CASIC Contributes to Chang'e-5's Space Adventure

A Long March-5 Y5 rocket was launched from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in South China's Hainan province on Nov 24, sending the Chang'e-5 spacecraft into space.

China's first return explorer between the Earth and the moon, Chang'e-5 marks the start of China's first unmanned mission to collect soil and rock samples from the moon.

China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation Limited (CASIC) is responsible for interaction and docking of a series of high-performance and customized products and plays a crucial role in Chang'e-5's space adventure.

What's more, CASIC-developed products including fixed pulse instrumentation radars and high-performance composite material also contributed to the successful launch of the carrier rocket.

Performance monitor of Long March-5

CASIC has developed a variety of measurement and control devices to monitor the carrier rocket's conditions during testing, transporting and launching.

The PXI testing combination for dynamic measurement and control system is key to collection of testing parameters of the dynamic systems. Controllers can make decisions during the launch based on the real-time data collected by sensors.

The PXI automatic monitoring system is also a key measurement and control device for monitoring measurement, launch and control signals and control power supply and distribution.

A fairing environment testing combination system was also used to supervise temperature and humidity in the fairing before launch.

"Eyes" to supervise space flight

Two fixed pulse instrumentation radars developed by CASIC have collected flight information of the carrier rocket since ignition.

The radars were mainly used to track outer trajectory during the ascending of the rocket, which involved accurate coordination of information including radial velocity.

Similar radar was used in dozens of launches of the Long March-7 and Long March-5 carrier rockets.

Filter of interferential signal

Two surface acoustic wave filters developed by CASIC were installed on both the Long March-5 and Chang'e-5 in the new space mission to guarantee high-quality signal reception and filtering of clutter.

Fundamental role on Long March-5

China's largest carrier rocket with the greatest payload capacity, the Long March-5 rocket consists of thousands of hundreds of systems. Such high-performance, high-precision and highly-reliable devices as composite and insulating materials and the hydrogen turbo pumps developed by CASIC are crucial to the rocket's success.

In addition, the company has offered nearly 6,000 sets of high-performance electric couplers, relays, blowers and electrical devices and developed more than 40 types of flexible metallic casings for pipeline system and servo gear.

All the products contributed to a successful launch of the Long March-5 rocket.

A Long March-5 Y5 rocket, carrying the Chang'e-5 spacecraft, is launched from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in South China's Hainan province on Nov 24. [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]

(Executive editor: Wang Ruoting)