10 June 2020
Scientists at the Xinjiang Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry in Urumqi have developed a material from artificial lunar dust that might be strong enough to build a base on the moon, and could potentially be made using volcanic rock on site. The team turned the artificial dust into a high-performance construction material called basalt fibre. Put through testing, they said it achieved a tensile strength of up to 1.4 gigapascals - or 1,400 megapascals. The team used artificial lunar dust mainly sourced from the Changbai Mountain, an active volcano on the Chinese-North Korean border. The dust is about 48 per cent silicon dioxide and 17 per cent aluminium oxide - almost identical to the composition of samples brought back from the Moon by Nasa’s Apollo 14 mission in 1971.
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10 June 2020
What a first half of 2020 it has been in the Chinese space sector. With the usual lull in activity around Chinese New Year prolonged significantly by the Covid-19 outbreak, one could be excused for thinking that it was a lost half year in the industry. But, one would be incorrect in thinking that, with 2020 thus far seeing funding continue to flow to startups (though at a reduced pace), rockets continuing to launch, constellations continuing to build out, and even regulations starting to become a bit more clear.
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11 June 2020
China successfully sent an new ocean observation satellite into space from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre in north China's Shanxi Province on 11 June. A Long March-2C rocket, carrying the satellite HY-1D, lifted off at 2:31 h (Beijing Time), according to the China National Space Administration. The new satellite will form China's first satellite constellation for marine civil service together with HY-1C, which was launched in September 2018.
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11 June 2020
A new Fengyun meteorological weather satellite is currently undergoing final tests at the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology and is expected to come out of the factory by the end of 2020. The new satellite will operate from a polar morning-evening orbit, a new feat, not done before. This will enable Chine to update its global polar-orbiting meteorological satellite data in four hours, improving its numerical weather forecast capacities. Four more Fengyun 3 satellites are under development.
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