China-UK Joint Center for Earth and Planetary Sciences established
17 July 2019
The Sino-UK Joint Center for Earth and Planetary Sciences, involving the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of Chinese Academy of Sciences (IGGCAS) and the University of Leeds, has been set up in China, according to the CAS. More than 50 researchers from China and Britain attended the opening ceremony of the joint center. Discussions on subjects such as engineering geology, applied geophysics, petrogeochemistry, planetary science and paleoclimatology were held during a following academic conference.
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ESA microchip on the Chang'e 4 lunar lander on the Moon
17 July 2019
At a time when ESA is looking forward to future lunar exploration, it turns out there is already some small but crucial ESA-developed hardware in operation on the far side of the Moon. China’s Chang’e 4 lander is running on a LEON2-FT microprocessor core, especially designed for space missions by ESA and sold commercially by the Microchip company - marketed as the AT697.
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Some reflections on China's future manned lunar landing
17 July 2019
With the coming 50th anniversary of the moon landing, Wang Ya'nan, chief editor of Aerospace Knowledge magazine, speculated that China will be "technically ready" for a manned lunar landing by around 2035, establishing a permanent lunar base rather than NASA's symbolic footprint of 1969. In an interview with CBS Face the Nation on Sunday NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said that "We're so far ahead of China right now, it's not even a comparison." In reply, Wang noted that China has never chased a ranking in the space sector.
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Tiangong 2 prepares for controlled re-entry
13 July 2019
Already during a press briefing on 26 September 2018, Lin Xiqiang, Deputy Director of CMSE, announced that the Tiangong 2 Management Committee had decided on 20 September 2018 to manually deorbit the space lab after July 2019. On 13 July 2019 CMSE published a short note that the date for the controlled re-entry is set for the 19 July 2019. Tiangong 2 is expected to go down over the South Pacific Ocean with most parts burning up during the process. Remaining debris will fall into the area around 160 to 90 degrees West, 30 to 45 degrees South.
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