10 November 2020
The Chang'e 4 lander and rover have resumed work for the 24th lunar day on the far side of the Moon.
The lander woke up on 10 November at 3:12 h BJT, and the rover Yutu-2 woke up on 09 November at 10:17 h BJT, according to the Lunar Exploration and Space Programme Centre of the China National Space Administration.
Since its landing on the Moon on 3 January 2019, the Chang'e 4 probe has survived 677 Earth days on the Moon. During the 24th lunar day, Yutu-2 will move northwest toward the basalt area or the impact craters with high reflectivity. Yutu-2 will take at least one panoramic photo, and its infrared imaging spectrometer, neutral atom detector and lunar radar will continue to carry out scientific explorations.
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06 November 2020
Researchers from the Time Keeping Laboratory, of the National Time Service Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences analyzed the time transfer performance of the BDS-3 signals. The results indicate that the time transfer performance of the BDS-3 satellites is over 50% higher than that of the BDS-2 satellites. In terms of the common view time comparison, the standard deviations of the zero-baseline common clock time comparison of the new BDS-3 signals are comparable to that of GPS and Galileo.
To evaluate the time transfer performance of BDS-3, the pseudorange measurement noise, precision of conventional common view (CV) and all-in-view (AV) time comparison and the instability of the precise point positioning (PPP) time transfer were analyzed. The results were published in the journal Metrologia.
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link to the publication: Wei Guang, Jihai Zhang, Haibo Yuan, Wenjun Wu, Shaowu Dong, (2020) Analysis on the time transfer performance of BDS-3 signals, Metrologia, Volume 57, Number 6, 065023, DOI: 10.1088/1681-7575/abbcc1
07 November 2020
Commercial space manufacturer Galactic Energy (Beijing Xinghe Dongli Space Technology Co. Ltd.) succeeded in launching its 4-stage, solid propellant Ceres 1 rocket from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre on 7 November at 15:12 BJT, sending a satellite into 500 km SSO.
"Reaching orbit is the most basic threshold for a rocket company. Only when you cross this threshold can you talk about business and the market. Although China's commercial rocket companies started 30 years later than the United States, they are supported by national policies and encouraged by the capital market. With the unremitting efforts of entrepreneurs, the sun-synchronous orbit was today reached - in only five years of development. This is a very remarkable achievement, marking the arrival of China's commercial aerospace era. Galactic Energy entered as the first domestic company the 500 km sun-synchronous orbit what signifies that we have the ability to engage in commercial launch services, but this is only the beginning. Our goal is to make commercial rockets more reliable, more economical, and higher-density launches, which will be beneficial to complement China's state aerospace, help the rapid development of China's commercial aerospace industry." said Dr. Liu Baiqi, CEO of Galactic Energy on the companies WeChat account after the successful launch.
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photos from launch preparation on the PLA Daily's WeChat account...
05 November 2020
In her article for Nature science magazine, Smriti Mallapaty talks about how and where Chang'e 5 will collect samples. Likely to launch on 24 November, the expectations within the scientific community are high. Smriti Mallapaty also reflects on what the scientists hope to find on hand the lunar material and how China might give access to the samples.
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04 November 2020
As part of the Chinese Space Station Telescope (CSST) project, the construction of a space science centre has begun for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. The Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province is the lead institute for this science centre which will be ready within 3 years. The Chinese Space Station Telescope is planned for launch in 2024. The telescope will function as a space optical observatory for Chinese scientists to carry out sky surveys, said Yu Cong, a professor with the university, told Xinhua earlier this week. The China Manned Space Engineering Office plans to build four CSST science centers nationwide.
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