Work starts on super-heavy rocket engines

Chinese scientists are developing next-generation engines that will propel super-heavy rockets, tentatively called Long March 9, according to a senior official.

"Engineers at my academy are researching a liquid oxygen/kerosene engine with a thrust of 500 metric tons and a liquid oxygen/liquid hydrogen engine with a thrust of 200 tons that will be used on the future heavy-lift rocket," says Tan Yonghua, president of the Academy of Aerospace Propulsion Technology.

The engines will together give the Long March 9 a launch weight of 3,000 tons and a maximum payload of 130 tons to low Earth orbit, which is powerful enough to fulfill a manned mission to the moon, he explains.

The success of China's Mars exploration programs, which have been approved by the government, and other deep-space projects will also depend on the new rocket because existing ones, including the Long March 5, are not powerful enough, according to Tan.

He says the Long March 9 will be as technologically advanced as the United States' Space Launch System, which is being designed by NASA, and will be pollution-free.

The new engines will be based on those used on the Long March 5, which will be launched for the first time in the fall, and their development will take about 10 years, he adds.

Liang Xiaohong, former deputy director of the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, says the core body of the Long March 9 will have a diameter of nearly 10 meters and a height of more than 100 meters. The rocket's development is expected to take 15 years.

His academy recently developed a super-large interstage ring that will be used to connect stages of the Long March 9.

In another development, Tan says the Academy of Aerospace Propulsion Technology will soon deliver engines to be installed on the Chang'e 5 probe, the third step of China's unmanned lunar exploration effort to land on the moon and bring back soil in about 2017.

China is even eyeing the possibility of operating a space solar-power station between Earth and the moon, Lieutenant General Zhang Yulin, deputy director of the Central Military Commission's Equipment Development Department, told Xinhua News Agency.

zhaolei@chinadaily.com.cn