female hero's father, played by actor Tzi Ma shares an uncanny resemblance with Xi Jinping, the President of the People's Republic of China since 2013.

Named Hua Zhou, Mulan's father and a famed war veteran who fought the barbarian invaders from the north, is now recalled to the Imperial Army despite his crippled leg.

Of course this ailing man can not save China anymore, but, but, but, his daughter Mulan, representing the younger female generation will be able to save the Emperor and the Empire and defeat the men from the North!

Tzi Ma and Liu Yifei in Mulan (2020)[archive.ph]
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Publicado originalmente por thediplomat.com:

March 19, 2014

Moreover, China has a long history of conducting ASAT missile tests. Most notably, Beijing announced it had conducted a test of its SC-19 missile in January 2007. The test hit an aging Chinese weather satellite, resulting in nearly 3,000 pieces of space debris being thrown into orbit. According to SWF, however, China had previously tested the SC-19 in 2005 and 2006 without hitting a specific target.

After the 2007 test, it has since been more secretive about its ASAT program. For example, in 2010 China announced that it had conducted a “test on ground based midcourse missile interception technology” against a ground-based ballistic missile. State-run media reports clarified that “The test is defensive in nature and is not targeted at any country.” U.S. public and classified (released by Wikileaks) assessments said that the test was really of China’s SC-19 ASAT missile. China conducted a similar test in January 2013.

The military applications of ASAT missiles appear fairly obvious. China would seek to use the ASAT missiles to knock out U.S. satellites in order to degrade its C5ISR capabilities, rendering distributed U.S. military and allied assets unable to communicate or share information. The U.S. is seeking to counter China’s growing capabilities in this area in a number of ways, including through creating greater redundancy in its own systems.

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Publicado originalmente por thediplomat.com:

March 19, 2014

A new report suggests that China secretly conducted an anti-satellite (ASAT) missile test in May 2013.

On May 13, 2013, China launched a rocket into space from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China. According to state-run media reports at the time, “The experiment was designed to investigate energetic particles and magnetic fields in the ionized stratum and near-Earth space. According to a preliminary analysis by the NSSC [National Space Science Center], the experiment has reached expected objectives by allowing scientists to obtain first-hand data regarding the space environment at different altitudes.”

Nearly immediately, U.S. officials speaking off the record began raising doubts about the supposed purpose of the test. Specifically, a U.S. defense official familiar with the intelligence told the Washington Free Beacon that China had actually tested its new ASAT missile, the Dong Neng-2. The official described the DN-2 as a ground-based, high earth-orbit attack missile. The Pentagon refused to officially voice these concerns, however.

“While there is no conclusive proof, the available evidence strongly suggests that China’s May 2013 launch was the test of the rocket component of a new direct ascent ASAT weapons system derived from a road-mobile ballistic missile. The system appears to be designed to place a kinetic kill vehicle on a trajectory to deep space that could reach medium earth orbit (♥♥♥), highly elliptical orbit (HEO), and geostationary Earth orbit (GEO). If true, this would represent a significant development in China’s ASAT capabilities.”

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Publicado originalmente por scmp.com:

Chinese scientists build anti-satellite weapon that can cause explosion inside exhaust

• Researchers who built the device say it can lock itself into the thruster nozzles used by most satellites and stay there for long periods undetected
  
• Scientists say the resulting blast would damage the target’s equipment and may be mistaken for an engine malfunction

Published: 11:00pm, 21 Oct, 2021 Updated: 3:45am, 22 Oct, 2021

A team of Chinese military researchers say they have built and tested an anti-satellite robotic device that can place a small pack of explosives into a probe’s exhaust nozzle.

Rather than blowing the satellite into pieces, the melt-cast explosive can produce a “time-controlled, steady explosion”, Professor Sun Yunzhong and colleagues from the Hunan Defence Industry Polytechnic in Xiangtan wrote in a paper published in the domestic journal Electronic Technology & Software Engineering last month.

The device could stay inside the satellite for an extended period by using a locking mechanism driven by an electric motor. If needed, the process can be reversed to separate it from the target.

The project was funded by a government scheme to develop a new type of warhead for rocket missiles, according to the paper.

The device has been built and tested in a ground facility and the researchers said it “would have practical value in certain engineering applications”.

China conducted its first anti-satellite test in 2007, destroying a defunct weather satellite with a missile and drawing international criticism over the cloud space debris it created.

The United States and the former Soviet Union had conducted a large number of similar experiments during the Cold War, but these tests stopped after the 1980s because the debris puts valuable space assets and astronauts at risk.

China’s anti-satellite programme in recent years has focused on technology that would produce little or no debris, such as capturing a satellite with a net or robotic arms.

The Chinese military has also developed various types of ground-based weapons that could blind or damage a passing satellite with a laser beam.

