China Outer Space Science, Technology and Explorations: News & Updates
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CommentaryChang'e-4 descent video. From China's State Administration for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence.
China declares Chang'e-4 mission complete success
Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-11 16:45:51|Editor: Li Xia
The screen at the Beijing Aerospace Control Center shows the Chang'e-4 lander (R) and the Yutu-2 rover taking pictures for each other, Jan. 11, 2019. (Xinhua/Jin Liwang)
BEIJING, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- China announced Friday that the Chang'e-4 mission, which realized the first-ever soft-landing on the far side of the moon, was a complete success.
Should this trend be confirmed, then this is really the beginning of the China Century or Pax Sinica, that will more and more likely supersede the 20th century's Pax Americana. With its current first world reserve of rare earth mineral, China could definitely put and end to the U.S. hegemony by securing the access to the North Korean rare earth that even surpass the Chinese's by tenfold. Having exhausted their rare earth mineral ore reserve during the Cold War, both the U.S.S.R. and the U.S. can no longer sustain the same pace in the hightech race with China, in the field of supercomputers, semiconductor microchips, lasers, smartphones, radars, missiles, particle accelerators, satellites, etc.. Today, China is even driving a final nail into the U.S. Dystopian Empire's coffin, by landing the Chang'e-4 lunar rover in the South Pole-Aitken Basin, the largest, deepest and oldest known crater in the solar system. Thus the best place to find rare earth mineral. The Chinese Yutu-2 lunar rover will be the first to probe it with ground-penetrating radar and measure its mineral composition with an infrared spectrometer. If rare earth mineral is present, China might find it, before any large scale industrial extraction could begin by 2030, with the first Chinese moon base.
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Chang'e 4 Lander Coordinates
![content_CE4_Locator_Figure[2].png](https://defence.pk./attachments/content_ce4_locator_figure-2-png.532301/ "content_CE4_Locator_Figure[2].png")
Following the Chang'e 4 descent frames (CNSA/CLEP) to the surface makes it easy to find the exact landing spot in a NAC image, which was taken before the landing. Note that the NAC image is rotated so north is down to match the Chang'e 4 frames. NAC M1298916428LR [NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University].
Chang'e 4 safely set down on the plains of Von Kármán crater last week (3 January 2019). Soon thereafter a color image of the immediate surroundings was relayed back to the Earth from the farside! The prominent crater (about 25 meter diameter) in front of the lander can be seen just below and to the left of the bottom arrow (below).
![content_M1298916428LR_1100p_arrows[1].png](https://defence.pk./attachments/content_m1298916428lr_1100p_arrows-1-png.532302/ "content_M1298916428LR_1100p_arrows[1].png")
The Chang'e 4 spacecraft set down between the two arrows at 45.457°S, 177.589°E, plus or minus 20 meters. Full resolution (80 cm pixel scale) NAC image M1298916428LR, acquired on 8 December 2018 (before the landing), note that image is rotated 180° relative to the opening images, north is up. Image width is 880 meters [NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University].
Source: Exciting New Images | Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera
Following the Chang'e 4 descent frames (CNSA/CLEP) to the surface makes it easy to find the exact landing spot in a NAC image, which was taken before the landing. Note that the NAC image is rotated so north is down to match the Chang'e 4 frames. NAC M1298916428LR [NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University].
Chang'e 4 safely set down on the plains of Von Kármán crater last week (3 January 2019). Soon thereafter a color image of the immediate surroundings was relayed back to the Earth from the farside! The prominent crater (about 25 meter diameter) in front of the lander can be seen just below and to the left of the bottom arrow (below).
The Chang'e 4 spacecraft set down between the two arrows at 45.457°S, 177.589°E, plus or minus 20 meters. Full resolution (80 cm pixel scale) NAC image M1298916428LR, acquired on 8 December 2018 (before the landing), note that image is rotated 180° relative to the opening images, north is up. Image width is 880 meters [NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University].
Source: Exciting New Images | Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera
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(*companies founded before 2014 or that have diversified their activities into the space sector are not included)
Source: China’s New Space: a deep dive into the world’s fastest growing commercial space industry – The China Aerospace Blog
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China Focus: Chang'e-4 lunar probe to lay groundwork for human return to moon
Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-12 16:50:45|Editor: Li Xia
by Xinhua writers Yu Fei, Quan Xiaoshu
BEIJING, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Nearly 50 years have passed since people first stood on the moon. Can we return? How will radiation on the moon affect astronauts? How much water is there? Where did the water come from?
To better understand the lunar environment and prepare for a human return to the moon, the Chang'e-4 probe, which has just made the first-ever soft landing on the far side of the moon, carries payloads jointly developed by Chinese, German and Swedish scientists to conduct research.
