At 16:14:36 Beijing time on May 8, 2024, when the Chang'e-6 lunar probe orbited near the apogee at an altitude of 8,600 kilometers, it released the Pakistani iCube Qamar miniature remote sensing satellite, which entered a large elliptical circumlunar orbit with a period of 200 kilometers at the perilunar point and 8,600 kilometers at the apogee, with a period of 12 hours.
"SJTU-Q/iCube Qamar" is a miniature optical remote sensing satellite jointly developed by Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) and Pakistan, with a total mass of 6.5 kg and a total mass of 9 kg. The satellite carries two cameras, and the satellite is used to image the lunar surface and detect the lunar magnetic field. Compared with the launch of a spacecraft in Earth orbit, the launch cost of a lunar probe will increase several times, even if the launch of the iCube Qamar nanosatellite is less than 10 kilograms, it is a significant cost.
In the second decade of the 21st century, the moon is becoming a popular direction for international space exploration, and for this reason, the United States is promoting commercial space companies to become the main service providers for American lunar exploration missions. On the afternoon of January 8, Beijing time, the U.S. "Vulcan" rocket sent the "Peregrine one" lunar lander to the Earth-Moon Transfer Orbit (TLI), and the mission probe was developed by the U.S. commercial space company Astrobotic Technology, which is launching commercial launch services including lunar orbit exploration, landing in place exploration, and roving exploration.
Astrobotic's lunar exploration and launch services are available to companies, governments, universities, non-profit organizations and individuals, and the prices of commercial launch services for lunar orbit exploration, landing in-situ exploration, and roving exploration are $300,000/kg, $1.2 million/kg, and $4.5 million/kg, respectively. Based on the above-mentioned commercial launch service prices, the launch price for the iCube Qamar mission carrying a total mass of 9 kg amounted to $2.7 million.
The price of a single Long March 5 rocket is lower than SpaceX's Falcon Heavy Mission, which started at $97 million for a one-off mission at the end of 2022, with the actual contract price doubling. The price of a single "Chang 5" rocket is less than 80 million US dollars, and the launch price of the Earth-Moon transfer orbit is less than 10,000 US dollars/kg (only the cost of the rocket is calculated) according to the 8.35-ton capacity of the Earth-Moon transfer orbit, and the orbiter needs to carry out near-moon braking to go to the lunar orbit, plus the sharing of the launch cost of the orbiter, the launch price of the orbit around the Moon is close to 15,000 US dollars/kg (not including the cost of the "Chang'e-6" probe).
According to this calculation, the cost of putting the iCube Qamar satellite into orbit around the moon is more than 135,000 US dollars, plus the cost sharing of launch site services, TT&C communication services, and the "Chang'e-6" probe, the actual cost will be significantly higher than 135,000 US dollars, but it is also far lower than the international commercial launch service quotation.
At present, the world's aerospace industry is entering a new stage of rapid development, with rapid upgrading and iteration of space technology and accelerating the expansion of space launches. In this context, the application of recycling and reuse, 3D printing, digital simulation and other technologies is greatly reducing the cost of development and launch of launch vehicles, and more and larger spacecraft will be sent into the earth's orbit and deep space beyond the moon. In the future, with the expansion of the scale of launch vehicle development and production and the development of more large and heavy-duty rockets, space launch vehicles will usher in a scale effect, which will help promote the geometric decline of space launch costs and accelerate mankind's entry into the great space age.
Author: Mulan Xingzhou