19 February 2022
The Yutu-2 rover, currently operating on the far side of the Moon, has captured images of two translucent globules using its panoramic camera. No composition data has been obtained for the globules. But their unique morphology and local context suggest they are most likely impact glasses - quenched anorthositic impact melts produced during cratering events - rather than being of volcanic origin or delivered from other planetary bodies.
The findings were published in Science Bulletin.
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link to publication in Science Bulletin

17 February 2022
Researchers at the State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science contributed to the Neukum lunar chronology model with data from measuring and analysing Chang'e 5 samples. The scientists measured the radiometric age of the samples and concluded that they are around 2 billion years old. That allows to complement the most widely used chronology model, the Neukum model, established by Gerhard Neukum in the 1980s. Samples from Apollo and Luna missions were mainly older samples, leaving a gap in the age model which could be filled now.
The findings were published in Nature Astronomy.
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link to the publication

17 February 2022
CALT postgraduates have conceptualised a Mars Express - a reusable transport system that will commute between a future space station in the Mars orbit and a surface habitat of the Red Planet. The reusable space-ground transport spacecraft is targeted to offer solutions to the tasks including large-scale Earth-Mars transport and the probe and exploit of the Red Planet.
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14 February 2022
This week, Jean Deville and Blaine Curcio introduce us to Tianbing/Space Pioneer, "one of China's quirkiest launch companies", as they find. Another topic of this week's broadcast is CASC's Blue Book. The two experts look into the interesting details of this annual overview paper. More news can be found in their weekly newsletter.
And if you like to support Jean and Blaine, maybe you would like to buy them a coffee
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16 February 2022
Wang Yaping offered people on Earth a micro-gravity musical performance on 15 February to celebrate the Lantern Festival. The space show was shared via a video released at an annual TV gala for the festival celebration. In the video, Wang was seen floating in the space module while playing a guzheng, or Chinese zither. She played a segment of the popular Chinese folk song "Jasmine Flower."
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11 February 2022
On 26 January, the CZ-4C launched the L-SAR 01A satellite into space. The satellite, equipped with L-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR), can monitor the geological environment, landslides, and earthquakes. The radar is now capable of taking quality pictures from space, according to the Aerospace Information Research Institute under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the organisation that designed the radar and received observing data. The complementary 2nd satellite, L-SAR 01B, will be launched at the end of February.
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