Original link: http://vis.pku.edu.cn/blog/chinese-rockets/

The white paper “2016 China’s Aerospace” published by the State Council Information Office shows that since 2011, China’s aerospace industry has continued to develop rapidly, its independent innovation ability has been significantly enhanced, and its ability to enter space has been greatly improved. A set of data shows that the Long March series of launch vehicles have been completed. The first 100 launches lasted 37 years, with a success rate of 93%; the second 100 launches only lasted 7 years, with a success rate of 98%. The launch cycle has been reduced from 60 days to less than 20 days. This shows that my country’s rocket design, manufacturing and management capabilities have been greatly improved, and the development model has opened up the information age.

The purpose of China’s aerospace development is to explore outer space and expand its understanding of the earth and the universe; to peacefully use outer space to promote human civilization and social progress and benefit all mankind; to meet the needs of economic construction, scientific and technological development, national security and social progress, etc. meet the needs of the people, improve the scientific quality of the whole people, safeguard national rights and interests, and enhance the overall national strength. The development of China’s aerospace industry follows the national guidelines for the development of science and technology, and gradually moves towards the international and the future.

To this end, with the theme of “50 Years of Chinese Rockets”, the group presented a number of achievements in the development of China’s aerospace industry since 1970 in a visual way, and detailed the moving figures of China in space.

Data collection and processing

• Data subject: List of Chinese space rockets
• Data source: Official website of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
• Data range: 1970 to present
• Data description: Use python to crawl, and the crawled list records the launch of various launch vehicles in the modern aerospace industry of the People’s Republic of China. The final goal of the launch mission is all the Carmen lines that are 100 kilometers above the earth’s sea level, and the suborbital missions of sounding rockets are not included.
• The specific content of the data: serial number, launch vehicle name, payload name, take-off time, scheduled star-rocket separation orbit, launch location, launch result
• Data types: time series data, geospatial data, multidimensional data

Visualization and Interaction Design

The main design of the visual page is composed of 5 main pages. You can interact with the text options on the left by sliding the mouse. When switching pages, the dot mark will slide on the track.

The composition of the page is mainly composed of the earth and 9 rocket orbits.

The orbits from near to far are: LEO, MEO, HEO, GTO, MTO, SSO, IGSO, GEO, SSTO.

(1) How many rockets did China launch during this period?

Figure 1 The first page of the visualization – how many rockets did China launch during this period?

Considered in conjunction with the time axis on the right, the points of a specific time period are gathered together to form a large circle on the orbit, which represents the number of rockets launched during this time period.

When you first enter the page, all years are displayed by default, and the timeline can be freely interacted with. After selecting a single year or the first and last years, the selected part will be highlighted in a highlighted way. A statistical graph of the current interface information will be displayed next to the timeline.

The picture shows rocket launches from 2010 to 2017.

(2) Where did they come from and where did they go?

Figure 2 The second page of the visualization – where did they come from and where did they go?

Different colors represent different launch sites. There are 6 major launch sites: Jiuquan, Taiyuan, Xichang, Wenchang, Yellow Sea, and East China Sea.

Map the launch locations and indicate the number of launches by the size of the dots on the globe on the right.

The figure shows that among the launch sites, the Jiuquan base has the largest number of launches, and the Huanghai and Donghai bases have the least number of launches among the six bases due to their recent opening.

(3) What do they look like?

Figure 3 The third page of visualizations – what do they look like?

Points are colored according to the type of “Long March” rockets and are grouped together by type when clustering.

The interaction method is: Click the dot, and a card showing the detailed information of the rocket type and model will pop up.

Figure 4 Card showing rocket type

(4) What did they do?

Figure 5 Page 4 of the visualization – what do they do?

Points are colored according to the rocket’s mission type and are clustered together by mission type when clustering.

The interaction method is: click the dot, and the detailed information of the specific task will pop up.

Figure 6 Cards showing specific tasks

(5) Did they succeed?

Figure 7 Page 5 of Visualizations – Did they succeed?

Considered in conjunction with the time axis on the right, the points of a specific time period are gathered together to form a large circle on the orbit, which represents the number of rockets launched during this time period. When you first enter the page, all years are displayed by default, and the timeline can be freely interacted with. After selecting a single year or the first and last years, the selected part will be highlighted in a highlighted way. Successful tasks are shown in white, and failed tasks are shown in red.

Epilogue

This summer school has received careful guidance from the teachers, and it has been fruitful.

In data analysis and visualization, we found:

• The number of rockets launched has increased significantly year by year
• The selection of launch sites is diversified, and it is gradually developing to sea launch bases.
• The launch success rate is getting higher and higher.

During the summer school, we were also delighted to see that at 14:22 on July 24, 2022, Beijing time, the Long March 5B Yaosan carrier rocket carrying the Wentian experimental module was ignited and launched at the Wenchang Space Launch Site in my country. , the launch was a complete success.

I wish my country’s aerospace industry a prosperous development and be at the forefront.

Course Design “50 Years of Chinese Rockets”
Panelists: Tian Weixuan from Peking University, Yang Ming from Tianjin University, Liu Shiran from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Chu Qikai from Sichuan University of Light Chemical Technology, and Wu Yansong from Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications.
Instructors: Yuan Xiaoru of Peking University, Xu Ruige of Syracuse University

The excellent course design of the summer school will be successively included in the “Visualizing China” webpage
http://vis.pku.edu.cn/vis4china

Summer School webpage
http://www.chinavis.org/s22

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