10 March 2020
Leonard David gives a glimpse into China’s readiness to handle samples from the Moon. He outlines which steps need to be taken for storage, processing and preparation of the specimens which the next Chinese lunar mission, Chang'e 5 will return to Earth. "The Chang’e 5 mission will retrieve and return to Earth up to 4.4 pounds (2 kilograms) of lunar surface and subsurface samples. ... In a paper to be presented at this month’s now-cancelled Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC) due to concerns about the COVID-19 virus, lead author, G. L. Zhang from the National Astronomical Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, details the main tasks of the Ground Research Application System (GRAS) of the country’s lunar exploration project."
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10 March 2020
The Beijing Aerospace Control Center (BACC) announced on 10 March that China completed a probe test ahead of an exploration mission to Mars this year. The wireless network test is the only joint ground rehearsal between the mission center and the spacecraft. According to the center, the test has not been affected by the novel coronavirus epidemic, and the technical staff is working hard to ensure the success of the mission.
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09 March 2020
China launched a new satellite of the Beidou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China's Sichuan Province on 9 March at 19:55 h (Beijing Time), only one step away from completing the whole global system. The satellite, the 54th of the Beidou family, was sent into a geostationary orbit as planned by a Long March-3B carrier rocket. The newly launched satellite is the second geostationary earth orbit satellite of the BDS-3 system, and the last one is expected to be launched in May.
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03 March 2020
The Beijing municipal government has released a three-year plan to promote the innovation and development of industries related to the Beidou Navigation Satellite System. The city administration will foster breakthroughs in key and core technologies, and create a sound ecology for Beidou-related industries via cultivating competitive enterprises, according to the plan. It is estimated that the total output value of the Beidou navigation and location service industry in Beijing will exceed 100 billion RMB (about 14.4 billion USD) by 2022. Beijing will also build an innovation center for Beidou-related industries with global influence and set up a standard application system.
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