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The world’s largest radio telescope FAST is put into trial operation on September 25, 2017, in southwest ’s Guizhou Province Infinity and Beyond The past five years have seen China step further into the mysteries of the sky and the sea

icius and the Monkey King, a Dragon from the pages of science fiction. the Micius satellite, which orbits the Earth at an and a Heavenly Palace—this legendary The academician of the Chinese Academy of altitude of 500 km. Msounding group somewhat surprisingly Sciences (CAS) and professor at the University of Pan’s team has worked on this project for has nothing to do with Chinese history or my- Science and Technology of China is the architect more than 10 years. Unlike conventional means of thology, but everything to do with science. With behind the world’s first ever attempt to send a transmitting information that rely on optical fibers, more than 170 satellites orbiting in space and a quantum communication satellite—Quantum the quantum transmission of information is new, submersible in the farthest depths of the ocean, Experiments at Space Scale (QUESS)—into space, fast and impossible to intercept. scientists are asking questions of the sky and the which could transform the way in which we trans- This form of communication was previously sea, and from their replies they are unveiling the mit information in the future. limited to a distance of just few hundred kilome- mystery of these unfamiliar worlds. China launched a satellite for quantum com- ters due to the loss of signal within optical fibers or munication in August 2016. The QUESS satellite interference from terrestrial free space. The launch Arcane particles is named for Micius, a 5th-century B.C. Chinese of the satellite has made long-distance quantum Pan Jianwei has become a renowned figure over philosopher, in homage to his seminal early writ- communication possible by beaming the entan- the past two years for his labors in quantum com- ings on the theory of optics. Five ground stations gled photons between space and various ground munication, a field that sounds as if it were straight have been built across China to cooperate with stations on Earth.