"Our goal is to measure particle radiation on the lunar surface and the risk to people and equipment," said Zhang Shenyi, a researcher with the National Space Science Center (NSSC) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Zhang cooperated with German scientists in developing the first ever instrument to measure neutron radiation on the moon.
Unlike earth, the moon has no magnetic field and atmosphere to protect it from cosmic particles, which could harm astronauts and spacecraft.
"Before a crewed mission to the moon, our detection could help evaluate the harm of radiation, and pave the way for a return and future exploration," said Zhang.
Professor Robert Wimmer-Schweingruber, of the Institute of Experimental and Applied Physics of Kiel University, Germany, said preparing for future human exploration of the moon is an excellent idea.
"If astronauts want to go on to the moon, there are a lot of risks, such as rockets, landing and surviving on the moon. But if everything is okay and the astronauts come back to earth, the radiation on the moon is the only danger that remains in their body. So we need to understand that," said Wimmer-Schweingruber.
The instrument also measures thermal neutrons, which allows scientists to study the subsurface water on the moon.
During the 1960s and 1970s, the United States and the Soviet Union launched many manned and unmanned missions to the moon. After a lull, a new round of exploration was triggered in the 1990s when scientists found there might be water on the moon.
Many scientists believe frozen water might be in areas never exposed to sunlight in the craters of the moon's polar regions. But how much water is there? And is there water in the South Pole-Aitken Basin where Chang'e-4 landed?
"The measurement of neutrons is one of the important indicators to judge whether there is a water resource in the landing area," said Zhang.
The instrument will also detect the content of iron oxide in the lunar soil and study the particle acceleration mechanism of solar storms between the sun and the earth, he said.
Zhang Aibing, also a researcher with the NSSC, cooperated with Swedish scientists in developing an instrument on the Chang'e-4 rover to measure neutral atoms to study the interaction between the solar wind and the lunar surface.
"This is the first measurement of neutral atoms on the lunar surface. With the rover, we can study the interaction between the solar wind and the lunar surface in different terrains," said Zhang.
"Some scientists believe that hydrogen ions in the solar wind may combine with oxygen on the lunar surface to form water. This is a subject we want to study through our measurement," Zhang said.
Chinese scientists are also developing such kind of instrument that could be used to explore Mars, he said.
Johan Koehler, head of Solar System Science and Space Situational Awareness, Swedish National Space Agency, said the exploration of the far side of the moon is a great achievement by China. "We are very happy to be a part of it.
"The solar wind interacts with the lunar surface, and spreads particles around. These particles form the extremely thin atmosphere-like gases environment of the moon surface. And this is the environment that we know very, very little about. The research is very important to extend humanity's knowledge of the solar system," said Koehler.
"There is a theory that water on the surface of the moon is formed by the interaction of the solar wind with the surface regolith. So this is something that the Swedish scientists together with the Chinese scientists want to answer."
Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-12 16:50:45|Editor: Li Xia
by Xinhua writers Yu Fei, Quan Xiaoshu
BEIJING, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Nearly 50 years have passed since people first stood on the moon. Can we return? How will radiation on the moon affect astronauts? How much water is there? Where did the water come from?
To better understand the lunar environment and prepare for a human return to the moon, the Chang'e-4 probe, which has just made the first-ever soft landing on the far side of the moon, carries payloads jointly developed by Chinese, German and Swedish scientists to conduct research.
"Our goal is to measure particle radiation on the lunar surface and the risk to people and equipment," said Zhang Shenyi, a researcher with the National Space Science Center (NSSC) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Zhang cooperated with German scientists in developing the first ever instrument to measure neutron radiation on the moon.
Unlike earth, the moon has no magnetic field and atmosphere to protect it from cosmic particles, which could harm astronauts and spacecraft.
"Before a crewed mission to the moon, our detection could help evaluate the harm of radiation, and pave the way for a return and future exploration," said Zhang.
Professor Robert Wimmer-Schweingruber, of the Institute of Experimental and Applied Physics of Kiel University, Germany, said preparing for future human exploration of the moon is an excellent idea.
"If astronauts want to go on to the moon, there are a lot of risks, such as rockets, landing and surviving on the moon. But if everything is okay and the astronauts come back to earth, the radiation on the moon is the only danger that remains in their body. So we need to understand that," said Wimmer-Schweingruber.
The instrument also measures thermal neutrons, which allows scientists to study the subsurface water on the moon.
During the 1960s and 1970s, the United States and the Soviet Union launched many manned and unmanned missions to the moon. After a lull, a new round of exploration was triggered in the 1990s when scientists found there might be water on the moon.
Many scientists believe frozen water might be in areas never exposed to sunlight in the craters of the moon's polar regions. But how much water is there? And is there water in the South Pole-Aitken Basin where Chang'e-4 landed?
"The measurement of neutrons is one of the important indicators to judge whether there is a water resource in the landing area," said Zhang.
