Day: December 10, 2020

(Xinhua)14:10, November 28, 2020

SANYA, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) — Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday sent a letter to congratulate the successful completion of the 10,000-meter sea trials of the manned submersible Fendouzhe and its return to port.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, extended warm congratulations and sincere greetings to scientific researchers who are committed to deep-sea equipment development and scientific studies.

Chinas new deep-sea manned submersible Fendouzhe (Striver) set off on Oct. 10 for the 10,000-meter-deep-sea diving operation in the Mariana Trench. During the expedition, it completed 13 dives, eight of which exceeded a depth of 10,000 meters.

It set a national record by diving to a depth of 10,909 meters in the Mariana Trench at 8:12 a.m. on Nov. 10, and returned to the port in Sanya, south Chinas Hainan Province, on Saturday morning.

Xi said the development of the manned submersible and its sea trials indicated Chinas capability of carrying out scientific exploration and research in the deepest parts of the worlds oceans as well as its comprehensive strength in marine high technology.

From manned submersibles Jiaolong, Shenhai Yongshi (Deep Sea Warrior) to Fendouzhe, Chinese researchers have practiced the spirit of rigorous and practical thinking, teamwork and dedication, setting an example for sci-tech innovation, Xi said.

Xi hoped that all researchers working on deep-sea equipment and scientific studies would continue to carry forward the scientific spirit and work hard to speed up the building of a strong maritime country and realize the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation, and make new and greater contributions to humanitys understanding, protection and development of the oceans.

Vice Premier Liu He, also a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, read out Xis letter via a video link at a welcoming ceremony for the return of Fendouzhe.

Liu said the letter fully demonstrated the importance attached to sci-tech innovation and building a strong maritime country by the CPC Central Committee and clarified the direction of the deep-sea sci-tech work.

With multiple breakthroughs in various key technologies, the Fendouzhe represents a milestone in the countrys endeavor into deep-sea exploration, said Liu. He added that efforts should be made to strengthen collaborative innovation between industries, universities and research institutes, and to accelerate application and transformation of scientific research achievements.

(China Daily)09:41, November 24, 2020

China urged the United States on Monday to immediately stop its practice of abusing the concept of national security to suppress foreign enterprises, after reports showed that Washington was close to banning technology exports to 89 Chinese enterprises.

The lists include Chinese aerospace and other companies with military ties, which will be restricted from buying a range of US goods and technology, Reuters reported.

China firmly opposes unwarranted US oppression of Chinese companies, Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a daily news conference.

The move came 10 days after US President Donald Trump unveiled an executive order prohibiting US investments in Chinese companies that Washington says are owned or controlled by the Chinese military.

The US move seriously violated the principle of market competition and international trade rules it has always boasted, and will definitely damage the interests and image of the US, Zhao said.

Chinese companies have always adhered to laws and regulations when conducting business, and strictly abide by the laws and regulations of various countries, including the US, in their international operations.

Zhao also expressed regret at the US withdrawal from the Treaty on Open Skies despite opposition from the international community. The treaty, which became effective in 2002, allows its states-parties to conduct short-notice, unarmed reconnaissance flights over the others entire territories to collect data on military forces and activities.

It is not an attitude and a practice that a major country should take to wantonly pull out of international treaties, Zhao said.

The US move undermines military mutual trust and transparency among relevant countries and is not conducive to maintaining security and stability in relevant regions, Zhao said.

The move will also have a negative impact on the international arms control and disarmament process, he said.

The US should seriously respond to the concerns of Russia and other contracting states as well as the international community and resolve differences through dialogue, he added.

(Xinhua)09:20, November 26, 2020

BEIJING, Nov. 25 (Xinhua) — Change-5 probe, which was launched Tuesday to collect and return moon samples, is expected to achieve multiple breakthroughs in its journey.

The lunar mission is comprised of an orbiter, a lander, an ascender and a returner. After it enters lunar orbit, the lander-ascender combination will separate from the orbiter-returner combination. The lander-ascender will touch down on the northwest region of the moons Oceanus Procellarum, collect samples from the lunar surface, as well as drill into the ground.

The sampling task is full of uncertainties, according to Peng Jing, deputy chief designer of the Change-5 probe from the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST) under the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.

Change-5 will be the worlds first moon-sample mission for more than 40 years, and Chinese space engineers have made elaborate plans for possible challenges ahead, according to Peng.

We are not sure whether the landing site is made of hard rock or loose soil, so we have developed sampling instruments for different scenarios, Peng said. We developed two sampling methods, including drilling underground and collecting samples from the lunar surface, to increase the chance of acquiring more diverse samples.

The packaging and sealing of the moon samples also requires an elaborate design to prevent leakage and contamination. Earth is surrounded by an atmosphere that contains both gases and floating solid particles, which might contaminate lunar samples if they are not perfectly sealed, limiting their scientific value.

The packaging device should be able to perform well in harsh environments, said Wang Xianrong, a researcher from the CAST.

After sampling, the ascender will take off and dock with the orbiter-returner in lunar orbit to transfer samples to the returner. The takeoff from the moon will also be a difficult task.

Peng said the lander will act as the launching pad of the ascender, but the lander might not be horizontal and stable as it should be and is likely to land on a slope or complex terrain.

The spacecraft needs to conduct autonomous positioning and attitude determination during takeoff, Peng said.

China has mastered rendezvous and docking technology in low-Earth orbit for manned space flights, but Change-5 will carry out an unmanned rendezvous and docking in a lunar orbit 380,000 km away, a first in the history of space exploration, Peng said.

During the rendezvous and docking, there is only a five-cm margin of error when controlling the two spacecraft, Peng said.

