17 June 2020
Southwest China's Guizhou Province has started using a satellite system that can monitor rice farming from space. The system provides real-time data for planting, according to a report in Science and Technology Daily. As a smart manager of integrated big data, the system provides pictures of paddy fields taken through remote sensing, visual monitoring and other means to help professionals make decisions on planting, said the report. Through real-time data, farmers could monitor crop areas, and detailed figures on local meteorological and planting conditions, which helps them make decisions. The Cengong County of Guizhou is a major rice-growing area with annual yield of around 8 million kg of certified seeds.
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18 June 2020
China's lunar rover Yutu 2 and Chang'e 4 lander were awakened autonomously on 15 June and entered their 19th lunar day of activity on the far side of the Moon. Based on the data obtained on the 17th lunar day, the Yutu-2 science team identified a nearby crater for examination. With a small diameter of about 1.3 meters and a depth of not more than 20 centimeters, the crater was found at about three meters southwest of the current position of the Yutu-2 lunar rover. There are reflective materials in the center of the crater, which is obviously different from the brightness of the surrounding moon soil. Since the two deep-space antennas in Jiamusi and Kashi have been undergoing upgrades for the imminent Tianwen 1 Mars mission, operations with the CE-4 mission have been limited during the last month.
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RELATED: The third batch of scientific data of Chang'e 4 was released

16 June 2020
The team around scientist Pan Jianwei has demonstrated secure quantum communication between two ground stations, with a new record distance of 1,120 km and no intermediate security relays. This is seen as a new step forward toward the practical application of quantum communication. In the latest study published online by the journal Nature, the satellite Micius sent pairs of entangled photons to two ground stations 1,120 km apart; in Delingha in Qinghai Province, and Nanshan near Urumqi in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
A secured quantum link between the two ground stations was established with no trusted relays, and the satellite Micius had no information about the secure key.
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Link to the article abstract in Nature "Entanglement-based secure quantum cryptography over 1,120 kilometres"
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China's quantum satellite sends hack-proof password 1,120km away

22 June 2020
China rescheduled the launch of the last satellite of the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) for Tuesday. Technical problems, related to the launch mission, have now been solved, according to the China Satellite Navigation Office. The launch of the BDS-3 satellite was originally set for 16 June, but was later postponed due to technical problems, discovered in pre-launch tests. Now these technical problems have been solved, and the Long March-3B carrier rocket, to be used to launch the satellite, completed all tests prior to the propellant filling, the office said.
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