The instrument will also detect the content of iron oxide in the lunar soil and study the particle acceleration mechanism of solar storms between the sun and the earth, he said.
Zhang Aibing, also a researcher with the NSSC, cooperated with Swedish scientists in developing an instrument on the Chang'e-4 rover to measure neutral atoms to study the interaction between the solar wind and the lunar surface.
"This is the first measurement of neutral atoms on the lunar surface. With the rover, we can study the interaction between the solar wind and the lunar surface in different terrains," said Zhang.
"Some scientists believe that hydrogen ions in the solar wind may combine with oxygen on the lunar surface to form water. This is a subject we want to study through our measurement," Zhang said.
Chinese scientists are also developing such kind of instrument that could be used to explore Mars, he said.
Johan Koehler, head of Solar System Science and Space Situational Awareness, Swedish National Space Agency, said the exploration of the far side of the moon is a great achievement by China. "We are very happy to be a part of it.
"The solar wind interacts with the lunar surface, and spreads particles around. These particles form the extremely thin atmosphere-like gases environment of the moon surface. And this is the environment that we know very, very little about. The research is very important to extend humanity's knowledge of the solar system," said Koehler.
"There is a theory that water on the surface of the moon is formed by the interaction of the solar wind with the surface regolith. So this is something that the Swedish scientists together with the Chinese scientists want to answer."
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From the press conference of Chang'e-4 mission.
2019-01-14 15:40:00
Wu Yanhua:
Since the launch of the lunar exploration project, the Chinese government has implemented the three steps of “orbit, land and return”. We call it three phase for short, like the report just now has mentioned. The final "return" phase is due at the end of this year, carried out by Chang'e-5, so that the three phase would be completed. Just like everyone knows that No. 4 was originally the backup of the Chang'e 3. After the success of the Chang'e 3, the China National Space Administration organized a joint discussion by domestic and international scientists to decide on and carry out the more meaningful pioneering far-side exploration activity. Chang'e 4 would then become the first mission of the fourth phase of the lunar exploration project.
The National Space Administration is also organizing domestic experts to explore the follow-up plan, and currently it is basically clear that there will be three more tasks. One is No. 6 is plan to be sample return mission on the moon's south pole. Whether it is on moon front or far side, it should be determined according to the progress of the sampling mission of No. 5. No. 7 would be comprehensive exploration of the Moon's south pole, including a comprehensive exploration mission on the topography, material composition and environment of the Moon. In addition to continuing scientific testing, the No. 8 would carries out some lunar tests of key technologies. China, the United States, Russia and Europe are all investigating whether to build a research base or a research station on the moon, with technology such as 3D printing, can use material on the moon to build houses on site, etc. We wish to utilize No. 8 for verification of some of these technologies, for future countries to jointly build a lunar research base, do some preliminary exploration. Thank you.
China News Agency reporter:
The No. 4 is the first mission to be known as the fourth phase of the lunar exploration project. What plans are there for the fourth phase of the next lunar exploration project? What are the plans for future lunar exploration projects and deep space exploration in China?
2019-01-14 15:40:00
Wu Yanhua:
Since the launch of the lunar exploration project, the Chinese government has implemented the three steps of “orbit, land and return”. We call it three phase for short, like the report just now has mentioned. The final "return" phase is due at the end of this year, carried out by Chang'e-5, so that the three phase would be completed. Just like everyone knows that No. 4 was originally the backup of the Chang'e 3. After the success of the Chang'e 3, the China National Space Administration organized a joint discussion by domestic and international scientists to decide on and carry out the more meaningful pioneering far-side exploration activity. Chang'e 4 would then become the first mission of the fourth phase of the lunar exploration project.
The National Space Administration is also organizing domestic experts to explore the follow-up plan, and currently it is basically clear that there will be three more tasks. One is No. 6 is plan to be sample return mission on the moon's south pole. Whether it is on moon front or far side, it should be determined according to the progress of the sampling mission of No. 5. No. 7 would be comprehensive exploration of the Moon's south pole, including a comprehensive exploration mission on the topography, material composition and environment of the Moon. In addition to continuing scientific testing, the No. 8 would carries out some lunar tests of key technologies. China, the United States, Russia and Europe are all investigating whether to build a research base or a research station on the moon, with technology such as 3D printing, can use material on the moon to build houses on site, etc. We wish to utilize No. 8 for verification of some of these technologies, for future countries to jointly build a lunar research base, do some preliminary exploration. Thank you.
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China to launch Chang'e 5 mission to moon around year-end
chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2019-01-14 15:20
Wu Yanhua, deputy head of the China National Space Administration said at a news conference Monday that the next step in China's lunar exploration program, the Chang'e 5 mission, will take place around the end of this year.
