04 April 2018
Progress on the Tianqin project, a Chinese research project to detect gravitational waves, was revealed to the public on 2 April. The Guangzhou-based Sun Yat-sen University started the Tianqin project in July 2015 and is being led by Luo Jun, a university physicist, who told China Central Television (CCTV) that the project was named after a metaphor.
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China plans to launch 3 satellites around 2030 for gravitational wave research
02 April 2018
Tianqin, China's gravitational wave research project, plans to launch three satellites around 2030 to measure the change of time and space, said Luo Jun, initiator of the project and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). Luo Jun said he and his team will carry out a four-stage plan over the next 15 to 20 years to detect the waves with three high-orbit satellites. "This is our Earth. Above the Earth, at the height of 100,000 kilometers, for example, we'll place three satellites and then connect them with laser beams. When there's a wave of time and space and when it spreads to the Earth, it will shrink on the one side and stretch on the other. By the interference of laser, we can measure the distance between the two satellites. It looks like a triangle, like a harp, and the hands that are playing it are the gravitational waves. That's why we call it 'Tianqin' (Heaven's Harp)," Luo said.
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03 April 2018
China aims to organize and launch a series of large international science projects in the coming years to solve important problems in science. China will organize and launch one or two large international science projects, and foster three to five projects by 2020. Another six to 10 large projects will be cultivated by 2035 to increase China's influence in the science and technology field, the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) said. Areas such as the physical sciences, research on the evolution of the universe and the origin of life were specifically listed as priorities.
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04 April 2018
On 4 April, China received the first package of data from the three high-resolution Gaofen-1 satellites launched on 31 March, according to the Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The package of data with a total size of 166.31 gigabytes was received by the remote sensing satellite ground station in Miyun on the outskirts of Beijing. Ground stations in south China's Sanya and northwest China's Kashgar all received real time image data from the satellites.
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03 April 2018
China said that it expects to boost its cooperation with Algeria in the field of aerospace technology. Yang Baohua, Deputy General manager of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, said that China expects substantive cooperation in other follow-up projects in the field. On 1 April, Yang and other representatives from China took part in an on-orbit delivery ceremony for Algeria's first communication satellite, Alcomsat-1, with the Algerian Space Agency.
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