25 February 2019
StarTimes, a Chinese firm which offers direct-to-home pay TV services, introduced its digital television (DTV) service to Kpaduma, an underdeveloped rural community at the edge of Abuja, Nigeria's capital. It is the start of an wider project across Nigeria. As a pioneer digital terrestrial television provider in Nigeria, StarTimes has been able to disseminate digital terrestrial television in at least 80 cities across the West African country in nine years. With its simple-to-install decoders coupled with its low tariffs, StarTimes, in partnership with the Nigerian Television Authority, has brought DTV within the reach of many Nigerians since 2010. StarTimes offers some of its channels in three main Nigerian languages - Yoruba, Hausa, and Igbo.
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26 February 2019
The selection of what organism to send to the Moon was a difficult process, as it had to be able to survive a harsh environment that features low gravity, strong radiation, and high temperature differences on the lunar surface. Cotton was chosen for its strong vitality against various extreme conditions. The seed on the Moon, ICR-41, came from the Institute of Cotton Research (ICR) of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science (CAAS) after nearly a decade of development.
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28 February 2019
Xie Gengxin, deputy head of the Chongqing Collaborative Innovation Research Institute for Civil-Military Integration in Southwestern China, said researchers from Chongqing University, the China Academy of Space Technology's Xi'an Branch in Shaanxi province, and Xidian University-also in Xi'an-have begun designs on a testing facility in Chongqing's Bishan district that will be used to test the theoretical viability of a space-based solar power station. So far, Chinese engineers are able to transmit energy-carrying microwaves over a distance of about just 100 meters, Xie said and added: if everything goes well, a Chinese solar power station will be put into orbit about 36,000 kilometers above Earth and start generating power before 2040.
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01 March 2019
The rover and the lander of the Chang'e 4 probe have resumed work after "sleeping" during their second lunar night on the far side of the Moon. The lander woke up at 7:52 h Friday, and the rover, Yutu 2 (Jade Rabbit 2), awoke at about 10:51 h Thursday. Both of them are in normal condition, according to the Lunar Exploration and Space Program Center of the China National Space Administration.
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