The Chang'e 5 robotic probe is designed to collect samples and bring them back to Earth, which will make China the third nation in the world to bring lunar samples back after the United States and Russia. Wu also said that the country's first Mars mission is scheduled around 2020.
China will provide 10 kg payload in its lunar south pole mission to international cooperation, CNSA spokesperson Li Guoping said.
chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2019-01-14 15:20
Wu Yanhua, deputy head of the China National Space Administration said at a news conference Monday that the next step in China's lunar exploration program, the Chang'e 5 mission, will take place around the end of this year.
The Chang'e 5 robotic probe is designed to collect samples and bring them back to Earth, which will make China the third nation in the world to bring lunar samples back after the United States and Russia. Wu also said that the country's first Mars mission is scheduled around 2020.
China will provide 10 kg payload in its lunar south pole mission to international cooperation, CNSA spokesperson Li Guoping said.
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Universe: the orderly chaos of black holes
January 14, 2019
Researchers at UNIGE have discovered that photons emitted during the creation of a black hole appear to be disordered. Within a single time slice they however appear to be highly ordered.
The dedicated Gamma-ray Burst Polarimetry experiment POLAR on top of China’s TiangGong-2 spacelab launched on September 15, 2016. The glowing green light mimics the scintillating light when a gamma-ray photon hits one of the 1600 specially made scintillation bars. The artwork is based on a picture taken by a camera located several meters behind POLAR. © UNIGE
During the formation of a black hole a bright burst of very energetic light in the form of gamma-rays is produced, these events are called gamma-ray bursts. The physics behind this phenomenon includes many of the least understood fields within physics today: general gravity, extreme temperatures and acceleration of particles far beyond the energy of the most powerful particle accelerators on Earth. In order to analyse these gamma-ray bursts, researchers from the University of Geneva (UNIGE), in collaboration with the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) of Villigen, Switzerland, the Institute of High Energy Physics in Beijing and the National Center for Nuclear Research of Swierk in Poland, have built the POLAR instrument, sent in 2016 to the Chinese Tiangong-2 space laboratory, to analyze gamma-ray bursts. Contrary to the theories developed, the first results of POLAR reveal that the high energy photons coming from gamma-ray bursts are neither completely chaotic, nor completely organized, but a mixture of the two: within short time slices, the photons are found to oscillate in the same direction, but the oscillation direction changes with time. These unexpected results are reported in a recent issue of the journal Nature Astronomy.
When two neutron stars collide or a super massive star collapses into itself, a black hole is created. This birth is accompanied by a bright burst of gamma-rays – very energetic light such as that emitted by radioactive sources – called a gamma-ray burst (GRB).
Is black hole birth environment organized or chaotic?
How and where the gamma-rays are produced is still a mystery, two different schools of thought on their origin exist. The first predicts that photons from GRBs are polarized, meaning the majority of them oscillate in the same direction. If this were the case, the source of the photons would likely be a strong and well organized magnetic field formed during the violent aftermath of the black hole production. A second theory suggests that the photons are not polarized, implying a more chaotic emission environment. But how to check this?
“Our international teams have built together the first powerful and dedicated detector, called POLAR, capable of measuring the polarization of gamma-rays from GRBs. This instrument allows us to learn more about their source,” said Xin Wu, professor in the Department of Nuclear and Particle Physics of the Faculty of Sciences of UNIGE. Its operating system is rather simple. It is a square of 50x50 cm2 consisting of 1600 scintillator bars in which the gamma-rays collide with the atoms that make up these bars. When a photon collides in a bar we can measure it, afterwards it can produce a second photon which can cause a second visible collision. “If the photons are polarized, we observe a directional dependency between the impact positions of the photons, continues Nicolas Produit, researcher at the Department of Astronomy of the Faculty of Sciences of UNIGE. On the contrary, if there is no polarization, the second photon resulting from the first collision will leave in a fully random direction.”
Order within chaos
In six months, POLAR has detected 55 gamma-ray bursts and scientist analyzed the polarization of gamma-rays from the 5 brightest ones. The results are surprising to say the least. “When we analyse the polarization of a gamma-ray burst as a whole, we see at most a very weak polarization, which seems to clearly favour several theories,” says Merlin Kole, a researcher at the Department of Nuclear and Particle Physics of the Faculty of Sciences of UNIGE and one of the main authors of the paper. Faced with this first result, the scientists looked in more detail at a very powerful 9 second long gamma-ray burst and cut it into time slices, each of 2 seconds long. “There, we discovered with surprise that, on the contrary, the photons are polarized in each slice, but the oscillation direction is different in each slice!,” Xin Wu enthuses. It is this changing direction which makes the full GRB appear as very chaotic and unpolarized. “The results show that as the explosion takes place, something happens which causes the photons to be emitted with a different polarization direction, what this could be we really don’t know,” continues Merlin Kole.