But these methods are relatively easy to detect, so Sun’s team looked for other ways to target satellites by placing explosives inside them.

The explosives are packed into a bullet shaped device that weights only 3.5kg and mirrors the shape of the de Laval nozzles that power most satellites.

These are pipes with a narrow throat in the middle that converts gas into kinetic energy and, although they are based on a 19th century design by the Swedish engineer Gustaf de Laval, are still used on the most advanced satellites today.

Sun’s device works by pushing a rod through this narrow point, which then opens up to anchor itself into place by locking the device against the inner wall of the nozzle.

When the device is detonated, the explosion will be partially contained inside the nozzle and be mistaken for an engine mishap, according to a space scientist not involved in the project.

The heat of the explosion, if precisely calculated, can be partly converted into kinetic energy and damage the satellite’s insides while leaving the overall structure intact, said the researcher who requested not to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue.

Sun and colleagues said the melt-cast explosive they chose had been used extensively in China’s space programme for separating rocket stages and other purposes.

China has also developed the technology to capture satellites, something that has not been restricted by international treaties because it could also be used for peaceful purposes such as satellite repair, refuelling and removing space debris.

The US military has already voiced concerns about China’s anti-satellite capabilities, in particular Shijian-17, an experimental probe with a robotic arm that has conducted some unusual manoeuvres since its launch in 2016.

In April, US Space Command chief General James Dickinson told Congress that Shijian-17’s technology “could be used in a future system for grappling other satellites”.

He added: “Beijing actively seeks space superiority through space and space attack systems.”

The rapid development of China’s hypersonic programme also fuelled worries about a new arms race in space.

Earlier this week Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said the US was hyping the “China Threat theory”, so that it could further expand its own military power.

China insists that its military strategy is defensive and Wang said it “will not start an arms race with any country”.

But Huang Jia, a researcher with the National University of Defence Technology, said that a new arms race was imminent and it could destroy the space environment.

“The military aerospace equipment tests essentially use the entire Earth as a laboratory,” Huang wrote in a paper published in the Journal of Dialectics of Nature in August.

“To avoid tragedy, we need to re-examine the ‘principle of freedom’ in space activities.”

The explosive device fastens itself to the thrust nozzle’s narrowest point.[web.archive.org]
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Publicado originalmente por Andrew Jones:

Shijian-21 “space debris mitigation technologies” satellite

Oct 25, 2021

China’s 39th launch of the year took place at Xichang Satellite Launch Center at 0127 UTC October 24, with a Long March 3B sending the classified Shijian-21 satellite into geosynchronous transfer orbit. It was revealed with the announcement of launch success that the satellite would be “testing space debris mitigation technologies.”

The spacecraft is understood to have been developed by the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology (SAST) but no further details were provided. SAST recently unveiled a “space tanker” that would be able to refuel satellites in GEO, extending their mission lifetimes and thus performing a space debris mitigation service by reducing the need for launching new satellites. It is unknown if this is related to the launch.

The lack of transparency is thus both a concern and provides a space for accusations of more nefarious intent with these tests. Following hot on the heels of the FOBS development, it will add fuel to the fire of talk of a global space arms race. There are active debris removal systems out there which involve harpooning defunct satellites, but the relative openness of the projects ameliorates concerns. China’s rendezvous and proximity operations tests with the earlier Shijian-17, while not unprecedented, also attracted scrutiny.

Shijian-21 will be tracked in orbit in GEO for close approaches to satellites. Further information may be released from China if tests are successful, depending upon the nature of the tests and the actors involved.

More: China launches classified space debris mitigation technology satellite (SpaceNews)

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China launches classified space debris mitigation technology satellite[web.archive.org]
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Following Japan (see Hayabusa-2 post), today with the possible launch of a coorbital ASAT system, China will probably demonstrate in the days ahead its new capability in disabling GEO satellites such as the U.S. GPS system, by placing space mines on them as well, therefore becoming the only second Asian space superpower to join the elite club of GEO ASAT capable nation.


China was the first ever superpower in the world to succeed in demonstrating a dual-use civilian-military technology that could be applied in a coorbital ASAT system at an extraterrestrial outer space distance.

This groundbreaking milestone was achieved on 6th December 2020 at 5:42 BT in a fully automated sequence conducted only by onboard AI, with the Chang'e-5 Lunar Orbiter using mechanical claws to grapple the ascent module, with subsequent transfert of a moon rock sample container.

▲ In-orbit self-inspection of Chang 'e-5 claw docking module when orbiting the moon in 2020.[web.archive.org]
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Link[web.archive.org]
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Of course, it goes without saying that the same system could also be deployed around a Mars Orbit, asteroid belt orbit and throughout the entire Solar System!


Similar to the U.S. dual-use civilian-military Microwave DEW LEO system, the Chinese OMEGA Project will be placed into space as a civilian endeavour.

