A new super-powerful engine is being considered by Chinese engineers for the next generation of space rockets, according to officials.
Li Tongyu, general manager of marketing at the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT), told BBC News that engineers are currently analyzing a rocket engine with the thrust of 600 metric tons, burning an extremely potent liquid oxygen propellant.
If the development is a success, it would increase the country’s space capabilities exponentially.
Long March-5, China’s current most powerful rocket being developed, would have engine with 120 metric tons of thrust.
“Rockets (with 600-metric-ton thrust engines) would only be justified for things like sending humans to the Moon, if such projects are approved,” Tongyu told BBC News.
The official China Daily newspaper disclosed in March that CALT was studying a super-heavy launch vehicle, which could be used to launch lunar expeditions. CALT vice-president Liang Xiaohong was quoted by the paper as saying that a total lift-off of the future launcher would be 3,000 metric tons.
To produce such thrust, the first stage of the proposed rocket would need five 600-metric-ton engines, most likely distributed between one central engine and four boosters. The rocket would be similar to architecture adopted for the Long March-5 rocket, but on a much grander scale.
The development of the Long March-5 rocket is proceeding well toward its first test launch, currently expected in 2014, Tongyu said.
The vehicle’s first stage engine had already amassed more than 10,000 seconds of firing during testing — an important marker on the way to its certification for real missions. A full-scale prototype of the Long March 5 rocket would be ready for testing by 2012 and a year later, test firing of fully assembled rocket stages would be conducted.
When operational, Long March-5 is expected to deliver up to 25 metric tons of payload, including space station modules to the low Earth orbit, and up to 14 metric tons to the so called geostationary transfer orbit, where most communications satellites are released after launch.
The rockets are expected to be built in new facilities near the Chinese capital of Beijing. The rocket stages would then be shipped to the launch site in southern China, where it would take advantage of the Earth rotation to maximize its cargo capabilities.
Along with Earth-orbiting satellites, the Long March-5 is expected to carry Chinese spacecraft into deep space, including unmanned missions to return soil samples from the Moon.
* Measurements used in this article are calculated in metric tons. US ton measurements are slightly greater. (1 metric ton = 1.1 US tons).
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