These first results confront the theorists with new elements and requires them to produce more detailed predictions. “We now want to build POLAR-2, which is bigger and more precise. With that we can dig deeper into these chaotic processes, to finally discover the source of the gamma-rays and unravel the mysteries of these highly energetic physical processes,” explains Nicolas Produit.
Universe: the orderly chaos of black holes - Communiqués de presse - UNIGE
January 14, 2019
Researchers at UNIGE have discovered that photons emitted during the creation of a black hole appear to be disordered. Within a single time slice they however appear to be highly ordered.
During the formation of a black hole a bright burst of very energetic light in the form of gamma-rays is produced, these events are called gamma-ray bursts. The physics behind this phenomenon includes many of the least understood fields within physics today: general gravity, extreme temperatures and acceleration of particles far beyond the energy of the most powerful particle accelerators on Earth. In order to analyse these gamma-ray bursts, researchers from the University of Geneva (UNIGE), in collaboration with the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) of Villigen, Switzerland, the Institute of High Energy Physics in Beijing and the National Center for Nuclear Research of Swierk in Poland, have built the POLAR instrument, sent in 2016 to the Chinese Tiangong-2 space laboratory, to analyze gamma-ray bursts. Contrary to the theories developed, the first results of POLAR reveal that the high energy photons coming from gamma-ray bursts are neither completely chaotic, nor completely organized, but a mixture of the two: within short time slices, the photons are found to oscillate in the same direction, but the oscillation direction changes with time. These unexpected results are reported in a recent issue of the journal Nature Astronomy.
When two neutron stars collide or a super massive star collapses into itself, a black hole is created. This birth is accompanied by a bright burst of gamma-rays – very energetic light such as that emitted by radioactive sources – called a gamma-ray burst (GRB).
Is black hole birth environment organized or chaotic?
How and where the gamma-rays are produced is still a mystery, two different schools of thought on their origin exist. The first predicts that photons from GRBs are polarized, meaning the majority of them oscillate in the same direction. If this were the case, the source of the photons would likely be a strong and well organized magnetic field formed during the violent aftermath of the black hole production. A second theory suggests that the photons are not polarized, implying a more chaotic emission environment. But how to check this?
“Our international teams have built together the first powerful and dedicated detector, called POLAR, capable of measuring the polarization of gamma-rays from GRBs. This instrument allows us to learn more about their source,” said Xin Wu, professor in the Department of Nuclear and Particle Physics of the Faculty of Sciences of UNIGE. Its operating system is rather simple. It is a square of 50x50 cm2 consisting of 1600 scintillator bars in which the gamma-rays collide with the atoms that make up these bars. When a photon collides in a bar we can measure it, afterwards it can produce a second photon which can cause a second visible collision. “If the photons are polarized, we observe a directional dependency between the impact positions of the photons, continues Nicolas Produit, researcher at the Department of Astronomy of the Faculty of Sciences of UNIGE. On the contrary, if there is no polarization, the second photon resulting from the first collision will leave in a fully random direction.”
Order within chaos
In six months, POLAR has detected 55 gamma-ray bursts and scientist analyzed the polarization of gamma-rays from the 5 brightest ones. The results are surprising to say the least. “When we analyse the polarization of a gamma-ray burst as a whole, we see at most a very weak polarization, which seems to clearly favour several theories,” says Merlin Kole, a researcher at the Department of Nuclear and Particle Physics of the Faculty of Sciences of UNIGE and one of the main authors of the paper. Faced with this first result, the scientists looked in more detail at a very powerful 9 second long gamma-ray burst and cut it into time slices, each of 2 seconds long. “There, we discovered with surprise that, on the contrary, the photons are polarized in each slice, but the oscillation direction is different in each slice!,” Xin Wu enthuses. It is this changing direction which makes the full GRB appear as very chaotic and unpolarized. “The results show that as the explosion takes place, something happens which causes the photons to be emitted with a different polarization direction, what this could be we really don’t know,” continues Merlin Kole.
These first results confront the theorists with new elements and requires them to produce more detailed predictions. “We now want to build POLAR-2, which is bigger and more precise. With that we can dig deeper into these chaotic processes, to finally discover the source of the gamma-rays and unravel the mysteries of these highly energetic physical processes,” explains Nicolas Produit.
