Tibetan plants return from orbit for study
08 June 2020
11 items from Tibet including barley, forage grass, rose rhodiola, lemon, and graphene that were carried by the re-entry module of the new manned spacecraft in early May are now available for testing in labs, China Tibet Online reported. The items are of interest in studies of the germination characteristics of seeds, crop output and plant growth cycles. Wang Junjie, a researcher at the National Astronomical Observatory of China, said the 11 items were taken to space to determine whether they would mutate in an environment of cosmic radiation, charged particles and zero gravity.
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China and Serbia sign memorandum on cooperation in the field of space technology
06 June 2020
On 5 June China and Serbia signed a memorandum on space technology. The memorandum was signed by Zhang Kejian, Director of the China National Space Administration, and Nenad Popovic, Serbian Minister in charge of innovation and technological development, via a video conference. Zhang said the memorandum is in the common interests of both countries, adding that as many scientists as possible will engage in joint space projects. "Our goal is to put the flag of Serbia on the spacecraft that we will jointly design," he announced.
According to the Serbian government, the document will envisage the "improvement of bilateral cooperation between Serbia and China in the development and use of space technology, satellite systems and the Earth Observing System, with applications in the field of smart agriculture, telecommunications, ecosystems, remote sensing systems and geolocation positioning."
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Efficient remote sensing algorithm proposed for landslide monitoring
03 June 2020
Chinese researchers have designed an improved remote sensing method for more efficient landslide monitoring. Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) remote sensing is a potential technique for long-term monitoring of landslide-prone areas. Traditional pixel offset tracking methods work well for fast-moving landslides but still have some limitations. The researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences proposed the improved offset tracking method to optimize a more efficient workflow, as well as an improved algorithm based on homogeneous samples.
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link to the paper
FAST's search for ET will start in September
04 June 2020
The search for extraterrestrial intelligence is one of the five main scientific goals of FAST. In 2018, FAST installed back-end equipment specifically to find extraterrestrials. "At present, the back-end equipment is being upgraded, and it is expected that new observations can be made after September, when the extraterrestrial civilization search will be launched," said Professor Zhang Tongjie of Beijing Normal University's astronomy department.
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