Unlike its U.S. counterpart, the Chinese OMEGA Project will not only produce highly directional beams of microwave radiations, but after further upgrade it could even be fitted with lasers or highly penetrating neutrino particle accelerators. This being made possible by both the kilometer size and GW energy level of the OMEGA platform. Therefore not limited in a SDI Star Wars missile defence role, but able to engage orbital space targets as well, ground and even underground and submerged targets. The ultimate game-ender.

Unlike the U.S. 42'000 platforms of 200 kg each to be completed by 2027, OMEGA Project will be limited probably to only a few 10'000 tons-mass, square-kilometers-size platforms placed into GEO, enough to provide a 24/7/365 global coverage of the Earth.

In short, U.S. swarms of PT-boats doctrine versus Chinese super heavy battleship doctrine, sort of speak. Which one will prevail? Only time will tell.

Current Chinese Research On Directed Energy Weaponry

A STUDY OF HIGH POWER MICROWAVE AIR BREAKDOWN

Received: 23 December 1999 Published: 10 June 2005

Liu Guo-zhi, Liu Jing-yue, Huang Wen-hua, Zhou Jin-shan, Song Xiao-xin, Ning Hui
Northwest Institute of Nuclear Technology, Xi'an 710024, China

Abstract

This paper presents the results of research on microwave breakdown in air, it includes the experimental study and the theoretical analysis. The experimental study has been done in a waveguide with a frequency of 9.37GHz, the peak power up to 200kW, pulse width from 0.3 to 2.0μs. The repetition rate of microwave source is from single pulse to 970 pulse per second. The process of the breakdown of repetition pulse has also been recorded for a burst of ten pulses. A theoretical model for breakdown threshold is presented also. The theoretical are in good agreement with the experimental ones.

PDF Download: {ENLACE ELIMINADO}http://cpb.iphy.ac.cn/EN/abstract/abstract19818.shtml (270 KB)

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Publicado originalmente por spacenews.com:

China’s super heavy rocket to construct space-based solar power station

June 28, 2021

HELSINKI — China plans to use a new super heavy-lift rocket currently under development to construct a massive space-based solar power station in geostationary orbit.

Numerous launches of the upcoming Long March 9 rocket would be used to construct space-based solar power facilities 35,786 kilometers above the Earth, according to Long Lehao, chief designer of China’s Long March rocket series, speaking during a presentation Thursday in Hong Kong.

The project would aim to establish a large collecting area receiving solar energy near constantly, without the atmosphere or seasonal changes affecting energy levels. Converted energy would be then transmitted to Earth via microwaves or lasers. The project would provide large-scale renewable energy and help tackle energy resource scarcity.

The project, according to Long, would begin with a small-scale electricity generation test in 2022, leading to a megawatt-level power generation facility around 2030.

Commercial, gigawatt-level power generation would be realized by 2050. This would require more than 100 Long March 9 launches and around 10,000 tons of infrastructure, assembled in orbit. The complex project calls for a solar energy collection system with an area on the order of square kilometers and a large microwave power transmission sub-system.

Qi Faren, another senior space figure and chief designer of the Shenzhou spacecraft, also spoke of the complex megaproject and its potential value day earlier.

Both Long and Qi however note major challenges including economic feasibility and manufacturing costs, as well as the efficiency and safety of energy transmission.

Space-based solar power projects have previously been considered by countries including the United States and Japan. China listed space-based solar power as a key research program in 2008, according to Xinhua. The China Academy of Space Technology (CAST) in 2019 began building a test base in Chongqing Municipality for researching high-power wireless energy transmission.

New path for Long March 9?

The launch vehicle slated to do the heavy lifting is the Long March 9. The launcher gained formal government approval this spring, following years of studies and technology development. Yet the design may have seen recent radical changes, according to the presentation from Long.

One slide indicates the old design of the Long March 9—consisting of a 10-meter-diameter core stage with four five-meter-diameter side boosters using 500-ton-thrust, dual-nozzle YF-130 engines—is to be replaced by a vision for a single, 10.6-meter-diameter core powered by a cluster of 16 new, single-nozzle YF-135 engines.

Payload capacity would increase from 140 metric tons to Low Earth orbit (LEO) to 150 tons, from 50 tons to trans-lunar injection (TLI) to 53 tons. A two-stage version would launch to LEO while the three-stage variant would serve higher orbits.

Though not stated, the new engine configuration would also be expected to be more amenable to first stage reusability. Such capabilities would be required for the space-based solar power project.

Long’s presentation also touched on another heavy-lift rocket for launching crew, using the name Long March 5-DY. Two launches of the three-core launcher could be used to get astronauts to the moon earlier than 2030, using a previously presented lunar orbit rendezvous mission profile.