Universe: the orderly chaos of black holes - Communiqués de presse - UNIGE
Shuang-Nan Zhang, Merlin Kole, Tian-Wei Bao, Tadeusz Batsch, Tancredi Bernasconi, Franck Cadoux, Jun-Ying Chai, Zi-Gao Dai, Yong-Wei Dong, Neal Gauvin, Wojtek Hajdas, Mi-Xiang Lan, Han-Cheng Li, Lu Li, Zheng-Heng Li, Jiang-Tao Liu, Xin Liu, Radoslaw Marcinkowski, Nicolas Produit, Silvio Orsi, Martin Pohl, Dominik Rybka, Hao-Li Shi, Li-Ming Song, Jian-Chao Sun, Jacek Szabelski, Teresa Tymieniecka, Rui-Jie Wang, Yuan-Hao Wang, Xing Wen, Bo-Bing Wu, Xin Wu, Xue-Feng Wu, Hua-Lin Xiao, Shao-Lin Xiong, Lai-Yu Zhang, Li Zhang, Xiao-Feng Zhang, Yong-Jie Zhang, Anna Zwolinska. Detailed polarization measurements of the prompt emission of five gamma-ray bursts. Nature Astronomy (2019). DOI: 10.1038/s41550-018-0664-0
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How realistic are China’s plans to build a research station on the Moon?
January 17, 2019 1.33am GMT
The world is still celebrating the historic landing of China’s Chang’e-4 on the dark side of the moon on January 3. This week, China announced its plans to follow up with three more lunar missions, laying the groundwork for a lunar base.
Colonising the Moon, and beyond, has always being a human aspiration. Technological advancements, and the discovery of a considerable source of water close to the lunar poles, has made this idea even more appealing.
But how close is China to actually achieving this goal?
Continue -> How realistic are China's plans to build a research station on the Moon? | TheConversation.com
January 17, 2019 1.33am GMT
The world is still celebrating the historic landing of China’s Chang’e-4 on the dark side of the moon on January 3. This week, China announced its plans to follow up with three more lunar missions, laying the groundwork for a lunar base.
Colonising the Moon, and beyond, has always being a human aspiration. Technological advancements, and the discovery of a considerable source of water close to the lunar poles, has made this idea even more appealing.
But how close is China to actually achieving this goal?
Continue -> How realistic are China's plans to build a research station on the Moon? | TheConversation.com
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China, Russia will explore moon water
By REN QI | China Daily | Updated: 2019-01-17 09:10
Photo taken by the rover Yutu-2 (Jade Rabbit-2) on Jan 11, 2019 shows the lander of the Chang'e-4 probe. [Photo/Xinhua/China National Space Administration]
Joint research aims to develop lunar and Martian programs in the future
Chinese and Russian scientists will work together to explore water and ice on the moon, according to a Russian scientist.
Vladimir Khmelyov, a professor at the Altai State Technical University, said on Tuesday that the ultrasonic drilling project has won financing from Russia's Fundamental Research Fund and China's National Natural Science Fund.
In this project, the scientists will explore and develop the physical principles of the ultrasonic drilling of extraterrestrial surfaces to discover water and ice, including on the far side of the moon and on Mars, which will help develop lunar and Martian research in the future, Russia's Tass News Agency reported.
"The project is designed for two years," said Khmelyov. "It relates to joint work: We will carry out preliminary research for the Chinese side to study the process of ultrasonic drilling."
The professor said the project means a lot for the exploration of underground water on the moon, because in the current missions, holes on the moon and Mars were drilled by ordinary, mechanical devices, which cause strong heat, and water and other volatile materials evaporate.
"Ultrasonic drilling is quite delicate and it should keep water and ice intact and will help us discover the presence of water on the moon or under the lunar surface," he said.
According to data from the Altai State Technical University's press office, scientists are planning to determine the optimal modes of ultrasound drilling to maximally preserve water and ice, which will ensure the authenticity of discovering the traces of water. The project will help develop the scientific basis for creating ultrasonic drilling instruments.
The Russian-Chinese research in this area is one of the prospects of developing the lunar and Marian programs: To find water so that a station can be built on the moon where humans can live, the researcher said.
Based on indirect explorations, it is assumed that water is located close to the surface of craters up to 10 kilometers deep on the reverse side of the moon. Ultrasonic equipment can be eventually installed on lunar and Martian rovers, Khmelyov said.
Khmelyov said the rapid development of China's aerospace industry and the success of the recent lunar mission attracts more international attention as well as cooperation.
China's unmanned Chang'e 4 robotic spacecraft touched down in the South Pole-Aitken Basin, the far side of the moon on Jan 3.
The landing is being seen as a major milestone in space exploration. There have been numerous missions to the moon in recent years, but the vast majority have been to orbit, fly by or impact. The last crewed landing was Apollo 17 in 1972, according to the BBC.
Far-side touchdown
Previous moon missions have landed on the Earth-facing side, but Chang'e-4 mission was the first time any craft had landed successfully on the unexplored and rugged far side.
Li Guoping, the secretary-general of the China National Space Administration, said Russia is one of China's main partners in space cooperation, and "lunar studies are one of the guidelines in our cooperation", according to Sputnik news agency.
The two countries held annual meetings devoted to cooperation in space exploration, he added.