新闻周刊15G1.indd 100 18-2-23 上午10:27 In August 2017, the satellite used quantum sure that this can lead us to the location of dark are serving more than 200 countries and regions cryptography to send data to Earth. On September matter,” Chang said. worldwide, according to an announcement 29, it was used to facilitate the world’s first ever “If we can confi rm it is dark matter after col- by China North Industries Group Corp. Ltd. on quantum video call between the CAS in Beijing lecting more data, it will be very significant,” Bai February 8. The launch of more satellites is set to and the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna, Chunli, President of the CAS, said at a briefing in follow throughout the year. locations 7,600 km apart. Beijing on November 30, 2017. “If not, it is even The video call, lasting 75 minutes, was de- more signifi cant because they could be new par- Down to earth scribed by the journal Physical Review Letters ticles that no one has predicted before.” If space seems out of reach to most ordinary on January 19 as “laying a foundation for build- Wukong is not alone in detecting dark mat- people, then a large passenger airliner commuting ing a global quantum-secured communication ter. FAST (Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical back and forth across the skies marks a return to network.” Radio Telescope), known as Tianyan, is a telescope the realms of accessibility. Pan revealed that they plan to launch higher- rooted on the Earth that has been staring the In May 2017, the C919, China’s first home- orbit satellites in the future in order to increase universe square in the face without reprieve since grown narrow-body twinjet airliner embarked on coverage for a more effi cient quantum network. September 2016. its maiden flight from Shanghai to the Yanliang “These results represent an important Located in a deep and remote karst depres- testing base in Xi’an, northwest China’s Shaanxi breakthrough in the quest for quantum com- sion in southwest China’s Guizhou Province, it is Province, covering a distance of 1,300 km. munications over long distances,” the academic the world’s largest radio telescope and can see up Comparable in size to the updated Airbus 320 journal Nature commented. “This goal is very chal- to 10 billion light years away. and Boeing’s new-generation 737, the C919 com- lenging and new, and it represents a significant With a diameter of 500 meters, it has an area bines a state-of-the-art design and engine with advancement of the realization of quantum com- equivalent to 30 football pitches, scanning the uni- cutting-edge entertainment and technology. The munication schemes.” verse in search of pulsars, phenomena that can be successful test fl ight of a large passenger aircraft used to confi rm the existence of gravitational ra- marks a signifi cant breakthrough of China. Scanning the cosmos diation and black holes as well as help solve other The deep sea is another frontier at which Like Micius, Sun Wukong, the hero of Journey to major questions in physics. Chinese scientists have been busy. Jiaolong, a sub- the West, a legendary novel and one of the Four As of December 12, 2017, the National mersible named after a mythical aquatic dragon Classics of Chinese literature, is another fi gure of Astronomical Observatories of China (NAOC) of Chinese mythology, dived to a record-setting Chinese lore who fi nds himself in space. announced that FAST, which is still in its trial opera- distance of 7,062 meters in the Mariana Trench in Prior to the launch of Micius, Wukong, a Dark tion period, had identifi ed a total of nine pulsars. June 2012. Matter Particle Explorer (DAMPE) satellite named Li Di, chief scientist of the NAOC Radio Since then, Jiaolong has made various suc- after the Monkey King, was sent into the space, to Astronomy Division, predicted that when FAST cessful dives, returning samples of seawater, rock detect dark matter, the invisible “ghost” of space. starts formal operations in 2019, it will discover and marine life, helping scientists to understand “Unlike quantum mechanics, which we are more than 100 pulsars each year. the origins of life on Earth. on the brink of harnessing, dark matter remains Fourteen days before FAST began operation, Liu Feng, Secretary General of the China a mystery to human beings,” said Chang Jin, the Tiangong-2, or Heavenly Palace-2, the second Ocean Mineral Resources R&D Association, re- leading scientist of the DAMPE team. “This is domestically developed space laboratory was sent vealed plans to develop two deep-sea manned where Wukong comes in.” into orbit in a momentous step toward China’s aim submersibles capable of reaching a depth of 11 In space Wukong’s eyes are four major detec- of building a permanent manned space station by km by 2020. tors comprising of 76,000 minor detectors, each 2022. “China also plans to develop four other hi-tech with an extremely high level of accuracy. Taikonauts and devices for deep-sea exploration to promote sus- Designed in the shape of a 1-cubic-meter box spent a total of 33 days aboard the space lab in the tainable oceanic development,” Liu said. The past five years have seen China step further into the mysteries of weighing 1.9 metric tons, Wukong is expected to longest-ever Chinese manned space mission. The advances that China has made in science be in service for three years, relaying around 20 GB The mission transported personnel and ma- and technology are the results of the country’s the sky and the sea of data to Earth every day, which is then analyzed terials between Earth and Tiangong-2, as well as efforts in recent years to boost capacity in home- by a special computer. The theory behind the conducting aerospace medical experiments, space grown innovation. mission is that dark matter, should it be made of science investigations and in-orbit maintenance. “Innovation is the primary driving force behind particles, will occasionally annihilate and decay, Recently there have been other new arrivals development; it is the strategic underpinning with both processes giving off perceivable energy. to the growing cohort of Chinese objects in space. for building a modernized economy,” Chinese The DAMPE team, made up of more than 100 On January 12, China launched twin satellites President said while delivering a report at the 19th National Congress of the Communist researchers from China, Switzerland and Italy, pub- aboard a single carrier rocket, as part of efforts to Party of China last October, adding that China will lished their fi rst results in Nature on November 29, enable its BeiDou navigation and positioning sys- improve the national innova- 2017, explaining that the data may cast light on tem to provide services to countries along the Belt tion system and boost the “the annihilation or decay of particle dark matter.” and Road routes by the end of 2018. scientific and technological “Proving the existence of dark matter takes Initiated in 1994 by the China National Space strength to build “a digital a lot of time. Now we have worked out the most Administration, the first BeiDou satellite was China and a smart society.” ■ precise spectrum, but we are not 100 percent launched in 2000. In the past two decades, the system has constantly upgraded its technology making China the third country after the United States and Russia to have its own satellite naviga- tion system. Scan QR code to visit Beijing Review’s website By Yuan Yuan Now the location services provided by BeiDou Comments to [email protected]

新闻周刊15G1.indd 101 18-2-23 上午10:27