The orbiter will carry the returner back to Earth. The returner, with the samples on board, will then reenter the atmosphere and land at Siziwang Banner in north Chinas Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

The orbiter-returner is expected to arrive at Earth at a speed of more than 11.2 km per second, the second cosmic velocity or escape velocity.

The designers have developed a skip reentry method mimicking a skipping stone to lower the crafts speed, according to Pei Zhaoyu, deputy director of the Lunar Exploration and Space Program Center of the China National Space Administration.

The returner will enter the atmosphere at a high speed, then spring out of the atmosphere with the lift of the air, and plunge back into the atmosphere at a lower speed roughly equal to that of a return satellite, for which we have experience in reentry, Pei said. The method will make the reentry safer, and provide a technical foundation for future manned missions.

(Xinhua)09:22, November 26, 2020

LONDON, Nov. 25 (Xinhua) — Researchers have found coronaviruses closely related to SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic, in bats stored in laboratory freezers in Cambodia and Japan, according to a study published in the journal Nature on Monday.

The virus in Cambodia was discovered in two Shamels horseshoe bats stored in a freezer, which were captured in the north of the country in 2010. Meanwhile, a team in Japan found another closely related coronavirus in frozen bat droppings, the study showed.

The viruses are the first known relatives of SARS-CoV-2 to be found outside China, said the study, noting that the new findings support the World Health Organizations search across Asia to investigate the animal origin of the COVID-19 pandemic.

But whether the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 passed directly from bats to people or through an intermediate host still remains unknown, according to the study.

Both discoveries are exciting because they confirm that viruses closely related to SARS-CoV-2 are relatively common in Rhinolophus bats, and even in bats found outside China, Alice Latinne, an evolutionary biologist at the Wildlife Conservation Society Vietnam in Hanoi, who has seen some of the Cambodian teams analysis, was quoted as saying.

Aaron Irving, an infectious-diseases researcher at Zhejiang University in Chinas Hangzhou, who also plans to test stored samples of bats and other mammals, said the findings suggest that other as-yet undiscovered SARS-CoV-2 relatives could be stored in lab freezers, it added.

(Xinhua)09:28, November 26, 2020

CHENGDU, Nov. 25 (Xinhua) — Aided by the millimeter-level high-precision technology of Chinas BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS), a geological disaster monitoring and early warning system can help minimize human life and property losses when landslides occur.

This is just one among a host of BDS applications that were on display at the 11th China Satellite Navigation Conference held in southwest Chinas Chengdu City this week.

The conference was the first significant event for exchanges on satellite navigation hosted by China following the commissioning of the BDS-3 system on July 31, 2020. The BDS-3 system is the first space infrastructure the country has provided for global public service.

At the conference, over 100 enterprises showcased products and services based on the BDS, covering a wide range of areas including surveying and mapping, navigation, 5G, the Internet of Things, autonomous driving, and disaster reduction and relief.

While injecting impetus into traditional industries, the BDS is also accelerating its synergy with new technologies such as blockchain, the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence, bringing about profound innovation and transformation, said Ran Chengqi, director of the China Satellite Navigation Office, who estimated that the BDS-related industry will grow to be a trillion-yuan-level market in the future.

According to a report released by the office at the conference, the total output value of Chinas satellite navigation and location services industry has increased by more than 20 percent annually for the past 10 years, hitting 345 billion yuan (52.5 billion U.S. dollars) in 2019. It is expected to exceed 400 billion yuan this year.

The applications of the BDS in emerging industries such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), outdoor robots and autonomous driving may bring exponential growth to the BDS-related industry, said Zhou Ruxin, chairman of Beijing BDStar Navigation Co., Ltd.

On Monday, Beijing-based Unicore Communications, Inc. released a new-generation high-precision positioning chip that supports BDS-3 and can meet the needs of high-end applications such as autonomous driving and UAVs. It is considered the most advanced positioning chip China has developed to date and is among the most advanced worldwide.

BDS technologies have already been used in some Wing Loong models — China-developed UAVs. UAVs are products that rely heavily on the support of external systems such as the BDS to fully function, said chief Wing Loong designer Li Yidong, who envisions greater application scenarios for BDS-assisted Wing Loong UAVs.

Yang Changfeng, chief designer of the BDS, said the navigation satellite system both underpins economic foundations and boosts emerging technologies.

Never before has the BDS penetrated every corner of life and every social scenario as it does today, said Yang, comparing it to vital elements such as water and air.

BDS-related products have so far been exported to more than 120 countries and regions. BDS-based solutions for land ownership confirmation, precision agriculture, digital construction, vehicle and ship oversight, and smart ports have been successfully applied in various regions of Asia, Europe and Africa.

The BDS is one of four global navigation satellite systems worldwide, alongside the United States GPS, the European Unions Galileo, and Russias GLONASS.

China has been actively encouraging cooperation and exchanges between the BDS system and other navigation systems. The BDS and GLONASS are compatible, and the BDS and GPS are compatible and interoperable.

(Xinhua)09:30, November 26, 2020

BEIJING, Nov. 25 (Xinhua) — Chinas lunar probe Change-5 successfully carried out its second orbital correction Wednesday night, according to the China National Space Administration (CNSA).

The probe conducted the orbital correction at 10:06 p.m. (Beijing Time), when its two 150N engines were operational for about six seconds.

Prior to the orbital correction, the lunar probe had traveled for roughly 41 hours in orbit, and was about 270,000 km away from Earth. All of the probes systems were in good condition.

The CNSA said that the tracking of the probe by ground monitoring and communication centers and stations is going smoothly.

China launched the lunar probe Tuesday to collect and return samples from the moon. It is the countrys first attempt to retrieve samples from an extraterrestrial body.