Both countries were pushing ahead with joint aerospace projects in accordance with China's program for 2018-22, Li said.
Khmelyov said so far no flights to the reverse side of the moon are planned by Russia.
"Therefore we appreciate, and were attracted by the landing plan on the far side of the moon so that we could start conducting preliminary research with China, and we are going to work jointly with a university in Harbin (of Heilongjiang province) which is participating in China's lunar program," the Russian researcher said.
By REN QI | China Daily | Updated: 2019-01-17 09:10
Joint research aims to develop lunar and Martian programs in the future
Chinese and Russian scientists will work together to explore water and ice on the moon, according to a Russian scientist.
Vladimir Khmelyov, a professor at the Altai State Technical University, said on Tuesday that the ultrasonic drilling project has won financing from Russia's Fundamental Research Fund and China's National Natural Science Fund.
In this project, the scientists will explore and develop the physical principles of the ultrasonic drilling of extraterrestrial surfaces to discover water and ice, including on the far side of the moon and on Mars, which will help develop lunar and Martian research in the future, Russia's Tass News Agency reported.
"The project is designed for two years," said Khmelyov. "It relates to joint work: We will carry out preliminary research for the Chinese side to study the process of ultrasonic drilling."
The professor said the project means a lot for the exploration of underground water on the moon, because in the current missions, holes on the moon and Mars were drilled by ordinary, mechanical devices, which cause strong heat, and water and other volatile materials evaporate.
"Ultrasonic drilling is quite delicate and it should keep water and ice intact and will help us discover the presence of water on the moon or under the lunar surface," he said.
According to data from the Altai State Technical University's press office, scientists are planning to determine the optimal modes of ultrasound drilling to maximally preserve water and ice, which will ensure the authenticity of discovering the traces of water. The project will help develop the scientific basis for creating ultrasonic drilling instruments.
The Russian-Chinese research in this area is one of the prospects of developing the lunar and Marian programs: To find water so that a station can be built on the moon where humans can live, the researcher said.
Based on indirect explorations, it is assumed that water is located close to the surface of craters up to 10 kilometers deep on the reverse side of the moon. Ultrasonic equipment can be eventually installed on lunar and Martian rovers, Khmelyov said.
Khmelyov said the rapid development of China's aerospace industry and the success of the recent lunar mission attracts more international attention as well as cooperation.
China's unmanned Chang'e 4 robotic spacecraft touched down in the South Pole-Aitken Basin, the far side of the moon on Jan 3.
The landing is being seen as a major milestone in space exploration. There have been numerous missions to the moon in recent years, but the vast majority have been to orbit, fly by or impact. The last crewed landing was Apollo 17 in 1972, according to the BBC.
Far-side touchdown
Previous moon missions have landed on the Earth-facing side, but Chang'e-4 mission was the first time any craft had landed successfully on the unexplored and rugged far side.
Li Guoping, the secretary-general of the China National Space Administration, said Russia is one of China's main partners in space cooperation, and "lunar studies are one of the guidelines in our cooperation", according to Sputnik news agency.
The two countries held annual meetings devoted to cooperation in space exploration, he added.
Both countries were pushing ahead with joint aerospace projects in accordance with China's program for 2018-22, Li said.
Khmelyov said so far no flights to the reverse side of the moon are planned by Russia.
"Therefore we appreciate, and were attracted by the landing plan on the far side of the moon so that we could start conducting preliminary research with China, and we are going to work jointly with a university in Harbin (of Heilongjiang province) which is participating in China's lunar program," the Russian researcher said.
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90 Argentine satellites to be launched in China
Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-18 16:02:35|Editor: zh
BEIJING, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- China will send 90 satellites on its Long March-6 carrier rocket into orbit from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center for an Argentine company, according to the China Great Wall Industry Corporation.
The corporation has signed a multiple launch services agreement with Satellogic, a private Argentine company specializing in Earth-observation satellites.
The first 13 satellites will be delivered later this year. It will be the first time for the Long March-6 to provide launch services for an international user.
After the 90 satellites are in orbit, an Earth observation satellite constellation will be formed, imaging the entire world with a 1-meter resolution every week.
So far, the China Great Wall Industry Corporation has successfully launched six satellites for Satellogic.
Satellogic provides solutions in the fields of agriculture, forestry, oil and gas, finance, and insurance, using satellite imaging.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-18 16:02:35|Editor: zh
BEIJING, Jan. 18 (Xinhua) -- China will send 90 satellites on its Long March-6 carrier rocket into orbit from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center for an Argentine company, according to the China Great Wall Industry Corporation.
The corporation has signed a multiple launch services agreement with Satellogic, a private Argentine company specializing in Earth-observation satellites.
The first 13 satellites will be delivered later this year. It will be the first time for the Long March-6 to provide launch services for an international user.