Other developments relayed by Long include plans for space planes and for a first recovery attempt of the new Long March 8 in 2022. First stage hop tests are expected in 2021, according to prior releases.

Link[web.archive.org]
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▲ OMEGA Project 逐日工程[web.archive.org]
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Of course, by 2049, the balance of power would have shifted in favor of North East Asia.

Therefore, all of a sudden, an olive branch is offered by Elon Musk himself:

Publicado originalmente por Elon Musk:

5:12 PM - 1 Nov 2021

Humankind
煮豆燃豆萁
豆在釜中泣
本是同根生
相煎何太急

Link[web.archive.org]
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English translation:

Surprised! Elon Musk is a Chinese scholar. The Quatrain Of Seven Steps (七步诗) is a poem composed by Cao Zhi (曹植) (192 AD －232 AD), whose brother Cao Pi (曹操) became the emperor after the war of the Three Kingdoms.

Cao Zhi was asked to walk and to compose a poem within 7 steps.

If he failed he would be shot by arrow and killed.

This was what Cao Zhi said aloud in poetry:

China military must be able to destroy Elon Musk’s Starlink satellites if they threaten national security: scientists

•Researchers call for development of anti-satellite capabilities including ability to track, monitor and disable each craft
•The Starlink platform with its thousands of satellites is believed to be indestructible

Published: 12:00pm, 25 May, 2022

Chinese military researchers say the country needs to be able to disable or destroy SpaceX’s Starlink satellites if they threaten national security.

According to a paper published last month, China needs to develop anti-satellite capabilities, including a surveillance system with unprecedented scale and sensitivity to track and monitor every Starlink satellite.

The study was led by Ren Yuanzhen, a researcher with the Beijing Institute of Tracking and Telecommunications under the PLA’s Strategic Support Force. Co-authors included several senior scientists in China’s defence industry.

Ren and his colleagues could not immediately be reached for comment and it is uncertain to what extent their view represents an official stance of the Chinese military or government.

“A combination of soft and hard kill methods should be adopted to make some Starlink satellites lose their functions and destroy the constellation’s operating system,” said the paper, published in domestic peer-reviewed journal Modern Defence Technology.
..

SpaceX has signed a contract with the US Defence Department to develop new technology based on the Starlink platform, including sensitive instruments able to detect and track hypersonic weapons travelling at five times the speed of sound, or even faster in the Earth’s atmosphere.
..

The unprecedented scale, complexity and flexibility of Starlink would force the Chinese military to develop new anti-satellite capabilities, according to Ren and his colleagues.
..
China claims it has already developed numerous ground-based laser imaging devices that can photograph orbiting satellites at a millimetre-resolution, but in addition to optical and radar imaging, the country also needs to be able to intercept signals from each Starlink satellite to detect any potential threat, according to Ren.

https://web.archive.org/web/20220525120028/https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3178939/china-military-needs-defence-against-potential-starlink-threat
https://archive.ph/Ns3oH

Current Chinese Research On Large Size Geostationary Platform

China mulls 20 meters diameter telescope GEO satellite

2014, (9)

Thermal control scheme for ultrahigh resolution imaging system in geosynchronous orbit

This imaging satellite would be placed into a geostationary orbit: 20 m diameter thin-film mirror with total length of 100 meters, one meter resolution.

Summary:

Geostationary orbit very high-resolution imaging system using a thin film diffraction imaging system can achieve a ground resolution of under a meter. Analysis of the deployable conical hood in four extreme temperature distribution conditions is to determine the feasibility of thermal control scheme.

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Worried about the military threat of the Starlink? Chinese Laser Weapons Can Destroy Them Quickly and Cost Effectively

21 MAY 2022

Back in 2005, China's 50-100 KW-class truck-mounted chemical laser weapons have been successfully tested in Xinjiang region, blinding low earth orbit satellites at an oblique distance of 600 km.

In 2013, the output power of the two types of Chinese deuterium fluoride and iodine oxide chemical lasers, have reached 0.3MW, that is 300KW.

Today, the output power of the Chinese strategic laser weapons is already of the megawatt level, that is more than 10 times the power of the 2005 level.

Therefore, there will be no shortage on the Chinese side of strategic laser weapons, also known as laser guns.

So, will China be afraid of the threat of the Starlink system? Starlink system satellite, equipped with 1 solar cell array, 4 high-throughput antennas, Hall thrusters, autonomous collision avoidance system, etc., the power is very small (thrust is less than 1N), maneuverability is very poor, currently mainly space WIFI role (some people say its ability to intercept nuclear bombs). Even if it carries some optical and electronic reconnaissance payloads behind it, Chinese laser weapons can completely blind it permanently, or even destroy it. And, as time goes on, the power of Chinese laser weapons will increase rapidly and exponentially.



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