After the 90 satellites are in orbit, an Earth observation satellite constellation will be formed, imaging the entire world with a 1-meter resolution every week.
So far, the China Great Wall Industry Corporation has successfully launched six satellites for Satellogic.
Satellogic provides solutions in the fields of agriculture, forestry, oil and gas, finance, and insurance, using satellite imaging.
Galactic Penguin SST
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Should this trend be confirmed, then this is really the beginning of the China Century or Pax Sinica, that will more and more likely supersede the 20th century's Pax Americana. With its current first world reserve of rare earth mineral, China could definitely put and end to the U.S. hegemony by securing the access to the North Korean rare earth that even surpass the Chinese's by tenfold. Having exhausted their rare earth mineral ore reserve during the Cold War, both the U.S.S.R. and the U.S. can no longer sustain the same pace in the hightech race with China, in the field of supercomputers, semiconductor microchips, lasers, smartphones, radars, missiles, particle accelerators, satellites, etc.. Today, China is even driving a final nail into the U.S. Dystopian Empire's coffin, by landing the Chang'e-4 lunar rover in the South Pole-Aitken Basin, the largest, deepest and oldest known crater in the solar system. Thus the best place to find rare earth mineral. The Chinese Yutu-2 lunar rover will be the first to probe it with ground-penetrating radar and measure its mineral composition with an infrared spectrometer. If rare earth mineral is present, China might find it, before any large scale industrial extraction could begin by 2030, with the first Chinese moon base.
Hurry-up Mr. Xi Jinping, for H.E. Kim Jong Un is not going to remain a passive onlooker, but will clean sweep all the lunar rare earth mineral ore reserve for the DPRK!
▲ Then...
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Slides about Long March-11M, which is the sea launch version of LM-11.
source: jingyan66@9ifly.cn.
source: jingyan66@9ifly.cn.
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China's Long March-5 rocket to resume flight in July
Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-29 20:10:47|Editor: Li Xia
BEIJING, Jan. 29 (Xinhua) -- China plans to launch its third Long March-5 large carrier rocket in July, said Yang Baohua, vice president of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) on Tuesday.
The second Long March-5 rocket was launched from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in the southern province of Hainan on July 2, 2017, but a malfunction happened less than six minutes after its liftoff.
Yang said at a press conference of the CASC that the cause of the failure has been found.
Analysis based on computer simulations and ground tests showed that a problem occurred in a turbine exhaust device in the engine of the first stage of the rocket, the China National Space Administration said earlier last year.
The Long March-5 rocket will be the key for China's future space missions, said Shang Zhi, director of the Department of Space under CASC.
If the third flight is successful, the fourth Long March-5 carrier rocket will be tasked to send the Chang'e-5 lunar probe to the moon to bring lunar samples back to Earth at the end of 2019, according to Yang.
In addition, a test version of the Long March-5B carrier rocket, which will serve China's manned space exploration mission, is under development, and the research and development of the core module of the country's space station have carried on as planned, said Shang.
The Long March-5B rocket, with a low-Earth orbit with a carrying capacity greater than 22 tonnes, will be used to launch the core module and experiment modules of China's space station in the future.
Joint tests and exercises will be carried out in the Wenchang Space Launch Center at the end of 2019 to make preparations for the maiden flight of the Long March-5B, which will help lay the groundwork for the construction of the space station, Shang said.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-01-29 20:10:47|Editor: Li Xia
BEIJING, Jan. 29 (Xinhua) -- China plans to launch its third Long March-5 large carrier rocket in July, said Yang Baohua, vice president of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) on Tuesday.
The second Long March-5 rocket was launched from the Wenchang Space Launch Center in the southern province of Hainan on July 2, 2017, but a malfunction happened less than six minutes after its liftoff.
Yang said at a press conference of the CASC that the cause of the failure has been found.
Analysis based on computer simulations and ground tests showed that a problem occurred in a turbine exhaust device in the engine of the first stage of the rocket, the China National Space Administration said earlier last year.
The Long March-5 rocket will be the key for China's future space missions, said Shang Zhi, director of the Department of Space under CASC.
If the third flight is successful, the fourth Long March-5 carrier rocket will be tasked to send the Chang'e-5 lunar probe to the moon to bring lunar samples back to Earth at the end of 2019, according to Yang.
In addition, a test version of the Long March-5B carrier rocket, which will serve China's manned space exploration mission, is under development, and the research and development of the core module of the country's space station have carried on as planned, said Shang.
The Long March-5B rocket, with a low-Earth orbit with a carrying capacity greater than 22 tonnes, will be used to launch the core module and experiment modules of China's space station in the future.
Joint tests and exercises will be carried out in the Wenchang Space Launch Center at the end of 2019 to make preparations for the maiden flight of the Long March-5B, which will help lay the groundwork for the construction of the space station, Shang said.
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